Good morning Dr. County Counselors and
members of staff and public that are
joining us in person and online. Hope
everybody had a good Canada Day
yesterday.
I'd ask Ms. Leger to take the roll call,
please.
» Thank you, Warden.
Deputy Warden Agar.
» Present.
» Counselor Atkinson.
» Present.
» Counselor Bushy.
» Present.
» Counselor Bradley.
» Present.
» Counselor Broad.
» Present.
» Counselor Case.
» Present.
» Counselor Cook.
Counselor Dennis.
You just need to unmute Counselor
Dennis.
» Um
Can you hear me okay?
» Yep, perfect. Thank you.
» I'm
present. Thank you.
» Thank you.
Counselor Ferguson.
» Present.
» Counselor Hand.
» Present.
» Counselor Looseley.
» Present.
» Counselor McRoberts.
» Present.
» Counselor Miller.
» Present.
» Counselor Seageman.
» Present.
» Councillor Vein?
» Present.
» Councillor White?
Warden Marriott?
» Present.
» We have quorum.
Thank you.
We acknowledge that this land on which
we are gathered today is part of the
Anishinaabe.
It is through the connection of the
Anishinaabe with the spirit of the land,
water, and air that we recognize unique
cultures, traditions, and values.
Together as treaty people, we have a
shared responsibility to act with
respect for the environment that
sustains all life, protecting the future
for those generations to come.
I would ask that any member of council
declare a pecuniary interest now or
where it rises during the meeting.
Item number four in camera and look for
a motion in one camera for the reasons
noted agenda. Councillor Atkinson and
Councillor Hand seconds. All in favor?
That's carried. We'll meet in committee
room three.
» Mhm.
» Welcome back.
Please join me for a moment of silent
reflection.
» Thank you.
I would ask Ms. Lejay to rise and report
of the motions of in camera, please.
» Thank you, Warden Marriott. I can report
that Lambton County Council met in
camera this morning to address a few
matters. First, to review and approve
the Lambton County Council closed
session minutes of June 3rd, 2026.
To receive a report that includes
personal matters about identifiable
individuals related to the long-term
care division leadership structure
review and staffing enhancement
proposal.
To receive a report and provide
instructions regarding collective
bargaining with LiUNA Local 3000 and
Unifor Local 444. And then lastly, to
review and approve the Committee of the
Whole in camera minutes of June 17th,
2026. Which included receiving a report
and providing instructions regarding an
unsolicited offer received by a third
party relating to an acquisition of
county owned property located in the
city of Sarnia. And also to receive a
report and provide instructions
regarding lease negotiations between
County EMS and a third party related to
property in the city of Sarnia.
» Thank you, Ms. Lejay.
Item [clears throat] number eight,
minutes of open session
council of June the 3rd. Look for a
motion to adopt those minutes.
Councillor Broad, Councillor Hands
seconds. All in favor. That's carried.
Thank you.
Item number nine,
Board of Health, Dr. Dewitt, please.
» So, we have uh informa- five information
reports to receive and file unless there
are questions.
Councillor Veen moves. Councillor Miller
seconds. All in favor? That's carried.
Thank you.
And we
nine
B, we have uh report regarding Lambton
Public Health Disclosure Program.
It requires a motion, discussion, or
motion to approve the recommendation.
Councillor Broad
and
Councillor Sageman seconds. All in
favor?
That's carried. Thank you.
Is there any other business for Board of
Health? Deputy Warden Egar, please.
» Thank you, Warden.
Um I just want to raise a concern on
behalf of St. Clair Township Council
regarding ambulance response times in
the Port Lambton area, especially.
Uh we fully understand that the Ministry
of Health protocols govern ambulance
dispatch and that call takers must
prioritize calls based on patient acuity
and available resources.
This is not a criticism of our
paramedics or dispatch staff. We
recognize the difficult work they do and
the pressures they are under. Our
concern is what happens to residents in
rural areas when ambulance response
times are significant delay delayed,
sorry,
or when a call is not deemed
life-threatening under the current
dispatch protocol.
In those situations, residents may be
left on their own for extended period of
time while help is still to come a
distance away.
St. Clair Township has trained
firefighters available in Port Lambton.
We're not asking firefighters to replace
paramedics or provide advanced medical
care.
We're just asking whether they cannot be
notified to provide basic assistance
first, patient monitoring, scene safety,
reassurance, and updated information to
dispatch while awaiting for the EMS.
With that in mind, sorry I preambled
here a little bit. Here's my question.
When St. Clair Township has trained
firefighters available in Port Lambton,
why can they not be notified immediately
to provide basic assistance and
reassurance when the ambulance responds
will be significantly delayed?
What changes are required to make that
possible? More specifically,
can county staff, Lambton EMS, CACC,
Sarnia police, fire dispatch, and St.
Clair Township work together to review
the current tiered response agreement
and determine whether fire can be
dispatched based on defined criteria,
which is extended ambulance ETA,
no ambulance immediately available, or
calls involving vulnerable residents or
injuries?
Uh early support would be a beneficial
to the patient.
Thank you. I'll turn it over to Mr.
Churchill, please.
» Thank you for the question uh through
you, Warden, to Councillor Agar. Um
I mean, I think the short answer is yes,
we can have that discussion under
the review of the tiered response
agreement, but um
Chief Steven Turner is on the line, so
um I'll ask him to uh provide a little
bit more information.
Thank you.
» Mr. Turner, please.
» Good morning. Thank you, Warden. Um
Councillor Agar, uh through you, Warden,
uh the tiered response agreements are
the agreements that align the framework
for under which the fire departments
respond.
Typically, the tiered response
agreements are focused on
life-threatening emergencies to those to
which we go code four or lights and
sirens.
Most tiered response agreements don't
incorporate the code threes, which are
those non-life-threatening incidents.
Those are those are certainly available
to be added to the tiered response
agreements. If approached and requested,
we can review the tiered response
agreement with the
Sarnia fire or Sarnia
fire.
We would also take a look and make
referrals back to the county sorry to
the municipality to determine
whether those those criteria would want
to be incorporated. One of the the
considerations is often the expense.
Code three calls are more numerous than
code four calls.
That's one of the reasons why volunteer
fire departments don't typically go on
code three calls, but we can also
incorporate a delay criteria for those
which there might be significant delay.
One of the challenges in the area of
Port Lambton is that that's
in one of our shared service areas
between us and Chatham-Kent just due to
the location and proximity of the
stations. We've got Bright's Grove and
Corunna as our closest stations and then
Wallaceburg would be the next station
responding especially to code threes.
» Thank you. I would I would like it
reviewed though if it's possible. Thank
you.
» Okay, thank you for that. Uh
any other business under Board of Health
this morning?
Seeing none, item number 10,
correspondence. We have a
We have a correspondence from Matt
Slotwinski, CEO of Sarnia-Lambton
Economic Partnership.
Uh
to do with the ready application.
Look, uh Councillor Ferguson moves.
» Move putting item not to receive in
file.
» Okay, move to support.
Councillor Seguin seconds that.
Discussion?
Councillor Dennis.
You're on mute, Councillor Dennis.
» My apologies.
I will not be supporting this, Ward
Marriott.
I in a country of 40 million people, I
find it
highly unlikely that we cannot find
someone in a country of 40 million
people that can that can fill these
positions.
I I find it
myself and a lot of Canadians very very
frustrating
that we always have to turn and look for
new Canadians to fill
these roles that can be filled with our
own citizens. The
temporary foreign workers program turned
into a complete complete mess and it was
abused and and we see it right here
locally when where
various companies have abused the
program and as a result our own citizens
and youth have paid the price and I will
not continue to support these programs.
We should be putting our own citizens
first, so I will not be supporting this.
» Okay.
Any other comments? Councillor Bradley.
» Mr. Ward, I'm just trying to understand
the receiving file. That means the
resolution will not be endorsed?
» I believe the resolution to endorse is
on the floor. The motion is on the
floor.
» Thank you.
» Uh
Call the vote. All in favor?
» I I Can I Can we please have a
recorded vote, please, sir?
» Okay, recorded vote's been requested.
Ms. Leger.
Oh, sorry, Councillor Bradley.
» Thank you, Mr. Warden.
I'm pleased there's a recorded vote
because this program has been a success
to bringing in skilled skilled people
who we could not fill we could not
take care of the
through the regular workforce.
And it has been a great value and it's
proven itself to employers. This is
where the feedback came from. Employers
said this works for them. And it gives
them that special skills that they need.
And it also grows the population here,
which we all support. So, I certainly
will be supporting the best interest
» So, I have Councillor Sageman and
Councillor Dennis.
» I'll speak to this from the perspective
of of an employer. I mean, at the base
level, we're all immigrants.
And as an employer, I find it
increasingly difficult to find
folks that want to do certain types of
work, certain types of working
conditions.
And it's very hard to find employees in
a rural environment. And I fully support
this motion.
» Councillor Dennis.
» Well, uh you know what? This is the
timing of this couldn't be better, the
day after Canada today.
Our country has a uh we are the lowest
in the G7 of and we're in a recession
while the rest of the G7 is not in a
recession. We have
uh record unemployment. We have uh
especially among among our youth. It's
about time that we start thinking of
ourselves first. And this is this is
disgraceful, quite honestly disgraceful,
that we are bringing in
uh uh uh foreign um nationals to do the
work of Canadians. And once again, you
cannot tell me that in a in a country
like Canada, uh we're 40 million uh
uh strong country, perhaps even higher
than that now, that we cannot find
people uh
that can fill these jobs. And and again,
um uh the people that seem to uh to um
um
the uh um are in favor of a project like
this, belong to a particular, uh uh,
party that don't seem to, uh, care about
the everyday, uh, working people in
Canada. So, again, I'm I'm adamantly
against this and and they're going to
find
that they're
they're going to find that the majority
of Canadians, everyday working
Canadians, that that may they may not,
uh,
they they may look down on, they do not
support this. They're the ones that are
hurting.
» Okay, counselor
» They do not support this.
» We'll go Uh,
counselor Sageman, you have a comment
before I call the vote.
» Just to follow up to that.
When this meeting's over, I'm going to
go out in this 36° heat and I'm going to
work as a construction laborer and build
a house for a customer. And I take
offense to that comment. I am a regular,
everyday working Canadian who operates a
construction business and I support this
program.
» Okay, we'll call the question. Uh,
Ms. Leger, please.
» So, a recorded vote has been requested
by counselor Dennis. The motion on the
floor is the resolution at page 86 of
our agenda package and we will start
with counselor Bradley, please.
» Yes.
» I have a yes.
Counselor Broad?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Counselor Case?
» Yes.
» I have a yes.
Counselor Dennis?
» No.
» I have a no. Counselor Ferguson?
» Yes.
» I have a yes.
Counselor Hand?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Counselor Looseley?
» Yes.
» I have a yes.
Counselor McRoberts?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Counselor Miller?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Counselor Sageman?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Counselor Bean?
» Yes.
» I have a yes.
Deputy Warden Agar?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Counselor Atkinson?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Counselor Bushy?
» Yes.
» I have a yes. Warden Marriott?
» Yes.
I have a yes.
That motion passes.
» Okay, item number 11 on the agenda is
items not requiring a motion. We have
three sets of minutes here, Lambton
Creative County,
Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership and
Tourism Sarnia Lambton. I'll look for a
motion to receive and file all three of
these sets of minutes. Councillor
Atkinson and Councillor Bushy seconds.
All in favor.
That's carried, [clears throat] thank
you.
Item number 12, reports requiring a
motion.
12A A Long-Term Care Division.
We have a report on the LTC Leadership
Structure Review and Staffing
Enhancement Proposal, which has no
impact on the levy.
Look for a motion to approve the three
recommendations. Councillor Case and
Councillor Broad.
All in favor.
That's carried, thank you.
And 12B Social Services Division.
Report regarding Homelessness and
Prevention Program Investment Plan.
Look for a motion to approve the two
recommendations. Councillor McRoberts,
seconded by Councillor Broad.
All in favor.
That's carried, thank you.
And item number 13, committee minutes
of June 17th.
Um there was three motions under
Infrastructure and Development.
One under Public Health Services.
Three under Cultural Services Division.
One under long-term care.
Five under corporate services division.
Three under social services division.
Four in camera and uh
adjournment.
Move by
Councilor Miller and second by Councilor
Bean.
All in favor.
That's carried. Thank you.
13B, audit committee minutes of June
17th.
Look for a motion to adopt the audit
committee minutes. Councilor Atkinson
moves.
Councilor Ferguson seconds. All in
favor.
That's carried. Thank you.
Item number 14, there are no items
tabled from previous meetings.
And number 15, notice of motion by
Deputy Warden Agar.
» Thank you, Warden.
Um I'd like to withdraw at this time
after our last conversation on our last
county meeting.
Um Jason Cole has been looking into it
and looking after it and I appreciate
him right now, so
for right now, I'll withdraw.
» Thank you.
Brings us to item number 16, other
business. Councilor Atkinson.
» Thank you, Warden. Um
just one thing I'd like to bring forth
that
recently I was reading an article in our
one of our local newspapers and it was
an article concerning the York dump
that's going to be take opening up down
by Dresden and I was noticing the
traffic route that they are proposing.
And one of the routes is through off the
402 through Plympton-Wyoming down
uh Heritage all the way there. Not only
passing through my community, but uh
five other communities as well.
And it kind of bothers me that nobody is
uh the
opportunity to communicate with us and
I'm not sure at what level, whether it's
at the county level, provincial level,
or where.
But, this was brought forth by one of my
fellow councilors a few months ago.
And to see it back in the newspaper
without any communication to us kind of
bothers me. We have a lot going on, for
example, through Plympton-Wyoming. It's
going through the core of our business
section.
And I'm concerned about the traffic
and the amount of traffic that's going
through. So, I'm just wondering where we
go from here. Do who do we talk to
because this is a concern
for the safety of our residents going
through this area. Thank you, Warden.
» Thank you, Councilor Atkinson. I'd look
to Mr. Cole if he has any comments on
that. Please.
» Thank you. Through through you, Warden,
to Councilor Atkinson. Um yeah, it is
concerning that we haven't heard
directly from York 1 at the county
level. Uh we were involved in previous
communications regarding that that
landfill project. And
we have received a traffic and routing
study that uh
that that
the municipality of Chatham-Kent had
provided to us in advance of their
presentation to the community last week,
week before.
Um we are looking at that and have
endeavored to join with them on further
discussions regarding routing of that
project the way it stands now. Um
through their community and and ours.
So, we we look forward to get together
with them to have our own opportunity to
review that and provide comments back.
» Follow up, Councilor Atkinson.
» Thank you, Mr. Cole. Yeah, thank you,
Warden. Through you to Mr. Cole, I thank
you very much for that information, but
if you do you some backup or if you need
some encouragement, we're there for you
as well. And I'm sure the other mayors
from the other municipalities that are
going to be affected by it as well would
certainly love to be of assistance as
well.
Thank you.
» Thank you. Council Broad.
» Thank you, Warden Marriott. I attended
the meeting in Dresden. Uh when it got
to the traffic study, it's showing
approximately 10% will be coming from
the north. Whether that's down 21
Highway, 80 Highway to 21, I'm not
really sure
uh what the route will be cuz again it's
just a study. It doesn't say they have
to do it. To me, the big question is on
the York 1's information there, they
showed 200 trucks a day.
Well, 10% of 200 trucks a day is a lot
different than 10% of the 700 trucks a
day that they were asking for a
previous. So, unfortunately, we don't
know whether it's a 200 or whether it's
a 700. Uh 10% 200 lot different than the
10% of 700. So, um and don't expect York
1 to send you any information. If you
want any information, you got to track
it down yourself because uh York 1 isn't
doing a very good job with the
information. And to be quite honest, you
can blame a lot of that on the province
of Ontario because they did not want the
environmental assessment done and this
is what happens. Now you get little bits
and pieces of information. So, um yeah.
If if it's a 10%
if we have to, we can kind of live with
that. But again, is it 200 or 700? Thank
you.
» Thank you for that, Council Broad.
Any other comments before I close the
conversation?
Seeing none,
is there
any other business today?
Seeing none, I would turn to Ms. Leger
for notice of bylaws, please.
» Thank you, Warden Marriott. It is moved
by Councillor Ferguson, seconded by
Councillor Hand that bylaws 15 and 16 of
2026 as circulated be taken as read for
a first and second time.
» All in favor.
That's carried.
» It is moved by Councillor Ferguson,
seconded by Councillor Hahn, that bylaws
15 and 16 of 2026 as circulated be taken
as read for a third and final time.
» All in favor.
That's carried. Thank you.
At this time, I have number 18, I'll
look for a motion to adjourn with the
next meeting of Lambton County Council
to be held September the 2nd at 9:00
a.m.
Councillor Loosley moves.
And Councillor Bean seconds. All in
favor.
That's carried.
Before we go to O Canada, just remind
that on September the 2nd following
County Council, it will be the annual
luncheon for councillors, uh, hosted by
St. Clair.
Please join me with O Canada.
» O [music]
Canada,
our home and native land.
True
» [music]
» Patriot [singing] love
in all of us command.
With glowing [music and singing] hearts
we see thee rise, the True North strong
[singing]
free.
From far [music]
and wide, O Canada,
we stand [singing]
on guard for [music] thee.
God keep our
land
» [music]
» Glorious and free.
O [music] Canada,
now we stand on guard
for thee.
» [music]
» O
Canada,
» [singing]
» We stand on
guard
for
» [music]
» Thee.