[0:00] good okay so continuing on uh Municipal of uh SAS public meeting for Wednesday

[0:07] June 19th uh this is the opportunity for public input there are comments for uh

[0:14] on the Strategic plan so uh if anybody has a comment please stop over to the

[0:18] mic so we can have it uh recorded uh we're taking notes and just state your

[0:22] name and just the where you're from within the community or outside the

[0:25] community uh so we uh we have an idea where you're from so open put it up to

[0:29] anybody just just for clarification we're just

[0:33] going to receive the comments we're not here to debate or anything like that

[0:37] okay no I mean if there's a question we can answer a question but yeah no it's

[0:41] about taking the input and then you know getting it into our plan or discussing

[0:45] it or adding it on for sure yeah yeah good question that for sure

[1:01] good day my name is James guest I have just recently about three years ago

[1:05] moved into this community um my background was military

[1:10] and every time I ever heard the words mission statement it always referred to

[1:13] whose mission it was is this mission statement you're coming up with the

[1:17] mission statement for the board and the administrators within the offices here

[1:24] so we uh uh and the rest of my question is if it is then why don't we see the

[1:31] words transparency and um what's the other one

[1:36] go with that transparency and accountability and

[1:40] any sort of a mission statement uh I think those are important

[1:45] things and that's just something to think about yeah no thanks James I'll

[1:50] just yeah I'll just make one comment on on that was uh we did do a public survey

[1:54] so we did take information from the public survey as well so uh yeah so it's

[1:59] it's the community and the board and the staff's idea of

[2:04] Mr good feedback thank you for that

[2:16] James other comments anybody

[2:31] good even May BR I'm just curious i' I'm been a resident of of South thass since

[2:37] 1981 and I've always heard about the beauty of this area that's why my father

[2:41] moved here because of all the opportunity um I was curious do you guys

[2:47] have plans to monetize the Waterfront U like anything that could be

[2:51] set up down there to encourage people to come and maybe have picnics and

[2:56] barbecues and I'd also be curious that who do I speak to in regards to to the

[3:00] investment for investors you guys have an investment

[3:04] group yeah so uh yeah so uh uh on on the waterfront so

[3:10] we do have two Waterfront committees one in each community of Morrisburg has up

[3:14] done that and they meet uh jointly so that's the uh the group that uh organize

[3:20] or promote events back through the council uh the team so things within the

[3:25] Waterfront could go through you know the counselor Veno and his committee you

[3:29] take ideas through to them and activities yeah so both uh both

[3:35] Waterfront committees and morberg both accept delegations and uh since I've

[3:40] been doing it I haven't had one yet so I would really like to if you have some uh

[3:44] input yes we'd love to hear it um um it's an ideal location for festivals

[3:51] like so many people I'm also vice president of the African Caribbean

[3:54] cultural Society so I see a lot of people they when I when they find out

[3:59] I'm from morb they're always asking do they have this do they have that will

[4:02] they be open to this and I'm like well I can ask can I get your name sorry Marcus

[4:07] Grant Marcus thanks Marcus could we get your contact

[4:12] info that up yeah yeah definitely have delegation or waterfronts and get them

[4:17] all rolling on activities and as far as investment uh or CIO and economic

[4:21] development uh people can reach out to you for sure there was there's land on

[4:26] the other side of the waste treatment that's available

[4:34] [Laughter]

[4:46] yeah any other comments comments from uh staff as well uh you know what we put

[4:51] together we had a training event okay well yeah come I was just going to say

[4:55] from staff too if there's any inputs or comments think

[5:01] my name is John Saunders I'm the owner of SE CF

[5:06] bu something is vitally important to business now is highspeed internet is it

[5:13] on the docket is it in the works it attracts business if you don't

[5:18] have highspeed internet makes it very difficult to

[5:21] do web comerce right so yeah no uh it is part of the eastern Ontario region for

[5:29] that but I think we should make that an activity line that we discuss further

[5:33] details so that that's good input for sure um I know we we have that at some

[5:38] of our uh rural areas that don't have a lot of broadband so I think that's

[5:43] something we should add to our action plan uh based based

[5:47] on it makes education opportunities for younger people uh connects older people

[5:54] with their distant families so but when you got dial up and you get travel back

[5:58] at 6 o00

[6:01] yeah oh for sure no we could we can have that as in our actions he understand

[6:06] what what what U what we have today and and how we can do better I guess no it

[6:13] it really is a fair point I mean the expansion of high speed and fiber is is

[6:17] very important to us so that is something we should probably focus on

[6:22] here as well so I think that is there is there's a

[6:25] place for that for sure well that fair point for sure we'll

[6:30] make sure it's on

[6:33] the uh yes thank you mayor brought through you so we do have a delegation

[6:38] um coming to our July 17th council meeting and it's uh Rogers and they will

[6:43] be presenting uh their plan to expand their wireless network in uh South

[6:48] Dundas um and there's also a public meeting um that they've uh sent notices

[6:54] to uh will be in on June 29th um so I can connect with you after

[7:00] the meeting if that's something you want to attend I can share the details with

[7:03] you

[7:07] cool any other comments

[7:15] input man so I can elaborate elaborate a little bit more on the uh highspeed um

[7:22] question that was just posed so through the infrastructure Ontario uh program um

[7:28] they've introduced what they're calling the accelerated high-speed internet

[7:31] program and they're focusing out in the rural areas for bringing fiber um that's

[7:37] why if you've noticed you've seen um new poles in installed on Coons Road uh

[7:42] Snowbird Road anyways they're focusing on said said roads to kind of connect

[7:48] the rural to to the high-speed world through the fiber world so I'm receiving

[7:53] numerous uh I'm the director of Transportation so I look after the

[7:56] roadside so I'm receiving numerous drawings

[8:00] on roads that they're implementing um through that program so that is another

[8:05] step forward for so dund they are in North Dundas they are in South Stormont

[8:10] um they're coming this way but it's focusing on the rural area not so much

[8:15] in The Villages of Morrisburg or arqua or even Williamsburg so over time it

[8:20] will get there it's just with the Fiers side it's just not there yet but they

[8:24] are they are coming this way so just s off a little bit more information on

[8:29] that if so again that should probably be a focus of our councils to to try to

[8:33] drive that

[8:37] yep good if we want business y yeah I know I have three internets in my place

[8:43] and it still sucks perhaps May that could be part of

[8:47] our growth Corridor SE we can't establish a new grow corrid if we don't

[8:51] haveu so

[9:11] hi my name is Sandra doy I'm a member of this community and I've lived in

[9:15] Morrisburg now for almost 35 years um I agree with most of the statements that

[9:20] are in here it is a great place to live there's no doubt about it but I really

[9:24] don't think I could give any additional comment on the report

[9:27] itself the St are are generous and kind and all the

[9:33] positive thoughts of it but for me there isn't enough detail to be able to say

[9:37] it's a good strategy or not and the one item that's missing from all of this is

[9:41] the price tag which always makes a difference and how exactly are even to

[9:45] cover that price tag is it through Federal uh payments is it from

[9:49] provincial payments is it fundraising you know it's it's all very

[9:54] important to have all that information so it's like when you ask someone are

[9:58] you in World PE the only answer is going to be yes so I just wanted to say it's a

[10:04] good beginning but I find it very high level and there's really not enough need

[10:08] for me to comment down on thank you yeah okay cool thank you for

[10:14] that just a comment uh yeah totally totally understood that that these are

[10:18] the pillars to work from and then that should drive our work so the price dat

[10:22] comes from uh our our budgeting right in our budgeting sessions on what we can

[10:27] afford on a yearly basis uh but these are the activities on where we want to

[10:31] improve on as well right thinking those things well yeah no definitely and I

[10:35] think as actions become uh or the words become actions statements and then we'll

[10:40] see uh more details on on the work ahead but understood understood the the

[10:45] comment for

[10:52] sure good evening good evening I'm Emily Moss I uh spent my formative years here

[10:57] in morber live for two decades and moved back last year raising a young family

[11:02] here very happy to be back uh thanks for all the work so far just a couple of

[11:06] questions about the business Vision you have for morberg or the economic

[11:10] development of the the businesses in town uh there's a comment of I think

[11:14] four to six businesses by 2026 a business can be a sole proprietor at of

[11:18] a home it can be a national franchise that opens next to Horton um do you have

[11:24] a vision for what the future of morberg looks like as we grow the business

[11:28] landscap here so what um you know what type of

[11:33] business yeah so I mean certainly uh you know a what becomes available so we do

[11:39] know uh a lot of companies uh have scorecards right and they only come to

[11:45] an area you know when those scores meet uh a specific uh trigger right so so

[11:51] from a franchise you or business that you know you know they kind of go hand

[11:55] in hand on the growth of residents come come new business add a bit more context

[12:00] uh some of the small towns I've spent time in prior to moving back to morberg

[12:04] had very different approaches to their growth um I can think of most recently

[12:09] outside of Ottawa we can take Elmont if anyone's familiar with that very much

[12:13] prioritizes a homegrown no big box stores uh keep keep everything kind of

[12:19] local and really optimize the friendly feeling of the Town versus Carlton Place

[12:24] which has embraced more of a subb feel a lot more box stores um very different

[12:29] approach to growth so I'm just wondering if there is a vision or if you do see

[12:34] yourselves prioritizing One Direction Over another because it does influence

[12:38] the type of businesses that you would be willing to attract

[12:41] yourself so we have not and we're going to take public opinion on that over the

[12:47] next 30 days sure so let's get so a good comment on the question we should ask

[12:52] yeah yeah um another piece of feedback based on the brochure documentation um

[12:57] the page that references diversity and inclusion I would recommend that we

[13:03] include some photos that may show a bit more diversity of skin color ethnicity

[13:08] uh other than just there diversity in age um but maybe showing some women

[13:14] playing hockey uh just a bit more diversity and inclusion or uh

[13:18] representation of the retired folks playing with the children or a merchant

[13:24] diversity of of businesses that already do exist in town so Merchants with their

[13:28] Pat as opposed to what's there as very good yes thanks so much good feedback

[13:34] thank you for

[13:43] that any other

[13:52] comments any comments for final from staff final comments from Council

[14:03] team thank you mayor broad no I I I love hearing all the uh all the feedback

[14:09] certainly um we we can get into a little bit more details on our plan and I think

[14:14] that is kind of important for us uh because because if we want to show uh

[14:19] the public what our kind of our measurables are we should maybe try to

[14:23] expand this a little bit so I really appreciate all the input uh that's been

[14:28] provided I also uh want to say thank you to the people

[14:31] who put this together because I think it is really a good draft uh and uh there's

[14:36] a lot of hard work I mean we did been a couple of sessions already going through

[14:40] this so I think there has been a lot of hard work by a lot of people close

[14:44] together so I just want to say thank you to St for pulling this together thank

[14:47] you to the people for uh actually showing up we should have more public

[14:51] meeting this is our biggest uh biggest host here so yeah I just look forward to

[14:55] listening to our committees and getting uh some comments back and feed your

[14:59] committees to refine this and getting this actually publicized thank you just

[15:04] on the business piece because I really liked Emily's comment there um I think

[15:09] we need to look at you know exactly what type businesss we want like you

[15:13] mentioned and what goes with that is we can look at our strengths of whether

[15:17] it's our geographic location you know between mon aut one Toronto the 401

[15:21] Corridor the Seaway and that's more industrial looking but then also look at

[15:25] the strengths of our population or like our populace that we have here our

[15:27] Workforce and uh and then also what the community wants to see for businesses

[15:33] because you know we can have distribution centers like Cornwall and

[15:38] lost villes or lost Villages uh long suo um Prescott or not we can go a different

[15:46] direction too so I think that's a very good point that we really need to nail

[15:49] down what kind of business that we do want here and then we can focus on

[15:54] attracting that educ business so we should be looking at things

[15:59] that's that's a good point

[16:04] absolutely thank you everybody who's giving the comments tonight um I wasn't

[16:08] exactly sure what we were going to expect in the in the comments uh uh

[16:12] everything's been very positive U everybody who was up tonight I would

[16:16] like to have them working on our side if possible a lot of great feedback there

[16:22] um whenever we did our uh water Wastewater rate capacity study um we

[16:29] realiz it we're really set up very good here for future growth and I don't know

[16:35] if everybody realizes exactly how good how good we have it here uh we were at a

[16:40] conference I think it was the good roads conference we were at back in April end

[16:44] of April was and we saw Municipal groups from all over the

[16:50] province uh going in for delegations for to Cabinet ministers looking for money

[16:56] for water plants facilities and it was just one after the

[17:02] other after the other after the other and then and that just got us or got me

[17:05] to realize just exactly how good set up we we are here so um I don't know if

[17:10] everybody knows that but it's it's it's it's only good for

[17:15] here excellent thanks and just to expand on that uh

[17:20] counselor uh I agree with you on the whole hardly the issue though it it goes

[17:25] back to the comments about uh the cost um we've got it in house but we need to

[17:31] get that water and that sanitary sewer pipes to somewhere so we can kind of

[17:37] grow and that's really where the provincial government needs to step up

[17:41] and and provide some funding to help us do that I mean we know we can go um to

[17:46] the east we know we can continue going to the West so um that it all stems back

[17:52] from yeah we have the capacity we need the money to grow uh and that's where we

[17:58] you know mayor brod and I and and Council needs to continuously uh visit

[18:03] MVP noan Quinn's office uh and get and get us s the BS for some funding to help

[18:08] us with that growth as well so I I agree with what you're saying it is expanded

[18:15] so can the W I'll just say my final my final piece here so I appreciate

[18:20] everyone coming out tonight um maybe you didn't want to share some of your

[18:23] feedback but hopefully you'll share it uh with staff you can always email I I

[18:27] assume that the emails on the website so you can certainly share it at that time

[18:31] um and hopefully that the people listening or watching in the future can

[18:34] share their feedback as well I think it's really important that as a

[18:38] community that you do provide your feedback Council listens to you but we

[18:42] can only listen to what is said to us so if you're not telling us what you want

[18:46] it's really hard for us to know where we where we can go next as a community and

[18:50] I think Community connections are super important and I think that's highlighted

[18:54] well in our document um I really appreciate the feedback there's

[18:57] definitely some ideas we think of and that's why these sessions are extremely

[19:01] important um so again thank you for attending um thank you to staff for

[19:05] putting this together and thank you for attending the multiple sessions that it

[19:09] took to get to this document I think um to the the one uh the one comment from

[19:14] Sandra you know it doesn't it doesn't seem like it contains a lot of

[19:18] information but mayor broad what what he hasn't shown you what you can't see

[19:21] right now is the endless amount of documents that staff have basically

[19:25] taken it and make it made it smaller so maybe we can share some of that

[19:28] information so people can see that finite details that we had talked about

[19:34] um one of the things I I wanted to mention too and to counselor Smith's

[19:38] Point um you know we're in a really good position right now but um as someone who

[19:43] knows that that can quickly change and into Miss moren's point of growth needs

[19:46] to be controlled and and controlled growth in the right spot is is what we

[19:50] really need we need to be careful too we need to plan for the future right so we

[19:53] might be in a good spot now we can track all the development we want but what are

[19:57] we going to do and to your point reinvesting that development that tax

[20:00] based growth that's something that maybe we should get a lot of feedback from the

[20:04] public where do you want to see that that tax based growth reinvested too do

[20:08] you want to see it reinvested in infrastructure do you want to see it

[20:10] reinvested in service level increases because at some point we probably won't

[20:14] be in that position we probably won't have good uh infrastructure so something

[20:19] to keep in mind I think um hopefully you guys can give us some feedback on that

[20:24] but I really appreciate everyone's attendance and I I really appreciate

[20:27] Council working together too it was really great exercise for all of us I

[20:31] think thanks thank you uh yeah so final words as we'll wrap up tonight's meeting

[20:37] uh yes yes come

[20:41] on mik Mike Thomson Mike I'm just wondering the committee who's on the

[20:48] committee are any businesses uh which committee the for this whole uh

[20:55] so yes so strategic strategic plan right so uh we all are we we all are so the uh

[21:04] you mean one one committee um uh that certainly will work about you as input

[21:10] to it is the economic and Tourism Committee right which uh you know on

[21:14] that committee is Jeff Pops from Ross video Ryan Gilmore from Gilmore

[21:19] Pharmacy uh Donnie B Canada Playhouse uh s Al

[21:25] Peters right former chamber uh so that's you know that group but it's it's really

[21:31] uh you know and the the committee all the other committees have input to to

[21:35] the council so it's everybody's combined input but any any public members like

[21:42] taxpayers well they're all tax they're all they're all taxpayers

[21:47] there's no there's no committee we've taken input there's no committee that's

[21:51] designed this we just taken all the input yeah first I've heard about

[21:55] this uh so uh we we did surveys in the fall I the survey right so that's that's

[22:02] public opinion right so during the survey you answer 50 questions of all

[22:06] the things you want to see and then we compile that data into what people want

[22:10] to see can someone like myself get on the committee there is no there's no

[22:15] strategic plan committee what what mayor BR is saying is we're going to bring

[22:19] this plan that staff and Council created we're going to bring that to our

[22:23] Economic and Development Committee for specific feedback and our Waterfront

[22:28] committee and other committees that's being generated their committee councils

[22:32] that you you used to sit on the morberg waterfront committee years ago which was

[22:36] a committee of councel they're the committee councils we're referring to to

[22:40] get some more feedback so we're having this general public and then we're

[22:44] specifically going to the Committees that's been already been developed okay

[22:47] but anyway if you have any input we're we're open to any input for sure well it

[22:51] was well written I didn't understand it it wasn't down to my education level

[22:57] right so I think the next the next Fe the the process is uh we wanted to we

[23:01] wanted input on this is you know uh are these the pillars do we want operational

[23:07] excellence right yes or no right if we do then let's show all the actions we

[23:11] can do to have operational excellence right do we want to have sustainable

[23:15] growth right uh controlled sustainable growth uh yes we do okay so what are all

[23:19] the actions so that'll be like the next piece that we'll go and and stop and

[23:23] start working now we've done some of the work like the water study we thought

[23:27] that was really important so we already done that so those are be the next

[23:29] pieces but we want to make sure that you know this is you know what we felt from

[23:34] the survey and and what the pillars were we're going to work from that's how we

[23:38] kind of that's how it kind of kind of works as the process for sure sure

[23:40] enough but I think your input is on the actions right and we're totally open to

[23:45] actions uh and like our econ our Economic and Development Committee is

[23:50] open to the public so we'll send you an invite if you're interested to come to

[23:53] to the meeting I've already been to one meeting okay but oh yeah for sure yeah I

[23:58] know that yeah yeah oh absolutely yeah that's right you came yeah so for sure

[24:02] so okay definitely take input at any time uh feedback is welcome for sure

[24:06] very yeah thank you thanks thanks for clarifying that particular

[24:12] piece yes I kind of described what the next steps were moving forward so

[24:17] certainly uh you know we we posted the document uh we want to take feedback

[24:22] over the next two or three weeks uh and our July 12th July 12th I think is our

[24:26] next uh well 17 1 July 17th council meeting we'll come back and approve what

[24:32] the pillars are uh and then we'll start to work on the action so over the next

[24:36] uh three weeks any input onto that you know some of the comments we're going to

[24:39] add some new verbiage and it's a dynamic plan so it's not static that we're going

[24:44] to print a thousand hard copies and this is you know what we're going to live by

[24:47] it's Dynamic right so as we'll move along and we'll we'll we'll we'll focus

[24:53] on we have some work to do on what type of business we want right there's work

[24:55] to do to create all the actions underneath and those are what you're

[24:59] going to see at Future Council meetings or or or announcements right are the

[25:04] actions that that that go with

[25:09] the options that go with the pillars that we' listed

[25:18] in I don't think he likes you yeah it was an

[25:23] agreement very good okay well we'll uh

[25:29] uh last comment we be thank you everybody for attending tonight thanks

[25:32] for staff counsel uh thanks for everybody in attendance for your

[25:35] comments and coming tonight and uh look forward to our next steps in our

[25:38] strategic plan so good night

Municipality of South Dundas - Public Meeting- Strategic Plan (Part Two) June 19, 2024

Transcript