With concerns about costs and its effectiveness, council voted to not host council meetings in various Chatham-Kent communities in the next few years.
A motion to host council meetings in various Chatham-Kent communities in the next few years, including Blenheim and Ridgetown in 2024, was defeated by a 6-11 vote.
Moving five council meetings to outside of Chatham would have cost the municipality approximately $23,000.
A pilot meeting was held in Tilbury in 2019 and further meetings were cancelled due to the pandemic.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said it’s important for council to decide if there is a benefit of holding council meetings in places like Dresden and Wallaceburg, or if the idea was even something area residents were interested in.
“Everything I’ve heard back, I’m not sure many people care,” Canniff said. “I could be wrong, but I didn’t hear from anybody and certainly councillors as a whole didn’t hear anything. So I think we saved $23,000.”
Councillor Melissa Harrigan said she heard from Tilbury residents that the consensus was that while they appreciated having a council meeting, perhaps it would be a better idea to host public engagement sessions that focused on specific Tilbury issues.
