Mayor’s Report for January 17th, 2023

Our last Council Meeting was December 6, 2022. The time following that was less demanding due to Christmas and New Year festivities.

I hope each and every one had a great holiday season in spite of the record breaking snow storm.

Thank you to Dylan and the Transportation Department and our emergency services staff. Our staff worked above and beyond to ensure our roads were safe to travel and emergency services available. A letter in the Agenda expressed thanks to the first responders who attended a vehicle collision in the area. I recognize that a number of staff worked on days that they expected to spend with family and friends but remained available for snow clearing and response to the storm. On behalf of myself and Council and the community, thank you.

January 4th

The Personnel Committee met to address some personnel issues and discuss future organizational adjustments.

January 6th

Tonia, Jenn and I participated in a virtual meeting with OPG staff, basically the same staff who conducted the information session, regarding the Pumped Storage Project. The municipality is a commenting agency and we discussed the role of the municipality. We agreed on a process dealing with issues in response to the Environmental Assessment Process regarding environmental approvals and municipal consultation.

January 9th

I attended the office to finalize some arrangements to attend the ROMA conference and respond to e-mails.

January 13th

Parks Canada and the Trent Severn Waterways held a virtual meeting to discuss water levels, etc., as a result of recent weather conditions.

I attended the office to collect my Agenda and deal with some technical difficulties from Hastings County IT support.

January 15th

I spent the majority of the day reviewing Planning Agenda, Regular Council Agenda and Planning and Development Committee and Finance Property and Personnel Committee Meetings for Hastings County all scheduled for today.

Hastings County Planning Department put on a presentation and overview of the roles and responsibilities of the Planning Department and explained the Planning process in accordance with the Planning Act. Very briefly, It is a top down process; the provincial government makes the rules, ie the Planning Act; the County must have an Official Plan which is updated regularly and its policies determine how land is used; the County deals with Zoning By-law which contains specific requirements that are legally enforceable and the municipal level deals with severance applications and site plan control, etc. All by-laws must meet the criteria set out in the Provincial Policy Statement. We depend on the County Planning department a great deal in processing the planning applications we receive.

The County also has joint agreements with 911 service providers and administers 911 addressing and signage.

The Marketing and Tourism Department provides services to attract and retain new businesses and promotes events and attractions such as trails.

County meetings are streamed live and I encourage you to view their meetings. We pay a mandatory levy to Hastings County and you can see how that levy is used toward such things as housing like our Matthew Place and Dr. Parkin Living Centre, human and social services, long term care homes, etc.

The Citizen Survey has been launched for Marmora and Lake. Please take the time to respond to the survey. The information collected is helpful in making decisions and developing programs and services in our community.