Tay residents could continue to vote within a ward boundary system for the next elections.
While neighbouring Midland councillors opted recently to scrap the ward system, a township staff report that's part of this week's council agenda recommends council sticks with its current composition and ward system for its next election in 2022.
The report doesn't clearly identify the reasons why staff is endorsing the status quo. However, there is still time for council to receive public feedback on the issue.
Changes to council composition have to be passed through municipal bylaw and will need to be approved by council by the end of 2021. Among other options included in the report is a move towards a five-member council, elected within a ward system. The other two options are to eliminate the ward boundary system and elect seven or five officials at-large, including a mayor and deputy mayor.
Staff will come back to council with additional information regarding the method of voting.
Unlike its neighbouring municipalities, Tay staff recommend that there is no need for the township to apply for phase two of the federal-provincial safe restart funding. Tay has already received $334,800 as part of phase one of the funding and has no demonstrable financial COVID-19 related financial pressures coming up to exceed the money already in the bank.
Staff will also be looking for council's approval of its plan to reopen the Tay rink following government-issued health and safety protocols.The reopening is to be executed in two phases. Phase one indicates that rink operations resume on Nov. 16, offering only private group rentals of up to 22 people. The time slots will be booked online providing a 40-minute time buffer between bookings to give staff the opportunity clean and disinfect the facility.
Phase two will be offered once the province loosens its restrictions and will open up the rink to free public use.
Staff project the township will lose $22,500 in revenue with this move, compared to $25,700 in the previous year.
Also on the agenda is a letter from Family Alliance Ontario to the Minstry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
The correspondence from Alliance president Carla O'Neill expresses concerns around township's support of Cherry Blossom Village, a residential-care facility for those with complex intellectual needs, such as a high-needs autism.
Drs. Howard Bloom and Robert Cooper are seeking a minister's zoning order to proceed with the construction of the proposed facility on Triple Bay Road.
But O'Neill's letter urges the minister not to give the project the green light.
"The proposed development of Cherry Blossom Village is the product of very outdated beliefs about what is possible for people who have developmental disabilities," she writes. "It is completely out of step with progress the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, developmental services sector has made over the past two decades, and it is out of step with what people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities themselves say that they need. For these reasons, we ask that you reject the application for a Ministerial Zoning Order for this proposed development."
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and can be viewed online.
