Mayor's Report for February 6, 2024

January 16th

I presided over the regular Planning and Council Meetings for Marmara and Lake.

January 17th

I attended the Community Transit Meeting in Madoc.

January 18th

I attended the regular meeting of the Crowe Valley Conservation Authority. You will see a copy of their draft budget in the Agenda. The Conservation Authority is required to circulate their draft budget to member municipalities for review/comments prior to final approval.

That afternoon, I attended a meeting of the Doctor Recruitment Committee. Currently, both clinics are well staffed. The Committee will continue to meet for future needs.

January 19th

I participated in a virtual meeting of the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health (HPEPH) sub-committee appointed by the HPEPH Board of Health to the Tri-Board Merger Committee. The three Boards are preparing a business plan to be submitted to the Ministry by April 2nd. The Meetings are being held on a rotating basis including HPE, Kingston and Brockville.

January 20th - January 23rd

I attended the ROMA Conference in Toronto, representing Hastings County.

January 21st

I attended the Zone 5 Meeting and Concurrent Sessions. At noon I attended the Plenary Programs and Trade Show.

January 22nd

The Plenary Program began at 7:30, followed by the welcome remarks from Robin Jones, ROMA Chair, ROMA AGM, Councillors from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, speaches by the Hon. Doug Ford, Kinga Surma and other speakers.

I participated in two separate delegations representing Hastings County to two Ministers and their representatives to appeal for support in developing a Rural Primary Care Strategy and present a proposal referred to as PULSE. PULSE stands for Partners United in Local Solutions for Everyone.

The first delegation was to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. The second delegation was to the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. The third delegation was to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The delegation was represented by Hastings County (Jan O'Neill), Prince Edward County (Steve Ferguson}, Quinte West (Jim Harrison}, Quinte Health (Stacie Daub), Loyalist College (Mark Kirkpatrick), and City of Belleville (Sean Kelly). MPP Ric Bresee was present and a number of staff from all representatives. We ask the following:

THAT the Ministry of Health leverages Health Pulse to support the Province's efforts for policy or program development and pilot project opportunities;
THAT the Ministry of Health recognizes and commits to supporting the growing Hastings/Quinte region as it continues to address unique health, social and inequity challenges;
AND THAT the Ministry of Health Develop a Rural Primary Care Strategy to address the complex challenges related to health service delivery in rural communities.

I also attended a learning lunch sponsored by IESO: "How Ontario's Energy Transformation Benefits Communities.” I had the opportunity to speak briefly to Minister Todd Smith regarding the Pumped Storage Project and his latest directive. In short, the project has been referred back to the developers to find cost savings to make the project more financially feasible and benefit to the rate payer.

There were other Concurrent Sessions which were attended by Councillors Daoust and Lakatos, and staff. Under the Announcement Section of the Agenda, they will speak on the sessions they attended.

January 25th

I attended the regular meeting of Hastings County Council.

January 27th

I participated in the Soup Competition in Marmora. All the entries were delicious. Thank you to the businesses who hosted the event, to the soup makers and to everyone who came out to support this community event.

January 29th

I participated in a meeting of the Tri-Merger sub-committee in preparation for the upcoming meeting.

January 31st

I drove to Brockville to attend the Tri-Board Merger Meeting on February 1st.

February 1st

I participated in the Tri-Board Merger Meeting in Brockville.

February 2nd

I participated in a virtual meeting of the sub-committee regarding the Tri-Board Merger and to review the progress of the Tri-Board following the previous day’s meeting.

February 5th

I participated in a special Hastings County Council Meeting to approve a contract settlement with CUPE, and to pass the necessary bylaw.