Bancroft council met on Tuesday June 3rd, with a relatively light schedule. The day began with two very informative and promising presentations. The first was by local Health Unit staff Susan Mullaly and Tanya Hill, on the “Healthy Communities Declaration” from the Healthy Community Partnership. Mullaly and Hill explained that the Partnership is promoting healthy eating and active living. They are asking communities to sign the declaration indicating the municipality’s intent to include consideration of accessibility to local healthy foods, good affordable housing, quality health care and accessible transportation. Council passed a motion to endorse the Healthy Communities Declaration and he Sustainable Bancroft Committee announced it is already working to include local food availability into its mandate.
The second presentation to Bancroft Council was made by entrepreneur Lenore Berman of Haliburton. She presented “The Land Between” as a new identity for our region. Berman described the “Land Between” as the stretch of Ontario where the Canadian Shield and the St. Lawrence Lowlands overlap. This area, which includes Bancroft, is a very unique environment with many unique plant and animal species and geographic areas. The Land Between seeks to conserve and promote the area. They have a huge database of information about this region available by book, social media and the internet. Council was impressed with the detail available for promoting the area with a unique identity. More information is available by logging onto www.thelandbetween.ca
Bancroft Council finalized its decision to step out of the Canada Day celebrations in favour of supporting the “Wheels, Water and Wings” event. Council was informed that there are plans to possibly include an antique farm implement display and that the Warriors Day Group in Coe Hill are wanting to also display some of their military vehicles during the Wheels, Water and Wings event. Mayor Jenkins commented about how appropriate that would be in light of this being the 100th Anniversary of World War One. Council passed a motion to allow the controlled sale of alcohol on Friday and Saturday of the Wheels, Water and Wings celebration. Events committee chair John Kirby thanked Tracy McGibbon and Liz Ingils again for taking up the challenge to organize Bancroft’s Canada Day activities.
Council was presented with the annual Bancroft Drinking Water System report for 2013. All indications are that the system is working well.
A request came from Habitat for Humanity for the donation of a piece of surplus land for future building of a new home. Mayor Jenkins expressed an understanding that after the first piece of land was donated several years ago, any future parcels would be purchased by Habitat. The Deputy Mayor, Wayne Wiggins, concurred with the Mayor’s recollection and the matter was referred to the Planning Committee.
Other items on the agenda included a request for financial assistance for flood relief from Central Algoma, a request for nominations for the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship and also a request for nominations to the College of Physicians and Surgeons for recognition of outstanding Doctors in our area. The council filed the request from Central Algoma and decided that the nominations for Citizenship and outstanding Doctors are best left to the general public to make. Citizenship nominations can be made by going to www.ontario.ca/honoursandawards. Information on nominations for the Doctors’ Recognition can be found by emailing Sharon Thompson at [email protected]