WHY DID THE CITY OF KITCHENER LIE?

The front page of Saturday's (July 14/12) Waterloo Region Record has this title "Was huge land deal too costly". The sub title is "City of Kitchener's justification for pricey purchase not borne out in documents". These documents have taken four years to be released to the Record under Freedom of Information legislation. It appears as if the lengthy delay by the City has been to hide the fact that they weren't quite squeaky clean in their answers surrounding the purchase of the old Goodrich/Michelin property in Kitchener's south end. They had advised the media and public that the very high, some might say inflated price included the environmental cleanup of the site. Now it turns out that the cleanup had already been done by former owners and the inflated price still is difficult to explain. This case is a perfect example as to why FOI legislation was needed in the first place. It's just too bad that the authors of the legislation built in enough delays and loopholes to render it almost useless. Nevertheless kudos to the Record for again jumping through the hoops and loops in order to serve the public interest.