Body: Committee of the Whole Type: Minutes Meeting: Committee of the Whole Date: September 14, 2010 Collection: Council Minutes Municipality: South Frontenac
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Minutes of Committee of the Whole th
September 14m 2010
Meeting No. 26 Date: September 14,2010 Time: 7:00 p.m. Location: Sydenham Present:
Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Councillors,
Gary Davison Del Stowe Bill Robinson Jim Hicks Allan McPhail Ron Vandewal David Hahn
Larry York John Fillion
Wayne Orr, Chief Administrative Officer
Staff:
Call to Order
The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m
.
Declaration of Pecuniary Interest.
There were no declarations of pecuniary interest
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Delegations.
The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters presented to Council their position
on Sunday hunting. A copy of their slide presentation has been attached to these minutes.
Following the presentation, Council discussed various aspects. Councillor Stowe indicated that his pollmg showed full time permanent residents
were in favour while pollmg of seasonal residents indicated concerns about the impact to their quiet use, particularly around duck hunting .
It was clarified that most hunting is early in the morning or late afternoon, and
mostly in the spring or fall and that these are the times when seasonal use is not at its maximum.
Councillor Vandewal commented to those present that last time he had voted no for
personal reasons and that this tune around he has heard t-otl^andU .as
acknowledged that times have in fact changed. He will be supporting Sunday gun hunting.
Fran WiUes from the audience spoke that she has had many experiences with deer
luding damages to vehicles and in the garden and that those .ho hunt are
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me
responsible.
Councillor York commented that his wife had been in an accident involvmg a deer. Councillor Vandewal served a notice of motion to bring forward to the next meeting a
resoiution to approve Sunday hunting and to notify the Ministry of Natural
Resources.
Councillor Hahn spoke that he too has been in accidents involving a deer and that he is a lifelong hunter as well. He does not see it as a battle with the deer and no
need to compete. There have been changes made at the MNR including the addition of a second- ^eek of hunting and that this has reduced the population, He commented that residents have chosen to live in a natural environment and that
these-animals are part of that environment as well. In an email survey he conducted
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September 14m 2010
13% were in favour of legalizing it, 26% don’t care, that group being typically seasonal residents. 60% percent don’t’ want him to vote in favour of it. Sunday Hunting is a concern to those who want to walk in the natural environment and to those who are concerned about the noise.
Councillor McPhail indicated that tonight’s presentation represented one side of the
issue only and that council could chose to have a proper open house to have more discussion on the issue and for this reason he is not supportive of Sunday hunting at this time.
Irwin Babcook indicated to Council that he had a petition with 500 names on it
seeking their right to hunt on Sunday. This was presented to the CAO The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters is a conservation group focused on
protecting the environment for the future. The deer population has droPPed and tags have in fact been reduced recently. The MNR has a desire to bring back the deer population to former levels.
CouncUlor Stowe commented that farmers can’t protect livestock from predators
and questioned what he currently hears on Sundays which was identified as target or skeet shooting.
Mayor Davison thanked the delegation for their comments 4.
(i)
Business Items.
Committee Membership and Structure
Wayne Orr provided a brief review to Council of why the issue of committee structure and membership was before them
Councillor York in preparation for the meeting had prepared a 9 pomt discussion paper to generate comments from Council on various aspects. Councillor York indicated that he believed there were some overlapping of
committees and they may drift in their focus, which is dependent on the leaders and
members of the committee. He acknowledged that we have large committees at this
timebuYnot all members attend, not all are present and he questioned whether we needed"the-number of Councillors on some of these committees. He believed tha^t
costs savmgs may be generated through this review and that all committees^^^^^^
have goals and objectives established. The committee minutes should be revlewed and errors and omissions noted and minutes formally passed. He reiterated to Council that this mitiative is not targeted at one committee or any one member of
^blic-or CouncHse^ on t^^Utees. He acknow^ed^^^e^ ha^Umited commitment to°stay for full meetings. There are^ concerns^ whethj^ aU
m"embeTs"are"compe~tent and knowledgeable of the topic and if they contribute effectively.
Councillor Hahn acknowledged that Councillor York’s comments had many^ood
points and ^ s^°^ ^ere^as^e(^^^^le^^al^^r^^u^^ ^l^ei^i^lrsc^^n^^^^i^wl^^ ^sked th’at the CAO review this and prepare a draft for couacirs^onsid,eratJ^
^o"uldUke toadd’questions wUh regard’to the authority limits ofCouncaandofthe Chair to-spend. He ack»owled,ed that district ^.^^^mttees.^ different and questioned how big does a cemetery committee need to be compared to other cemetery committees
All Council acknowledged that the list is not current as it was established at the time that the by-law was passed.
There was support to have this item brought forward for future committee of the whole meeting discussion.
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^olmcmo-rstowe commented that he felt public members were only necessary for
the Committee of Adjustment and that Recreation committees could be
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various sizes
basedm the fact that v"l"“t^"^e participating. He wondered’whetheVThe
?^r^oj^oo-rdil^t0^ ^UId be.able to offer any comment with regard to change
now that we have added this position.
Mayor Davison commented that we should establish criteria set in advance to
review members from the committee should they not be meeting their time
commitments.
Councillor Vandewal commented with regard to the size of the various recreation committees and the cemetery boards. He felt that these could be amalgamated into one cemetery board for the entire township and thereby ensuring consistency in rates as well as services.
Councillor Robinson noted that the list is not up to date and believed that various committees could be downsized.
Councillor McPhail commented that guidelines need to be standardized on the various committees and that recreation committees are large because of the need to incorporate members from the various sports associated within the district. He felt that the new term of Council should look at the cemetery board composition. He did note that some committees established have never met as the Emergency Planning Committee and that not all committee’s need the current Council representation. He felt that the first thing to do was to bring in some rules for council to consider. Councillor McPhail noted that the number of cemeteries that exist including those that are not in township control that need to be managed. Cemetaries that are abandoned become the responsibility of the township. Councillor Robinson was opposed to public committees and expressed the need for council members to be on committees to offer guidance to those groups and supervise the committee’s role. Councillor York commented that the Committee of Adjustment and other committees could have one to a maximum of three councillors on various committees.
David Hahn reminded Council that Committee of Adjustment must be set early and while it could be smaller that would be the decision of the new council.
The CAO was asked to provide a summary of the various points from this conversation and bring back to a dedicated meeting. It was acknowledged that the outcome would likely be vague in terms of Council’s recommendations and that a
template for committee structures be gathered from various other municipalities. Councillor Vandewal commented that if there is a proper functioning Committee of
Adjustment then that group could add an additional meeting per month and serve in the capacity of a planning committee instead of establishing a separate and distinct group.
The CAO has been asked to bring forward an up to date list of the committee structure.
Councillor York reminded Council that each committee should be involved in
establishing the budget that they are operating within. The CAO spoke to Council and offered comment that the current committee structure is focused on tasks rather than function and suggested that alternative methods could be implemented including a finance admin committee, operations committee and various other approaches to the committee structure. In order for a committee structure to function well, Council as a whole needs to support and
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Minutes of Committee of the Whole th September 14m, 2010
acknowledge the function of the committee from a government perspective so that recommendations are received and not re-debated in their entirety.
Councillor McPhail acknowledged that we need to accept recommendations of committees to avoid revisiting the issue it in its entirety and indicated that his decision on the marking of the Fire Chiefs vehicle was based on supporting the committee structure.
Councillor Hahn commented that advisory groups or committees offer greater opportunity to receive input from the public and once received, then recommendations collected can be brought forward. Councillor Vandewal stated that major issues need to be completely viewed by the Committee of the Whole and not simply left to staff recommendations. Councillor Robinson commented that he felt the SustainabiUty Committee could be
effectively eliminated as Council did not pass many of their recommendations without alterations.
(ii)
Anne Levac, Planning Assistant, re: Closing or Use of Unopeued Road Allowance
Councillor Hahn pointed out to Council that this would be a contradiction of existing polices and that in fact if the Pine Shores Marina closes then there may very well be many island residents or property owners that need access and he could not support this. In a straw poll vote of council there was no support for the option suggested by the Planning Department and of selling a small section of the road allowance. 5.
Information Items
With regard to the correspondence, Mayor Uavison indicated that he was in fact aware of this situation and that it had been resolved to his understanding several
years back and that the property owner brings this forward generally after each summer looking for additional repairs. Council asked that the Public Works look at this situation and address it as necessary .
Other Business
Councillor Vandewal brought up the issue with regard to the truck use policy and he questioned if there was a consistent application of this policy. This item was deferred to an in-camera discussion.
Councillor Filliou brought up questions with regard to recent correspondence from by-law enforcement with regard to the trailer owned by Doug Griffin indicating that the property owner felt that intimidation had been used as part of the process. Councillor Fillion asked whether records of the registered trailer owners were
available prior to the implementation of the by-law. He asked how we would be able to support court action with respect to the by-law. The CAO will review the records to assess what is available.
Councillor Hahn brought forward concerns about a dock that had appeared on Wolfe Lake. He acknowledged that the township correspondence had resulted in the removal of the “no trespassing” sign. He indicated that the owners had
acknowledged that they had no legal claim to the property and felt that the conservation authority should be contacted with regard to the legality of any conservation permits for a dock.
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September 14"1,2010 7.
In-Camera
Adjournment Moved by Ron Vandewal
Seconded by Del Stowe
THAT the Committee of the Whole meeting be adjourned at 9:10 p.m. Carried
