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Penetang council opts to continue meeting electronically

The decision will be revisited in October with new COVID-related information.
Mehreen Shahid
Mehreen Shahid
2020-08-19-Penetang-August
Council plans on continuing electronic meetings until the end of the year. Mehreen Shahid/MidlandToday

Penetanguishene councillors will continue to work from home - at least until October.

The decision was made at a recent council meeting when staff brought forward a recommendation that the procedural bylaw be amended to allow for council to continue to meet electronically until at least the end of the year.  

However, Coun. George Vadeboncoeur wondered if the timeframe was too long.

"I fully understand the rationale behind the recommendations and I support most of the recommendations that are in the report," he said. "The only concern I have is the recommendation with respect to continuing with electronic meetings till December. I don't have an issue with that per se, I'd like to amend the motion to conduct a review in October.

"Things have changed quickly with respect to COVID over the last few months," added Vadeboncoeur. "At a mid-point between now and December, we could undertake a review to see if it's appropriate to continue with electronic meeting or move to some other format." 

Mayor Doug Leroux said he understood the councillor's perspective, but noted that difficult and ever-changing situation is making it hard to execute council meetings.

"It's not something we could do at our council chambers, since we don't have social distancing," he said. "If you consider by the time you put in nine members of council, the clerk and CAO, there isn't much room for staff. The alternative is to consider moving our council meetings elsewhere, for example Brian Orser Hall, but then we get into a bunch of staffing and monetary costs and software." 

Clerk Stacey Cooper pointed out that the motion is simply amending the procedural bylaw to continue to allow council to meet electronically after the provincial emergency was lifted late last month.

In addition, the staff report also suggests that council and committee of the whole meeting schedules continue as adjusted to allow one meeting per month on the second Wednesday of the month. 

Coun. Debbie Levy tested the waters to see if her peers would be interested in meeting twice a month instead of once.

"I'm concerned that once a month isn't enough to get the work done and get approvals," she said "I'd like to see us go to twice a month, but if there's no appetite for that, then it isn't."

Leroux said it shouldn't be an issue to call an additional meeting if there were a need for it.

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Mehreen Shahid

About the Author: Mehreen Shahid

Mehreen Shahid covers municipal issues in Cambridge
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