Newmarket council is not meeting this week, but will be back next week on Monday, March 22. The meeting will be live-streamed from the town's website starting at 1 p.m.
Here is what NewmarketToday will be following:
Single-use plastics
Town staff will be making a presentation to councillors with options for how Newmarket can begin to cut down on the amount of single-use plastic items used by the municipality.
Staff are not recommending that the town ban single-use plastic items, rather look for ways to eliminate the municipality's use of such items.
One recommendation is that the town stop providing items such as plastic cutlery, straws, stir sticks and creamer containers by July 1, to coincide with Plastic Free July, a global event focused on reducing plastic pollution.
Staff are also recommending council approve a comprehensive review of municipal practices to find other ways to reduce plastic use, as well as a public education program to encourage residents to do the same.
Water quality report
Council will be receiving the annual report describing the state of water quality in Newmarket for 2020.
According to the report, there were 99 "adverse water quality incidents" last year, 97 of which involved chlorine levels being too low. There was also one incident involving coliform bacteria, which was dealt with quickly.
The report also lists the results of inspections of the water system by the Ministry of the Environment. All of the infractions found involved paperwork errors.
Phone and online voting
Councillors will be asked to approve the use of telephone and online voting during the upcoming 2022 municipal election, both of which were available during the last election in 2018.
That time around, almost 20,000 people decided to use those systems to cast their vote, with 91 per cent using the online system.
The report argues that the use of the voting systems was a success and should be approved again for the next election.
That said, there are some considerations stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the increased demand for the companies who provide these systems because so many services will be moved online during the pandemic, so finding a vendor well ahead of time will be key.
Newmarket energy efficiency retrofit program
Council needs to decide how to proceed after the energy retrofit program it has been working on since 2016 was denied the $15-million grant Newmarket was asking for from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to get it off the ground.
The federation did, however, find the idea for the program intriguing enough to approve Newmarket for a $133,000 fund to at least complete the business and implementation plan.
Staff is asking council for the go-ahead to create such a plan, with the federation grant covering 80 per cent of the cost.
If approved, the plan could be completed in time for the town to try again for funding in 2022.
Click here for the full agenda.
You can submit input to council in relation to an item on this agenda by:
- Emailing your correspondence to [email protected] by end of day on Wednesday, March 17. Written correspondence received by this date will form part of the public record or;
- Making a live remote deputation by joining the virtual meeting using the town's videoconferencing software and verbally providing your comments over video or telephone. Pre-register by emailing your request and contact information to [email protected].
