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The South Marysburgh Mirror December 2022 /9 COUNCIL CORNER John Hirsch Councillor, Ward 9 South Marysburgh A New Term, New Faces, Many Priorities Now that the overly long election cycle has passed, we can get back to working for our residents to provide better services and to deal with new pressing issues — making the County a better place to live and work. It is remarkable how new issues pop up in just a short time. Here is a list of some of what | believe we, as a Council, need to work on. | will be discussing priorities with the CAO in a one-on-one meeting December 15 and would be interested in your take as to what we should tackle earlier rather than later. e Affordable housing — | plan to bring a motion to create an inclu- sionary zoning bylaw or a Community Planning Permit System (CPPS) either of which would force developers to include real affordable units in a certain percentage of their development. This is needed to complement the other projects we have under- way and the incentives we have already provided to developers. « Site Alteration Bylaw — we don’t have one and it is badly need- ed. We are one of the very few municipalities that does not have such a bylaw. This step will help protect agricultural land by re- specting farmers' inherent rights under provincial law while pre- venting developers from destroying woodlands and other natu- ral features before they file development applications. Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw — following the new Official Plan, our zoning bylaw needs to be completely rewritten to ensure the provisions of the plan are accurately reflected. Staff are working on this and drafts will be provided to Council and the public in 2023. Climate Change — the Federal government has just announced over $1 billion in funding for climate adaptation — and over half of that will be available to municipalities through the FCM Green Municipal Fund — we should seek our share to help deal with extreme drought and shoreline erosion among other issues. Bill 23 from the Ford government changes the land planning landscape completely removing environmental protections, in- creasing cost of development to taxpayers and removing herit- age protections. | led the last motion of the last Council (unanimously approved) to oppose much of Bill 23 and | will con- tinue the fight against this by working toward eliminating the worst provisions in the regulations which are still up for grabs. Health Care Practitioners — we are all aware of the impending huge shortage of doctors and money has been devoted to re- cruitment. Beyond this, however, Council needs to lobby the province for increased numbers of physicians and nurse practi- tioners as well as perhaps establish a walk-in clinic. As your councillor, | will actively support these initiatives. Roads — | will continue to support a science-based approach to roadwork prioritization. Of particular interest to South Marysburgh is that funds to repair damage caused by the WPD White Pines project should finally be made available for use in 2023. Council News The Wellington Heritage Conservation District plan has been appealed to the Ontario Lands Tribunal so it will be delayed and maybe modified Costs for everything have gone up significantly, so we are ex- pecting a pretty tough budget session in February. All Council committees and boards will be up for membership nominations in January. Please watch for postings in the papers and my email and consider how you might contribute to your com- munity. Coming to our first meeting in January will be presentations by two companies who propose to install large lithium ion battery electricity storage facilities in the County (BESS). They will need Council support if they hope to move forward. | would like to know your thoughts. There is a Facebook group called PEC BESS Commu- nity Information Group where you can keep up to date. Other 1am continuing my five-days-a-week community email, so if you are not already subscribed, just send me your email address and | will add you to the list of nearly 300 families. | can be reached by phone, text and email. jhirsch@pecounty.on.ca 613-846-0046 And don’t forget, for immediate service the County help line is available: 613-476-2148 ext. 1023, email: info@pecounty.on.ca or submit a request using the online form on the County website: www.thecounty.ca Bylaw complaints: bylaw@pecounty.on.ca For weekend or 24 hour situations go to the who to contact page: www.thecounty.ca/: -hub/who-to-call/ NatureBus Coming to PEC (Continued from page 8) ans have a chance to show just how committed they are to protecting nature. South Shore Joint Initiative (SSJI) is joining Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory’s NatureHood Program to collect messages that call on world leaders at the NatureCop to stop nature loss. Before arriving at Elizabeth and Main Streets, the NatureBus will stop at PECI and Athol South Marysburgh schools to collect letters prepared by students. The NatureBus will be decorated Continued page 12 ——~