Councillors Allan DeWitt and Duncan Armstrong discuss the hospice notice of motion ahead of the Quinte West council meeting on Monday January 15, 2017. (Photo: Nicole Kleinsteuber / Quinte News)
A Quinte West councillor wants to see $1 million be reallocated from reserves and put toward the construction of a hospice.
During budget talks in November 2016, the municipality signed off on the purchase of seven acres of land near Bayside Secondary School for $250,000 – the preferred site for a hospice.
Monday night, councillor Allan DeWitt who is a member of a committee tasked with securing industrial property put forth a notice of motion that would see $1 million from the Sidney Ward Fund be reallocated to build the hospice.
DeWitt said the City is in conversations with the province and Quinte Healthcare. He added there are meetings already set up to meet with Quinte Hospice and there will be an opportunity to speak with the South East Local Health Integration Network in regards to the funding.
As the municipality gets set to go over its operating budget, there is a line item that dedicated $150,000 for the hospice.
Dewitt says now he’d like to see that go to a fund to help Quinte West increase its industrial land base in the City.
Quinte West currently has a $1.6 million that was earmarked in the 2016 operating budget. DeWitt explained the committee will use it to look for the best opportunities on how to expand and develop more industrial land to assist with growth.
Dewitt will put the motion on the floor at the next meeting.
Meanwhile, there is no flavour around the horseshoe for getting involved with creating and enforcing restrictions where e-cigarettes can be used.
At a previous meeting the Canadian Cancer Society requested the municipality impose restrictions. Following that, members of the community came forward and said vaping was helping many people quit smoking and shouldn’t be restricted.
With very little discussion, the City approved a motion with staff recommending council be content to let the federal and provincial governments provide the regulations and enforcement of e-cigarettes.
Mayor Jim Harrison said the City would have to hire a bylaw officer to support it and they are ‘not interested in that’.
Also on the night, council gave the green light to keeping voting in the next municipal election status quo.
Recently council voted down the idea of changing to a ranked balloting system and on Monday the municipality approved the use of paper ballots along with internet voting.
Mayor Harrison.
The next municipal election is set for October 22, 2018.
