As we all know the communities hard work paid off when at the April 27^th Special meeting of council, 6 out of the 7 Council members opposed the recommendation to declare the Community Centre Surplus along with 4 acres of parkland. We will never know how many councillors actually changed their position during the process, but the Community spoke and were listened to. CTV picked up our story the day after the meeting. The links to the news clip and web article can be found here:

CTV News Clip (Click)    CTV Web Article (Click)

 Thanks to the Council for absolutely doing the right thing.

 Thanks to all of the community who opposed the recommendation with their written comments and presentations.

 Thanks to Jenn Butts for the production and sale of yard signs.

 Thanks to Ron Nakamura for arranging the on-line and paper petitions.

 Thanks to my fellow committee members, Anne and Paul Miniely and my wife Frances.

 The Committee’s job is not done as we will be following up with Council and/or staff with requests for changes. How this whole issue unfolded and was handled left a lot to be desired. We need some checks and balances to be implemented to avoid this from happening again, or at least slow it down.

  Below is a draft list of changes/ideas we’d like to be addressed. There is no guarantee that we will be successful with any of these items but we have to try. If you have something you’d like to add to the list please email Komokastp@gmail.com. I won’t fill in the back story as to why we have identified these items, after reading them I think you will figure out why.

 1.     Implement bylaws and/or policies that prohibit the sale of parkland.

 2.     In the Procurement of Goods and Services policy there is a line that says goods can be sold at or below market value if it is in the benefit of the community. “Benefit” is too subjective and should be removed and changed to “for the benefit of a non-profit organization”.

 3.     There needs to be a process put in place when buildings and municipal land is offered for sale for any reason including being declared surplus. This would include:

·        Public notification

·        Public meetings

·        Minimum time lines before decision made

 4.     If any report is recommending the sale of buildings or Municipal property, it should be tabled to Council first as information, and then a public direction by council to staff as to what should be done next.

 5.     For meetings where it is anticipated there is a high level of public interest / involvement these meetings should be held in person. Hopefully there are already plans in motion to do this for future meetings.

 6.     Any meeting agenda item that has invited public comments and/or delegations must be held in the evening.

 7.     Closed sessions of Council must have the subject of the meeting identified. There should be a vote by council after any closed meeting as to whether all or part of the closed session minutes can be released to the public.  This action is already documented under bylaw 2017-026 section 5.3 and 5.5.

 8.     Allow residents to request to receive copies of the meeting agendas via email similar to the newsletter.  

 What’s next?

 The Save The Park Committee will be following up on the above list and will keep you posted as to our progress. Again, no guarantees that any of this will happen. If we need the voice of the community to be heard again to get some of this done we will be in touch!

 Council mentioned acting on some of the ideas mentioned in the submitted public comments and maybe having a round table on how to better utilize the Community Centres. We look forward to this when announced, we will let you know when we hear about it. 

 The committee may also consider if there is anything else that could be done beyond existing social media platforms to keep the community informed of important issues and how to mobilize community support quickly. We’ll keep you posted if anything comes from this. If you have an idea please email Komokastp@gmail.com

 We also encourage everybody to monitor/attend council meetings to keep informed.

 The outpouring of gratitude to the Committee was a bit overwhelming and we all thank you for your kind words of support. In the end it was the members of the Community coming together in a single voice to protect our park and community centre. Well done! I think we made history with that 6 to 1 vote!

Please enjoy the park and community centre whenever you can, you have earned it.

 Paul Houghton