A reiteration at the city council meeting this past Monday (Nov. 18) that The INN is not the answer to homelessness, it is strictly an emergency shelter.
The point was driven home – again – by Danielle Neilson, the city’s Manager of Housing Stability Services during a discussion of The INN’s ongoing operating budget.
It generated a bevy of questions from council members, kicked off by Coun. Steve Peters requesting clarification on the financial role of ElginCountyy.
“In our role as the social service provider and the housing provider on behalf of the County of Elgin, if at budget time we approve this, I take it there will be a share of those costs provided by the county?
Neilson responded in the affirmative.
“I am happy to confirm that there will be cost sharing between St. Thomas and the county, subject to the budget being approved.”
Category Archives: Automotive Industry
‘It all comes down to giving back to the community’ – MP Karen Vecchio in announcing she will not seek re-election
MP Karen Vecchio called a week ago yesterday (Friday) wanting to talk.
It seems it had something to do with expiration dates, which caught my attention.
So, we agreed to meet in the myFM studio at which point she laid this one on us.
“I made my decision and that is to not run in the next election.
That would be the 45th election that we are expecting in October of 2025.
“And unfortunately, my name will not be on the ballot. And, next year when the federal election occurs, I will have been at it (sitting as an MP) for 10 years.
“I believe everybody has an expiry date and I know it’s time for me to be home.”
Now, there’s a world of difference between an expiry date and a best-before date and Vecchio has many productive years in front of her before reaching the latter time stamp.
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Going from trying to get houses built to helping farmers produce food for those who will live in those houses, the impact of a cabinet shuffle on MPP Rob Flack
Editor’s note: City Scope has a new Facebook page at http://facebook.com/St.ThomasCityScope
You could say Rob Flack is going back to his roots.
His agricultural roots, that is.
Late Thursday afternoon in the Doug Ford cabinet shuffle, the Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP found himself part of the major shake-up, becoming Minister of Farming, Agriculture and Agribusiness.
He had been Associate Minister of Housing as a member of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, a posting that was part of a cabinet shuffle last fall.
Flack was given a specific mandate on attainable housing and modular homes reporting to Paul Calandra, the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
It’s a return of sorts to his early days following his election in 2022.
Flack had been appointed one of two parliamentary assistants to Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in July of that year.
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‘The year ahead represents, to me, a bridge to prosperity and a critical shift from past to present’ – Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan
The St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce Lunch with the Mayors gathering is typically a non-controversial State of the Union-type event, more jovial than jousting.
That all changed with last year’s get-together which came on the heels of Bill-63, the St. Thomas Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act.
Central Elgin lost hundreds of acres of farmland to St. Thomas for that municipality to assemble 1,500 acres for what would become the Yarmouth Yards industrial park and ultimately the home of Volkswagen/PowerCo and the EV battery giga-plant.
Much of the question-and-answer time slot was put to good use by former Central Elgin Mayor Sally Martyn to hold St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston’s feet to the fire on her municipality’s lack of involvement in the land deal.
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Central Elgin industrial land compensation talks: ‘It’s time for us to maybe segue from talk to action’ – Mayor Andrew Sloan
There is no doubt work is progressing rapidly over at Yarmouth Yards, the home of the PowerCo/Volkswagen EV battery plant. You only have to view the well-produced videos released regularly as part of the From the Beehive series, courtesy of the St. Thomas Economic Development Corp.
But, here’s a question for you.
How are those compensation talks with the Municipality of Central Elgin progressing?
Compensation in some form for the hundreds of acres of land that was either legislated/stolen from Central Elgin – depending on your point of view – to be annexed into the city.
Let’s backtrack for a moment.
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The City of St. Thomas ‘is at the forefront of this exciting new chapter for southern Ontario’s automotive sector’ – Liberal MP Filomena Tassi
St. Thomas was the recipient of another economic shot in the arm Thursday (Jan. 11) morning as announced by Filomena Tassi, the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
“I am pleased to announce that the Government of Canada is investing $2 million in Amino North America to expand its facility here by over 40,000 square feet and add a new manufacturing line to meet the demands for its automotive products across North America.”
The expansion at the Highbury Avenue plant will create and maintain 45 jobs, with construction already underway.
It’s another indicator of the re-industrialization of southwestern Ontario.
That was the observation from London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos.
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The increasing demands on the St. Thomas Police Service “related to auto thefts needs appropriate attention” – Insp. Steve Bogart
Prior to charging full steam into the Christmas/New Year’s holiday season, the provincial government announced $18 million in funding to help police services combat and prevent auto theft.
The Preventing Auto Theft (PAT) grant was presented to 21 projects across Ontario to support new and enhanced crime-fighting measures that focus on prevention, detection, analysis and enforcement.
The St. Thomas Police Service was one of the recipients with a grant of just shy of $609,000 over three years.
To be clear the money is earmarked for the actual theft of vehicles and not break and enter where contents are stolen.
The first question that comes to mind is: is the theft of vehicles a significant threat in St. Thomas?
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Lukewarm reaction to bold call to co-mingle high-density housing and industry in St. Thomas
Is it possible for industry and housing to co-exist in fairly close quarters?
It’s a question that has been on the mind of Coun. Steve Peters and he brought it out into the open during Monday’s (Dec. 18) council meeting.
Specifically during debate on the draft plan of subdivision for the city’s 1,500-acre industrial park now known as Yarmouth Yards.
Peters opened the discussion by wondering aloud, “Why wouldn’t we be bold and look at a residential component to what is going on out there? We’ve got thousands of jobs that are going to be created, thousands of more jobs that are already in the industrial area, and why couldn’t we look at designating a portion of the southerly part of it as high-density residential?”
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Date announced for 2nd public information centre to map the road forward along Hwy. 3 corridor west of St. Thomas
Since the announcement back in March of this year that Volkswagen had selected St. Thomas as the site of its first EV battery plant in North America, the majority of attention has centred on the new industrial park which will house the massive complex.
However, before the facility begins production in 2027, its impact will be felt in a major realignment of area roads and highways.
We’ve already dedicated space to the widening of Highbury Avenue and its extension to the Hwy. 3 bypass.
But a much more significant undertaking is the shape of things to come on the highway corridor between the city and Talbotville.
Announced this summer, it cancels a much smaller road project that would have seen a roundabout installed at the intersection of Ron McNeil Line and Hwy. 3, west of Wellington Road.
