April 28, 2022 Meeting Highlights

Grey County Council met on April 28, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. in the Council Chamber and virtually through Zoom. The meeting was immediately followed by a session of Committee of the Whole. Recordings of the meetings can be found on Grey County’s YouTube Channel.

County Council

• Council accepted the minutes of the April 14 County Council and Committee of the Whole meetings.  Council  Committee

Committee of the Whole

• Council received a staff report on the CP Rail Trail. A 35.5 km southern portion of the trail will be resurfaced with stone dust later this year. The trail is an important recreational and tourism asset for the county. With maintenance costs rising, council directed staff to study the trail usage to better understand volume, types, and impact of motorized and non-motorized trail users.  Report
• Grey County paramedics Darren Clock, Sherry Foster, Lori Morton, Reid Milne-O’Neil, Sarah Brouwer, and Jeff Adams were presented with the Medical Director’s Commendation Award. These paramedics were recognized for providing services outside traditional scope of paramedics during the pandemic. This included providing supportive outreach services and were also deployed in Essex-Windsor when additional staffing was needed.
• Janice Atwood-Petkovski and Jeffrey Abrams of Principles Integrity presented the annual Integrity Commissioner Annual Report.  Report
• Council approved the tax policy report. Tax ratios for 2022 will remain the same as 2021 and a bylaw will come forward May 12th Report
• The Province extended the Social Services Relief Fund. An additional $878,000 will support ongoing services for vulnerable people, including homelessness response. Report
• Town of The Blue Mountains requested information on why conduit for fibre would not be included in construction projects planned for Grey Road 2 and Grey Road 13. While not feasible with these projects, the County is enhancing broadband access by other means. Grey County has invested more than $1 million into the SWIFT broadband project, which has constructed network enhancements worth over $14.8 million to date.  Report
• Following a closed session, County Council appointed Tara Warder as the incoming County Clerk. Ms. Warder will assume the role in June following the retirement of current County Clerk, Heather Morrison.
• The Clerk notified Council that Warden Hicks has submitted a leave of absence effective May 1. Selwyn Hicks was acclaimed by the Liberal riding association to represent the party in the upcoming Provincial election. The leave is temporary pending the results.  Announcement

The Clerk’s Department maintains the official record for Grey County. This publication is intended to provide meeting highlights only. For official records, please refer to the meeting minutes, or contact the Clerk’s Department at 1-800-567-4739.

Photo:

Featured in the photo, from left to right are: Grey County Warden Selwyn Hicks, Reid Milne-O'Neil, Jeff Adams, Lori Morton, Sarah Brouwer, Sherry Foster, Darren Clock, Jason Hunter, Kevin McNab, Dr. Sunil Mehta.