Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Meeting with Minister Duguid scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Toronto

Thank you to everyone who sent an email or letter to Minister Duguid requesting consideration for the OCIF grant from the Village.  The Minister  has scheduled a meeting with me next week.  If you haven’t sent your email yet, please follow through as your concerns need to be heard by the Minister.

I would appreciate having a copy of all your emails/letters as I intend to have them with me at the meeting – so please send them to me if you haven’t already done so.

When the grant was turned down on February 5th, I also sent letters to the Minister of the Environment, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.  These three ministries and the Ministry of Infrastructure are the four that overlap in their responsibilities for the municipality.

Glenn Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change and Ted McMeekin, Minister of Municipal Affairs have committed to meeting with me – those dates are still being arranged.

I will take with me into the meetings the knowledge that the thoughts and needs of all 672 residents and those who work and play in the Village are with me.  Westport has such a strong spirit.  I am proud to be your Mayor.

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54 cm – Record 1-day Snowfall

Wow!  I think we can all come up for air now.  Schools are open today.  Sun is shining and the temperature is “February cold”.  Thanks to Mr Charby and Mr Jackson for working so hard to get the streets open Tuesday night and working on widening them on Wednesday.  Still lots of work to do on the roads.  I spoke to the gents yesterday and the sidewalks are going to be a challenge.  We will see how what progress they make later today.  Perhaps the warm weather on Saturday will help.  In the meantime, please be careful when walking on the roads.

I also noted, like many of you, huge piles of snow moved onto the streets from private property.  I will be hosting  a meeting in the next couple of weeks with business owners and snow plow operators to discuss options of how we can work together to manage large snowfalls in the future.

Final word on this snow event is FUN!  The children (of all ages) hadn’t had any snow related activities yet this winter, so 2 “snow days” helped make up for that!

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FILL THE RINK – THANKS TO FOTA

On Friday night (Feb 12), the rink was filled with the FOTA volunteers and donors, whose hard work and generosity was recognized by the Rideaus and the community.  It was a special occasion as AVIVA was on site to present FOTA with the $50,000 cheque for receiving the winning number of votes from hard working (and voting) folks earlier this season.

Councillor Ron Pollard, Township of Rideau Lakes, and I had a Mayor challenge during the 1st and 2nd period.  The young’uns – and I do mean young – the 4-6 year olds played a 10 minute game and Ron and I each took a different team to coach.  I am not certain that the goals were recorded, but the winners were each of the girls and boys who took to the rink and made their moms, dads and coaches proud!

To all who have donated your time, effort and money to FOTA, thank you for your commitment to our community.

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Mayor’s Challenge – Feb 12-16 “Coach” Mayor Jones calling encouragement to her “team”.
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Here is the information requested by many of you

Several community members and other interested parties have asked for information on how they can let the government know of their shock and disapproval about its refusal to provide Westport with the OCIF grant and specifically have asked for some assistance in authoring the letter.

There are 4 Ministers who’s responsibilities overlap somewhat in relation to the OCIF grants, environment and infrastructure.  I recommend sending correspondence to Minister B Duguid.  Here are his details.

Ministry
Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure
8th Floor, Hearst Block
900 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2E1
Tel
416-325-6900
Fax
416-325-6918

The following paragraphs are only suggestions for your correspondence.  Please know that we are indebted to each person who takes the time to share their disappointment with the government’s decision to deny the OCIF grant.

The Village of Westport continues to confront an environmental and public health crisis. The municipal wastewater system is unable to dispose of necessary volumes of effluent to prevent storage overflow and costly haulage of effluent has already been required this winter. Village Council and staff, working hand in hand with the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, have taken several major steps toward correcting this situation. Now, with the engineering solution in sight as a result of an environmental assessment process, the Village’s OCIF capital grant application was turned down.

The townspeople of this small village do not have the money to cover the major costs of this work. The problem continues to be an urgent one from both a public health and environmental point of view. Capital funding assistance is essential to eliminate this imminent threat and I am asking you to reconsider the application from the Village of Westport.