Report confirms big price tag for piers
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has reiterated that if it pays to fix the Port Dalhousie piers, another body will have to take them over afterwards.
The federal department, which owns the piers, has told the city the asset divestiture would be a condition of any future funding contributions, if and when money is available.
A report to council Monday said the department advises there’s currently no source of funding for the repairs, estimated at $28-33 million.
That estimate was re-affirmed by the department recently after receiving detailed repair designs from the engineering firm it hired.
The designs were shared in the report to council and include piers that can be used by pedestrians and for mooring boats as requested by the city.
Sections of the east and west piers have been closed since April 2015 for safety reasons after it was discovered some of the wood timber base had rotted away and parts of the concrete decks were unsupported.
The piers, built in the 1870s, are no longer useful to the federal government.
The department made its intentions known to divest itself of the piers in June 2015. At that time, former Conservative MP Rick Dykstra said the department understood it would take a significant financial contribution to fix the piers and it was willing to take that action, but the expenditure required divestiture.
Funding for the build was never officially announced and an election was called in August of that year.
St. Catharines Liberal MP Chris Bittle and Mayor Walter Sendzik met in Ottawa with Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Dominic LeBlanc on Thursday to once again emphasize the importance of repairing the piers in hopes of securing funding.
In the meantime, Fisheries and Oceans is proceeding with an environmental review of the project design so it’s ready to go if and when money becomes available.
City drug plan
St. Catharines council wants to get its bylaws in place for the day selling recreational marijuana becomes legal.
City staff were asked to prepare a report on how St. Catharines would go about establishing a by-law to regulate and licence locations specifically for the sale of medicinal cannabis as well as legal recreational cannabis.
The federal government has said it intends to legalize recreational marijuana by July 1, 2018.
St. Patrick’s Coun. Mat Siscoe, who made the motion, said it’s important the city comes up with a set of rules to ensure it has something in place to move forward.
“My hope is that St. Catharines can be a leader the way Vancouver and Victoria have been in establishing some sort of protocol, because I think there’s been some serious concerns,” Siscoe said.
The city bylaw, which would be modelled after by-laws for medical cannabis dispensaries in those two British Columbia cities, will consider a number of factors such as distance from public facilities like schools or recreation centres.
It will also include rules about signage, labelling and testing of products, the number outlets owned by the same person, video monitoring and more.
A second report will also be prepared relating to methadone clinics at the request of St. Patrick’s Coun. Mark Elliott.
Council accused of leaks
A request for written reports about issues discussed behind closed doors turned into a debate about council leaks Monday.
Merritton Coun. Jennie Stevens made a motion that written reports be provided so councillors could familiarize themselves with the material prior to the in-camera meetings.
Stevens said verbal reports are becoming more and more common in closed sessions to the detriment of council’s ability to review the matter.
“The decisions we make are only as good as the information we have in front of us when we make these decisions,” she said.
But St. Patrick’s Coun. Mat Siscoe said he was concerned that writing everything down will make it easier for council to pass on sensitive information.
“Over the last six months, in camera information from this council has been leaked like a sieve to the media,” Siscoe said. “It’s all well and good for councillors to talk about personal responsibility, but clearly someone or some people around this horseshoe can’t be trusted with that.”
He said the motion would make it easier for those who want to undermine council to spread closed door information to friends, relatives, columnists and radio personalities.
“I would love to see better security around this information.”
But Grantham Coun. Sandie Bellows said she resented what Siscoe said.
“I believe there’s a lot of really good honest councillors here. Unless he can say 100 per cent it was a councillor that leaked in the last six months, than I take offence to that.”
Merritton Coun. Dave Haywood agreed with Bellows.
“To put it on the backs of councillors, it could have been other sources in those in camera meetings.”
City chief administrative officer Dan Carnegie said if Stevens’ motion passed, it didn’t preclude staff from putting methods in place to track documents so they could ensure confidentiality is kept.
The motion did pass, with Siscoe being the only councillor to vote against it.
Less mess stressed
Councillors still want something done about litter-strewn streets on garbage day.
St. Andrew’s Coun. Joe Kushner asked for a staff report on introducing a program similar to the city’s discounted rain barrel program to encourage residents to buy deeper recycling containers.
While people are allowed to use containers 36 inches high, many of the grey and blue boxes on city streets are shorter.
“The current boxes are too shallow and wind blows litter from them,” Kushner said.
He said litter throughout the city is extremely problematic on garbage day, especially in south St. Catharines where there’s a lot of student housing.
Kushner asked for a report in April on the problem of wind-strewn litter. That staff report Monday said property owners are responsible for cleaning up litter originating from their property, but in practical terms, it’s difficult to determine where litter originates.
Niagara Region, which is in charge of waste pickup, is not looking at different types of containers for recycling at this time. Residents can use other types of rigid containers as long as they are clearly marked and follow size limits.
Merritton Coun. Jennie Stevens asked staff to work with the region and green committee to look into the possibility of getting lids for grey and blue boxes.
GM land plan OK’d
Council has given the go-ahead to staff to prepare a secondary plan for the lands at the former GM plant on Ontario Street.
The council authorization was required for the city to apply for Regional Smarter Niagara Incentive Program funding.
Council previously put aside $100,000 for the plan. The regional funding, if granted, would match the city’s contribution bringing the total for the plan to $200,000.
A secondary plan will create a guide for growth and change in the area, which is over 50 acres and owned by Bayshore International. It will include land use, urban design, transportation infrastructure servicing, development standards, public spaces, environmental protection and remediation.
It will also include an employment lands review study, required by the province when lands are converted from an employment area to nonemployment use.
St. George’s Coun. Mike Britton questioned why a $200,000 study needs to be done when the owners of the land will conduct their own studies.
Director of planning and building services Jim Riddell said the secondary plan will be the basis on which the city will evaluate the owner’s application for it.
The motion passed, with Britton casting the only no vote.
Martindale build
A building that includes both commercial and residential spaces will be built on Martindale Road near Grapeview despite some resident opposition.
Neighbours had opposed a zoning change to the property from low density residential to local convenience commercial.
The end result Monday was temporarily thrown into confusion when council’s vote was taken and the zoning change was defeated 7-6.
The applicant’s agent Chris Millar then pointed out from the gallery that Grantham councillors Bill Phillips and Sandie Bellows did not attend the public meeting in March about the project and were therefore not allowed to vote.
Phillips and Bellows had both voted no but their votes didn’t count and the zoning change was approved 6-5.