Belleville celebrates at 2020 New Year’s Levee

Belleville took a look at the new year ahead as the city turned out to celebrate its 2020 New Year’s Levee Saturday at the  Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre.

 More than 300 people attended the celebration to hear Mayor Mitch Panciuk review the year just past, and what can be expected in 2020.

Panciuk pointed out the expansion of Bell Boulevard and the Avondale Road are on the  reconstruction list.

A Recreation Master Plan is underway, as well as plans for the establishment of an outdoor recreation facility at the former Hillcrest School.

Regarding the city hall downtown area, Mayor Panciuk told Quinte News, following his speech that the key thing is making a decision about Memorial Arena.

He says this is an important step before making any moves regarding the city-owned property across from city hall on the river.

The Memorial decision is expected to happen when city council meets on January 13.

The mayor noted that a number of issues will be brought forward at the April budget meeting, including plans for dealing with the housing shortage situation.

In his address, Panciuk pointed to the business corridor along Highway 62 north of Maitland Drive.

This will get extended water services in 2020.

Mayor Panciuk also noted a long list of accomplishments by city council in 2019.

The complete text of the mayor’s speech is found below.

Mayor Mitch Panciuk’s New Year’s Civic Levee Address

January 4, 2020

A very Happy New Year to you all! Thank you so very much for attending today.

First, I want to sincerely thank the Belleville Pipes and Drums band for bringing us in as a Council this morning. After 106 years as the ANAF Pipes and Drums, they’ve changed their name to the Belleville Pipes and Drums Band, and we’re so very proud to see the official City of Belleville Logo on their uniforms and drums.

I also want to thank the Belleville Concert Band for entertaining us this morning. They, too, have recently undergone a name change, after 33 years, and were previously known as the Quinte Living Centre Band. Again, we are proud and humbled that they have chosen to put our City’s name front-and-centre in their new name.

I would ask everyone to please stand as you are able, while the Belleville Concert Band honours our nation as they play our national anthem.

(O Canada)

Thanks again to the Belleville Concert Band and we look forward to more of their music following this program.

Ladies & Gentlemen, the New Year’s Levee tradition of exchanging good wishes and tidings goes back hundreds of years. Today, on behalf of all my colleagues on Belleville City Council, let me begin by offering all of you our best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020.

I would like to introduce a number of special guests who are here with us today:

• MPP Todd Smith
• MPP Daryl Kramp
• MP Neil Ellis
• MP Derek Sloan
• Mayor of Quinte West, Jim Harrison
• Mayor of Prince Edward County, Steve Ferguson
• Mayor of Brighton, Brian Ostrander and
• Warden of Hastings County, Rick Phillips

Thank you for attending our Levee today; my wife, Lisa, and I have enjoyed representing the City of Belleville at your community Levees and working with you all during the past year.

It is also my honour, and distinct pleasure, to introduce my colleagues from Belleville City Council. I would ask each of them to stand and remain standing as I introduce them in alphabetical order so we can welcome them together:

• Councillor Paul Carr
• Councillor Pat Culhane
• Councillor Sean Kelly
• Councillor Chris Malette
• Councillor Kelly McCaw
• Councillor Bill Sandison
• Councillor Garnet Thompson and
• Councillor Ryan Williams

Nothing happens within the City of Belleville without the tremendous support and hard work of our City employees. While City Council sets the direction and priorities, it is our employees who make it all happen. We are extremely fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated people who work for the City of Belleville.

As I look back, 2019 was a very good year for your municipal government and we were able to achieve tremendous progress in our first year.

• The City needed to take real action, and deal with some of the vacant properties that were taking away from the beauty of Belleville. The former Sun Luck Gardens building, the former Trudeau Motors facility, the Stevenson Adams building, and the former Cabaret Adult Entertainment facility across from City Hall — these were all demolished to make room for future development.

• Great progress was made regarding the Memorial Arena and Legion buildings, and we look forward to making the decision about the future of those important properties at our next Council meeting on January 13^th.
• In 2019 we saw the opening of upgraded and new restroom facilities at Zwick’s Park for the first time since 1967! We also saw a major upgrade of Veteran’s Park beside the Parkdale Community Centre with the new Field of Ability – Mark your calendars for June 14^th the opening date of this new facility.
• In the spring of 2019 we held the first ever Belleville Housing Summit as a Special Meeting of City Council, which brought forward a number of recommendations designed to jump-start a plan to create more housing for our City. At the November 29^th City Council Meeting, we approved the first of many potential changes to City policies, all designed to facilitate the creation of more affordable housing.

We are in the process of creating Community Improvement Plans that will allow us to provide financial incentives to builders and developers in order to stimulate the construction of more rental accommodation. City Council and City Staff are working together, as fast as we can, because we know there is an urgent need for more housing.

• Great strides were made this past year regarding the expansion of Bell Boulevard West, now slated to start this spring when we issue the contract for this $20 million project. This will literally pave the way for the future Costco development on the north side of Bell Boulevard.

In addition, we continued to focus on infrastructure, road work, more amenities to attract families, more support for arts, culture, and heritage, and further improvements to the services we provide residents:

• We expanded public transportation, and provided more resources for our vulnerable communities by doubling the amount granted through our Social Infrastructure Fund. This means 10% of our Casino revenues is now available every year to support community partners in this important sector. In 2019 alone, this meant $344,400.
• We doubled the Belleville Community Arts & Culture Fund to $50,000 using the proceeds from our investment in Elexicon Energy and in 2019 this provided grants to 21 individuals and organizations.
• The first-ever Mayor’s Week for the Arts in Belleville saw us work with our partners at the Quinte Arts Council and the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, building on the existing Plein Air Arts Festival and the Family Artfest. We launched a new, free, community concert which featured the Quinte Symphony Orchestra.
• We hosted a Mayor’s Arts Luncheon which not only recognized the contribution that Arts and Culture makes to our City, but also brought more attention to this vibrant sector. We awarded life-time recognition to Joan Reive, one of our most prolific artists and a proud member of the Belleville Art Association.

This year, again in May, our second Mayor’s Week for the Arts will feature an expanded format, showcasing new and varied individuals and groups, further helping Belleville grow as an arts-friendly community.

In 2019, we made a number of significant contributions to other community organizations that help to improve the quality of life for the residents of Belleville:

• We donated land on Sidney Street to Habitat for Humanity, the 1^st such donation in over 20 years;
• We committed $400,000 to a new Quinte Humane Society site on Wallbridge-Loyalist Road;
• We committed $1 million to Hospice Quinte, to assist with the construction of their new Care Centre, a Hospice Residence facility that will provide quality and compassionate end-of-life palliative care to members of our community; and
• We announced a new West-End YMCA facility, to be located on the current Fairgrounds property, with the City of Belleville to provide land and servicing.

Each of these organizations – The YMCA, Hospice Quinte, the Quinte Humane Society, and Habitat for Humanity – each of them needs further support from the public to achieve their goals of improving our community. We hope the contributions made by the City of Belleville will make a difference and kick-start each of their fundraising campaigns.

In 2019, we also laid the ground work for, or started working on, several other initiatives that you will see us start to deliver on in 2020:

• After years of patience, the residents in West-End Belleville will see Avondale Road finally reconstructed with full services including storm-water, sidewalks, bike-lanes and street lights.
• We will create a new Parks and Recreation Master Plan that will guide the future development of our greenspace, as well as more outdoor amenities for our residents. We will begin that process very soon, and look forward to hearing exactly what types of outdoor recreational facilities our community wants.
• We will continue with other projects, including the return of a fully-functioning playground in the east-end Stanley Park to replace the one that was taken out for safety reasons a long time ago. We expect this park to open in June this year, just in time for the summer season.
• The purchase of the Hillcrest School from the Hastings & Prince Edward Public School Board will allow us to establish community outdoor recreation facilities to compliment the relocation of the Lawn Bowling Club.
• In 2020 we will be undertaking a complete restoration of our historic City Council Chambers, and the modernization of necessary technology to improve your access to our City Council meetings. These changes will help us further improve the accessibility and transparency of our meetings and increase accountability with recorded votes on all matters.
• As our business corridor along Highway 62 North of Maitland continues to expand, this year we will extend water services to better support that economic growth. This compliments the work we have been doing on Maitland Road east of highway 62, where we are currently connecting businesses to the new sanitary and water services along that reconstructed road in response to the growth occurring there.
• The new Belleville Police Services HQ will finally open this spring, with the official ribbon-cutting and public opening set for June. We will also be further investing in updated equipment to help them deliver the services we need, as we all work together to achieve our goal of making Belleville the safest community in Ontario.
• We will continue to invest in our Fire Services this year. The newly created Protective Services Committee begins meeting this month and it has the mandate to fully review our current fire protection system, and determine how we pay for required improvements moving forward.

One of the challenges we constantly face at City Council is maintaining balance. Each of us on Council, individually and as a group, have initiatives and priorities we want to move forward, things which we sincerely believe will improve our City.

At the same time, what we are able to do – and the speed with which we can do it – is sometimes limited by the Municipal Act, our existing government infrastructure, and, of course, money. We are often faced with difficult choices and we accept that we cannot always be unanimous in our decisions.

But make no mistake – And I want to be crystal clear about this – While there may be times where there is a difference of opinion between us as members of Council, do not for a moment doubt the sincerity or the passion of each of us up here today, who you democratically elected.

Working together doesn’t mean we are always in agreement, but it does mean that we have a responsibility to communicate with each other clearly and openly, in order to develop the consensus necessary to move our City forward.

After this 1^st year, I can tell you that each of us on your City Council takes these responsibilities very seriously, and works hard to find the balance that is necessary for Belleville to succeed.

The New Year means we all can have a Fresh Start – so, it is my hope that, in 2020, we on your Council can be focused on thoughtful, positive change, and stay focused on the issues that will make things better for everyone.

Economic Development in our City is booming, and you can expect to hear many more announcements as we continue to grow our City and grow the opportunities for our residents.

Our neighbourhoods will continue to grow, and we will welcome new residents. This is important because it will provide employees to serve the growing needs of our industry and it will also further grow our population and our City.

While this growth is good news for our future, it also needs to be safe and responsible growth. We need to build our plans for this growth together and with deliberate action.

The City of Belleville strategic plan review which started in 2019 will continue this year, as we develop a Belleville Master Plan for the next 25-50 years. We will continue to consult with you and receive your input throughout this process, because the future of our City belongs to everyone.

We cannot boldly go into the future that is before us all on our own. We are truly fortunate to have tremendous representation at the federal and provincial levels. And we will need that representation, and support, in order to succeed in building the best Belleville we can.

I would like to invite each of our federal and provincial members to say a few words:

• First, former Mayor of Belleville, and current Bay of Quinte Member of Parliament, Neil Ellis, who was recently promoted to the position of Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Services – Welcome, MP Ellis.
• Derek Sloan is the newly elected MP for Hastings-Lenox & Addington. Derek is a lawyer, and was recently appointed the Deputy Shadow Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada. Derek represents about 1/3 of the City of Belleville, and is a resident of North Belleville in Thurlow Ward. – Welcome, MP Sloan
• MPP Daryl Kramp was elected to the Ontario Legislature in June 2018 and represents the riding of Hastings-Lennox & Addington. He is no stranger to the Citizens of Belleville, after serving as the MP for the riding formerly known as Hastings & Prince Edward from 2004-2015. He is currently the Government Caucus Chair. – Welcome, MPP Kramp
• MPP Todd Smith has been the member for our Riding since 2011, and is the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. – Welcome, Minister Smith

 

In closing, I would once again like to say what an incredible honour and privilege it is to be the 76^th Mayor of the City of Belleville. I want to thank everyone who has helped us achieve what we have so far, and also everyone who continues to work with us to improve our great City.

All of us on City Council have many interesting and amazing opportunities to learn more about our City as we represent our residents. I continually pinch myself for the incredible experiences Lisa and I have been a part of over the past year, and I’m so grateful for this very special opportunity.

Working together, we can continue to accomplish great things. We need a better Belleville for tomorrow, a more vibrant and inclusive community that our children want to remain in. And we need to build this improved City responsibly, so the future Belleville remains affordable.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who helped organize this 2020 New Year’s Levee. The hard-working staff in my office, as well as the City staff here at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre, have all done a fantastic job. I hope you can all stay for a while, visit with us, and enjoy the live music as well as the food and beverages.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I am so looking forward to 2020, looking forward to working with my Council colleagues, and working with all of you as we continue to make our ambitious plans a reality. We have a wonderful City, with so much to be proud of, and the best is yet to come.

Thank you all very much for joining us today. Happy New Year!