Given events at the August 5 Council meeting in Palmer Rapids, some might think that the Township of Brudenell Lyndoch and Raglan seems to be getting more than its fair share of contentious issues for such a small municipality.
Two Ombudsman complaints
Returning to her report to Council after an unexpected telephone outburst from an irate resident, Township Clerk Michelle Mantifel told Council that “a couple of complaints” about BLR had been received by the provincial Ombudsman.
- Email decision-making: Councillor Andrea Budarick, referring to The Current’s July 30th report of the complaint to the Ombudsman, questioned Mantifel closely about whether she kept Council fully informed. Mantifel reported that, “Information was provided to the Ombudsman by myself regarding the complaint for their review and a follow-up telephone call took place to discuss the matter. Items discussed included best practices related to municipal decision-making and a June 2020 Ombudsman report regarding decision-making in the Town of Pelham.” Budarick persisted and demanded to know if Mantifel had committed the Township to action without direction from Council. Mantifel explained that she had shared everything from the Ombudsman with Council and further that it was her job to respond.
2. Audio recording of meetings: Mantifel said the second complaint related to meeting recordings. She said she provided the Ombudsman with the information given to the complainant on how to access meeting recordings and that the file was closed based on that information.
Interim Control By-Law for cannabis cultivation
Following on from Council’s direction at the July meeting, Mantifel provided members of Council with the legal opinion from Mr. Fleming of Cunningham & Swan regarding potential liability for the municipality should it pass an Interim Control By-Law dealing with cannabis cultivation, processing and production. He also gave an opinion on cannabis cultivation for medical use, and said that if BLR Council wished he could prepare an Interim Control By-Law for less than $1,000. When pressed by Budarick, Mantifel confirmed that the legal opinion was available to the public.
The Clerk confirmed that an Interim Control By-Law would not affect anyone who was already in production of cannabis. Responding to Budarick, she confirmed that in the case of the Wingle Road property, the new severances would fall under the Interim Control By-Law but not the property where production was already under way. Discussion ensued during which Mantifel and Keller informed the Councillors that their goal was to complete the following steps within one year.
- pass a resolution directing staff to undertake a study (Some members of Council were concerned that the study be conducted by people knowledgeable about cannabis and Mantifel said research assistance from Renfrew County planners or Cunningham & Swan were options for assistance.)
- direct Cunningham & Swan to draft an Interim Control By-Law (Mantifel said she would ask the lawyer to do this by the next Council meeting)
- actually conduct the study (Budarick and Liedtke insisted they wanted to see public input from BLR residents.)
Mantifel reminded Council that although the Interim Control By-Law could be extended at the end of one year, it would then become subject to appeal to LPAT.
BLR Council then passed two Resolutions:
- Staff to undertake a land use planning study of the impact of cannabis cultivation, processing and production and to consider policies to regularize such uses within the township; and,
- Staff to obtain a draft Interim Control By-Law from Cunningham & Swan for a fee of less than $1,000.
photo ryan lange on unsplash