Council Highlights - October 5, 2020

View the full agenda package for Council

Active Transportation Committee update

Chair of the Pelham Active Transportation Committee (PATC) Bea Clark presented an update to Council, highlighting the PATC Master Plan and the Committee's four main priorities. Clark noted that the Master Plan requires regular review and assessment to ensure progress, reflect changing conditions, update budget planning, and ensure milestones are met and celebrated. In 2018, Council approved a review of progress to-date. The PATC members volunteered to assist in the review. A high-level review was completed in June 2020.

Clark, on behalf of the PATC, requested that Council accept the high-level review of the AT Master Plan and support the following four priorities:

Complete a sidewalk gap analysis
Move forward with wayfinding and signage
Continue to review progress on the ATMP
Ensure capital budget allocations are included in the long-term capital budget plan to incrementally address items outlined in the ATMP

Sanitary Sewer Diversion at Summersides and Station Street

As part of the East Fonthill development, the Summersides Boulevard road construction project originally included constructing a roundabout at the intersection of Station Street, Summersides Boulevard, and Pelham Town Square. Council deferred the roundabout construction to 2023; however, there are some sanitary sewer improvements required at this intersection to free up capacity at the Region's Hurricane Road pumping station and allow development to continue in East Fonthill north of Meridian Way.

The delay in undertaking the sanitary sewer diversion work at Station Street and Summersides Boulevard has meant that servicing capacity with regards to sanitary sewers may not be available to these lands and puts the Town at significant risk and will result in an undue delay for these two development projects which does not benefit the Town.

As a result, Pelham staff recommended proceeding with the sanitary sewer diversion at Summersides and Station Street now to make use of the materials that have already been purchased and provide relief to the existing sanitary sewer system currently near capacity, which would allow the developments in East Fonthill to proceed.

The improvements will help resolve back up and flooding issues in the Hurricane Road sewer shed and help alleviate sewer capacity concerns in the College and Emmet area resulting from extraneous flows infiltrating system based on the age condition of the sewer.

Staff recommended that the additional work to complete the sanitary sewer diversion project be awarded to Beam Excavating Inc. for $40,000 (excluding HST) and that the current scope of work to complete improvements at the intersection be amended to include the additional work.

Council approved the funds, however, directed staff to follow the Town's purchasing policy for the selection of the successful contractor to complete the sanitary sewer diversion project at Summersides Boulevard and Station Street.

Council seeks support on cannabis costs

Councillor Lisa Haun sought and gained Council's support in petitioning multiple levels of government for assistance in the Town's costs of developing a municipal cannabis regulatory framework and the court challenges faced as a result. The full motion reads:

Be it resolved that Pelham Town Council endorse the following resolutions as matters of highest priority:

WHEREAS the Town of Pelham is a municipality of fewer than 18,000 persons;

AND WHEREAS the Town has already spent in excess of $100,000 in legal and professional fees in developing a municipal, cannabis (which includes industrial hemp) regulatory framework and is bearing the entire cost of seven separate proceedings against that framework before the Superior Court of Justice, the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board, and/or the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal ("LPAT"), which are currently estimated to cost the taxpayer over $300,000 to litigate;

AND WHEREAS hundreds of residents have suffered ongoing adverse effects (particularly light and odour pollution) from cannabis facilities in the Town, and the Town will have to incur ongoing enforcement costs in order to have any hope of mitigating these adverse effects;

AND WHEREAS the Town of Pelham is not the only municipality in Niagara, or in Ontario, that has suffered these adverse effects from these cannabis facilities which operate on an industrial scale;

AND WHEREAS at present residents of the Town of Pelham are on track to pay 100% of the costs of civil cases that are precedential in nature and will impact neighbouring communities, all of Niagara, and ultimately have a provincial impact;

NOW THEREFORE Pelham Town Council formally requests that the Region of Niagara seek "Party" status in the various LPAT proceedings that have been initiated by Woodstock Biomed Inc., CannTrust Holdings and Redecan Pharm as against Town of Pelham. As a Party, the Region can offer direct evidence, planning expertise and testimony in support of the Town of Pelham's recently amended Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw, which were adjusted with the approval of Regional Staff;

AND FURTHER Pelham Town Council requests that Member of Provincial Parliament Sam Oosterhoff be requested to champion the Town's plight with the Provincial Government so as to result in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing seeking "Party" status in the various LPAT proceedings that have been initiated by Woodstock Biomed Inc., CannTrust Holdings and Redecan Pharm as against Town of Pelham and a financial contribution from the Provincial Government towards the Town's litigation costs in recognition of the broader provincial public interest being represented;

AND FURTHER that Niagara West MP Dean Allison be requested to champion the Town of Pelham's plight in the legislature (after it recommences sitting) and further pressure Health Canada to satisfy its own obligations with respect to enforcement of standards and regulations as they pertain to odour emissions from cannabis facilities, including providing a financial contribution towards the Town's litigation and enforcement costs in recognition of the broader public interest being represented.

AND FURTHER that Niagara West MP Dean Allison be requested to obtain a clear and satisfactory answer from Health Canada as to why, after a year since CannTrust Holdings has acknowledged growing cannabis in a manner that contravened its license, no penalty or fine has been formally levied nor have charges been laid.

AND FURTHER Pelham Town Council formally requests that the City of Welland and the City of Thorold each be asked to voluntarily contribute $15,000 (which represents 5% of the estimated litigation costs) towards defense of the aforementioned legal actions as Pelham has received complaints from residents of both those municipalities pertaining to light and/or smell associated with the industrial production of Cannabis.