Belleville city hall (File photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
A representative of the Poverty Roundtable of Hastings Prince Edward presented some startling statistics to Belleville city council Monday night.
Christine Durant of the Roundtable said 16% of Belleville’s population is living in poverty.
Durant said the food insecurity rate is 11.5%, that’s 3% above the provincial rate, representing 17,000 people.
Durant said municipalities can play a role in poverty reduction through zoning bylaws, taxation, granny flats, and eliminating transportation barriers which prevent poor people from keeping jobs.
Re-organizing at city hall
Belleville council took another step in the ongoing organizational review on Monday.
It approved a staff recommendation that the city begin the process of discontinuing the Environmental and Operational Services Department, replacing it with two new ones.
Those new departments will be Environmental Services and Transportation and Operations.
The report also recommended starting the hiring process for department managers.
