A full gallery of residents was on hand last night, to hear the Council’s response to a petition calling for a Town Hall about Elliot Lake public infrastructure. Council meetings normally attract less than a handful of residents. The gallery seats about 50 people.
Over 600 residents signed the petition included in the meeting agenda package and eleven additional pages, either fully filled or partially filled, were brought to the meeting. The council was informed about this. Each page has spaces for ten signatures.
Acting Mayor Andrew Wannan moved the Petition item up from agenda item 11 to the top of the agenda. Petitions are a standing agenda item and are routinely placed near the bottom of the agenda. The low position rarely makes a difference because recognized petitions are rare. The City’s Petition Policy does not recognize electronic petitions.
The Acting Mayor opened the council debate asking, “Do we have any questions or comments?” A long pause followed before Wannan responded to the invitation himself.
“Okay, I have one brief item. So, I'm happy that there is participation. We are happy to definitely look at this petition.”
Wannan continued, “We will have staff probably review it procedure and then from there we are in the works for planning a town hall meeting. Probably would be able to expand but we have to review a few things and I'm not sure if we can follow through with each item that's requested, but we will try our best for sure.”
Councillor Charles Flintoff asked Acting Director of Public Works, Bill Goulding, “Some of these requests, are they not part of our asset management plan?”
Goulding responded, “A lot of the items, as I understand have been requested, would be coming out during this year’s budget process which is going to be informed by our first phase of our asset management plan, so we would see these matters discussed in the normal operations of our regular council schedule.”
The Asset Management Plan is required by an Ontario government regulation. It is a ten-year plan. Elliot Lake’s most recent plan expired last year. There is no prohibition for engaging the public during the Asset Management Plan’s development.
A town hall meeting held prior to the plan's finalization could inform the people and the public’s input could inform the plan prior to it’s finalization.
Flintoff also commented, “I'll support any petition and all the people that are here. That's nice to see. That means you care. I know this arena is the newest semi- I wouldn't call it a disaster- but it's something that we have to deal with and it all takes a lot of time and we have to get that looked at and figured out. But just give us some time to work on this. It can't be a quick turnaround. We're doing what we can and that's all I ask. Thank you.”
It is unclear whether plans for the arena will be made in isolation or with consideration to all the infrastructure needs the city is facing, as requested by the petition.
Councillors Bull, Mann, Seidel, and Morrissette were in attendance but without question or comment during the debate.
Members of the public found the council’s response to the petition unclear.
ElliotLakeToday.com reached out to the Acting Mayor for clarification. The request for clarification follows below. There was no response before publication.
ELT’s request for clarification reads:
Referring to the petition, you [Acting Mayor Wannan] said: “Some of your requests are asking for it to be formalized like under the municipal act, and there are constraints that we find frustrating, frankly. And so I believe we would like to have the town hall format, and that's not part of the request in this petition, which might be a compromise that we all have to have to come to agreement with. Okay.”
The petition reads:
We, the undersigned, petition the Council of the City of Elliot Lake as follows:
- We request the City host a Town Hall Meeting at Collins Hall about Elliot Lake's public infrastructure.
- We ask that Council representatives and senior staff attend and give a short presentation on the state of our infrastructure followed by a 90-minute period of questions and comments from the public.
- We ask that the meeting be livestreamed and video archived.
- We ask that it take place before October 31, 2023, with a minimum of 10 day's notice to the public.
Questions:
- Where does the petition request the town hall “to be formalized like under the municipal act”?
- What constraints do you “find frustrating,” that prevent the council from granting the citizen’s petition request?
- In what way does the petition statement, “We request the City host a Town Hall Meeting at Collins Hall about Elliot Lake public infrastructure,” not request a “town hall format”?
This article will be updated if a response to the questions is received.