Town council’s latest virtual meeting, held on Nov. 16, can be viewed on YouTube. We offer the following summary to save you a few hours:
Snow yoga, anyone?
Outdoor activities will be the focus of the upcoming recreation season, as the town tries to keep people active during the pandemic.
New outdoor skating rinks, snowshoe and cross-country ski options and snow yoga, pilates and boot camp are all on the town’s winter activity schedule.
With the looming possibility of a full lockdown closing indoor recreation facilities, the town is focusing on outdoor and virtual activities for the winter season, said Collen Bell, commissioner of community services.
Town of Oakville
Colleen Bell
Colleen Bell, Community Services Commissioner
Giving people physical outlets for reducing their stress is vital to addressing mental health challenges, she added.
“We know how important it is from a public health point of view for people to physically exercise, especially over the next few months.”
Many of the new outdoor rinks will be built near existing community centres, to allow washroom access.
Park washrooms that are winterized will be kept open through the season, but Bell noted that most of the town’s facilities are seasonal and would require an upgrade to operate through the winter.
The town is seeking infrastructure funding to make those upgrades.
Ward 3 councillor Janet Haslett-Theall praised the recreation department’s plan.
“This is a really creative effort on the part of the team – just a fantastic way to make the next few months a little bit brighter,” she said. “I think the public is going to be very excited to see what you have to roll out.”
Full details of the town’s plan are not yet publicly available, but will be announced soon.
Permit street parking
Paid street parking permits will soon be available to residents living north of the QEW, to help ease parking problems exacerbated by the pandemic.
A program is expected to roll out over the next two to three weeks, after the town has investigated technology to make it easier to implement.
Ward 5 town councillor Jeff Knoll urged town staff to consider leniency around enforcement of parking restrictions until the permits are available.
Town of Oakville
Jeff Knoll
With people working from home and adult children back from school, parking is a considerable challenge in laneway communities and other high-density areas with limited driveway space and no parking alternatives, he said.
“Is there a way that we could contemplate simply not enforcing on street parking (restrictions) in those areas in the interim?” he asked. “Two or three weeks is a lot of parking tickets, potentially.”
For several months at the beginning of the pandemic, the town chose not to enforce parking restrictions.
The parking permit system is expected to be similar to what exists in North Oakville. Residents in that area can purchase an on-street overnight parking permit for $50 per month, although permits do not guarantee available space.
No mail in voting here
Oakville voters in the 2022 municipal election will need to cast their ballots in person, global pandemic or not.
For the second time in a year, town councillors have rejected looking into alternative ways of voting in the next municipal election.
The idea was first raised by town staff and rejected by councillors last February.
Town clerk Vicki Tytaneck brought the issue forward again on Monday, with a report suggesting that councillors reconsider the issue due to “the unexpected challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Significant planning and research is required to revisit and rethink the concept of voting during a pandemic so that electors feel safe when casting their ballot,” noted her report. “Alternatives to in-person voting should be included in election planning for 2022 which includes, but may not be limited to, consideration of electronic voting.”
The clerk noted that funding for the necessary work has been included in the capital budget.
Ward 1 councillor Sean O’Meara encouraged his council colleagues to allow staff to investigate the issue.
Town of Oakville
Sean O'Meara
“I think we’ve all sort of seen how things can go sideways pretty quickly in a pandemic and I think we should be aptly prepared to have a vote or an election somehow, if needs be, in terms of online voting methods.”
His motion to reconsider the issue failed by a vote of 9 to 6.
Voting in favour of investigating voting alternatives: Councillors O’Meara, Janet Haslett-Theall, Cathy Duddeck, Beth Robertson, Dave Gittings and Pavan Parmar.
Opposed were Mayor Rob Burton and Councillors Allan Elgar, Tom Adams, Jeff Knoll, Marc Grant, Ray Chisholm, Natalie Lishchyna, Jasvinder Sandhu and Peter Longo.
Conservation Authority defense
Town councillors expressed their outrage with a provincial plan to limit the power of Ontario’s conservation authorities.
With a unanimous vote, councillors supported a motion from Mayor Rob Burton condemning what he described as the province’s “attack on the integrity of conservation authorities.”
As part of its recent budget bill, the Doug Ford government proposed changes to the Conservation Authorities Act that would limit the role of those agencies in the development approval process.
Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities are responsible for the protection and restoration of the province’s land, water and natural habitats.
Conservation Ontario, which represents the agencies, said the changes will impact the ability of conservation agencies to conserve natural resources and protect people from the dangers of natural hazards.
In a motion that took over four minutes for Burton to read aloud, he noted that local conservation authorities provide the town with necessary watershed expertise and expressed concern with many of the changes proposed by the province.
Changes to the legislation will allow the province to make decisions without consideration of local conditions, as well as making development applications slower and more costly, he said.
The motion calls on the province to delay, repeal and amend proposed changes and work with conservation authorities.
Ward 6 councillor Tom Adams, who serves as vice chair of the Credit Valley Conservation Authority, said that board is very dismayed with the actions of the provincial government.
“It’s just shocking the way that they are ramming this through.”
