Wallaceburg will be used as a pilot project looking into Chatham-Kent buildings and properties.

Administration will prepare a divestment and rationalization report in the upcoming year for discussion and to look at lessons learned during the process.

Councillor Melissa Harrigan says the project was initially meant to look at all of Chatham-Kent’s assets all at once.

“The goal of the original motion was to help staff to have a better framework for divestment and to make sure that when we’re considering to divest an asset that all considerations are taking into account,” Harrigan says. “Things like safety and agriculture and business and the environment, which may not be things we typically consider when divesting assets.”

However, Harrigan says that broad of a scope would be very  costly.

Municipal assets are a timely issue in Wallaceburg with Councillor Aaron Hall’s proposal to create a community hub with a number of local groups and services under one roof.

When the Wallaceburg report comes back, Harrigan says they’ll be able to see how the process went and determine next steps from there.