Erin council considers creation of new committees

Erin citizens requested the creation of new committees at the Dec. 16 Town of Erin council meeting.

They asked for the creation of new committees for renewable and alternative energy and economic development.

Jay Mowat and Liz Armstrong from Transition Erin addressed the need for a renewable and alternative energy committee in Erin.

They identified other municipalities, like the Town of Minto and the City of Guelph, that are incorporating renewable and alternative energy sources into their town.

Mowat reminded the councillors of their answers at an all candidates meeting when asked about the committee.

“Every candidate answered in the affirmative, with one suggestion that this task could be undertaken by the environment committee,” he said. “But everybody, every candidate, said this was a good idea.”

Councillor Rob Smith said he’s concerned that it would be too similar to the environmental advisory committee already in place.

“A lot of those people [are] within the same scope, so you’re going to water down one committee and it’s probably going to get to the point where one’s going to kill the other one, so the decision has to really be made that way,” he aid

In the end Mayor Allan Alls suggested Transition Erin come back with terms of reference for what they want the committee to accomplish.

“I think there’s a general interest within the council to do something with it but we need to narrow it down and also need to look at what the environmental committee is doing in the town.”

Bob Cheetham, economic development coordinator, presented the terms for an economic development committee.

He said the only financial impact will be advertising in the two papers because people will need to indicate if they’re interested in being appointed by Jan. 14. All other costs will be bore through the economic development budget plus $1,000 needed in 2015 to gather the committee, he said.

Councillor Jeff Duncan said members of the town need to step forward for change.

“The timing for this is so right for right now,” councillor John Brennan added. “We have an opportunity to leverage the county investment, we have an opportunity to piggyback on some other efforts that have gone on in the county to get ourselves up to speed much more quickly.”

 

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