The rectory on High Street in Southampton. (submitted)
Bruce County has been ordered to pay $140,000 to the Southampton Cultural Heritage Conservancy and a local citizen who have been involved in a legal dispute with the county over its use of the trust funds to purchase a property in Southampton.
Ontario Superior Court Justice G.D. Lemon ordered on May 13 the county pay the conservancy and Laura Robinson the funds for legal costs, a decision that follows a ruling earlier this year when he found Bruce County in breach of trust through its 2018 purchase of a property at 254 High Street that houses a 129-year-old former Anglican church rectory.
Bruce Arthur Krug, a late local heritage advocate, drafted his will in 2006 and included $500,000 in it to be left to Bruce County solely for the archives building for the storage and display of the archives of the county. Krug died in 2013.
Lemon ruled on an application in January from Robinson and the Southampton Cultural Heritage Conservancy seeking a declaration, among other orders, that Bruce County breached the terms of the Bruce A. Krug Trust by not abiding by its restricted purpose.
The county had previously planned to demolish the rectory building in order to develop a Nuclear Innovation Institute in partnership with Bruce Power, while including archives and other museum uses at the re-developed site.
Justice Lemon, in his January ruling, also declared the rectory property a trust asset and scolded the county’s behaviour in dealing with Robinson and the conservancy as “atrocious”.
Lemon said then Bruce County was found to have “unlawfully closed to the public at least 18 meetings” relating to the purchase of the property and did not disclose records relating to its decision, or any record relating to the use of Krug funds. He said the county then repeatedly refused to produce records, preventing any oversight of its action as trustee.
In a prepared statement, Bruce County Warden Janice Jackson says county council accepts the decision on legal cost payment and continues to work towards a resolution with the Public Guardian and Trustee, and Estate Trustee, in this litigation.
“The last will and testament of Bruce A. Krug bequeathed $500,000 for the storage and display of archives,” Jackson says in a statement. “In 2018, we purchased adjacent property to expand the current Archival Services of the Museum. Our goal has always been to realize the public interest on this property, for the public good. We look forward to engaging with the community to achieve this.”
Robinson — who sits on the conservancy board — says the next step in the proceedings is an August 26 hearing when Justice Lemon will hear submissions from the involved parties, and the conservancy will argue Bruce County has failed in its fiduciary responsibilities of trustees to protect the trust.
“In fact, they have used the trust for their own purposes outside of the restrictions of the trust,” Robinson says. “And the trusteeship must be taken away from the county.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated from an earlier version to add comment from Laura Robinson.