Meaford Council (Image from Meaford YouTube)
Meaford is making a few changes to a new pumped storage community committee before it gets established.
Meaford’s Committee of the Whole approved a number of changes to the new committee during a meeting on Feb. 26, which council will look at establishing in two weeks.
This comes after council had deferred on establishing the new committee two weeks ago, which would examine the benefits and impacts of hosting the major project.
Before any amendments were made, a number of residents representing the Save Georgian Bay group addressed council voicing their opposition to having a member from TC Energy on the new committee, claiming it would impact discussions.
Originally, the committee sought to recruit nine people from various groups, including Save Georgian Bay, the Meaford Chamber of Commerce, and someone under the age of 25
The first amendment to the committee came from Coun. Tony Bell.
“I want to strike the names of Save Georgian Bay, the Impact Zone, the Chamber of Commerce. I want this committee opened up at large to accept anyone who submits their name that they wish to give their time and their input to this group, the advisory committee, and not single out any specific group and give extra weight for or against,” says Bell.
Bell says he would still like to keep a position open to someone under the age of 25. TC Energy will not be on the committee.
“I want this opened up to the committee, to be formulated by residents who want to take the time to submit their names and council will look at them and we will choose and we will have a well-rounded, balanced advisory committee,” says Bell.
Bell’s motion was supported by council.
Save Georgian Bay Member Kellie Haslam says while Bell’s intended effect is to depoliticize the group, she believes this will have the opposite effect.
“The original design was intended to protect that seat for a member of Save Georgian Bay,” says Haslam. “It could create some potential bias and potentially a stacked committee if opponents of the project are potentially not selected now that those seats are not protected.”
Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney also proposed having council interview committee applicants.
“Because this committee is so important, these are going to be prestigious positions and we really want to make sure that we have, as it has been mentioned, a balanced group of community representation,” says Keaveney.
The motion was supported by council.
While Save Georgian Bay will no longer have a reserved seat on the council, Haslam says Meaford can expect to see many applications from its members to join the committee.
“We feel that it would be a mistake, yet another mistake by Meaford council about this project to not assign a member of our association on the committee. The members of Save Georgian Bay have been interested in the project from the beginning, we have studied it extensively,” says Haslam.
Council also approved in addition to having nine members be on the committee, two councillors also sit in but not be able to cast votes in the committee.
Interim CAO Matt Smith says as these amendments will not be formally approved by council until March 11, he will extend the deadline for people to submit their applications to sit on the committee to March 15, with the first meeting set for April.