What do you feel are the two most important opportunities and two most important issues facing the City of St. Thomas?
That was one of several questions posed to participants of three town hall meetings held in September and October of this year to garner input on the refresh process of the city’s strategic plan.
Climb Consulting has been retained by the city to undertake this plan update.
The meetings attracted those who live, work and access services in St. Thomas.
The information is contained in a report before council for Monday’s (Nov. 6) meeting.
Looking at the city’s strengths, participants lauded the strong sense of community and pride in St. Thomas.
Tag Archives: council transparency
SW Ontario lagging behind in job creation, income growth, warns economist
A sobering report released this week that brings into perspective the impact manufacturing’s decline has had on southwestern Ontario’s median household income through 2015 (the last year of available census data).
The report’s author Ben Eisen, a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute, notes Windsor falls from 10th highest median household income to 25th while London falls from 15th to 27th (out of 36 Canadian metropolitan centres).
St. Thomas is included in the London Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and so the report has important local relevance.
Eisen’s work covers the period between 2005 and 2015 and so it is a look back in time and the next census in 2021 may give a clearer picture of where we are today.
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Casting light when a council meeting goes dark
For many of us, we’ve settled into a pandemic dictated routine where our days are punctuated with Zoom meetings interspersed with live-streamed gatherings, exponentially increasing our screen time.
Leaving us to wonder how much of this will pivot over to the new reality?
But what happens when one of these feeds fails or the audio stream is so out of whack it is impossible to follow along?
It has happened twice this month with city council: once with a reference committee meeting dealing with community grants and again this week with the scheduled council meeting.
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Only with full disclosure can council best serve
At the Feb. 14 meeting, St. Thomas council put the boot to adopting a ward system for municipal elections.
In a 5-3 vote, only Ald. Jeff Kohler, Ald. Sam Yusuf and Ald. Lori Baldwin-Sands supported a motion to proceed with establishing such a system in time for the 2014 municipal vote.
Mayor Heather Jackson-Chapman explained the majority of council is in opposition to a ward system for St. Thomas because only two similar-sized municipalities in Ontario have such a structure.
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