Norfolk County councilors want to have more discussion about strong mayor powers and the province’s request for a housing pledge.
Councilors voted Tuesday (Sept. 19) in favor of discussing the issue at a special council meeting slated for Sept. 25.
“There were a lot of unanswered questions when we were discussing the housing pledge report and I’d like to put forth a motion to refer the report back to staff to get some of the answers to those questions and have it presented back at the special council meeting that has already been scheduled,” Coun. Chris Van Paassen said at Tuesday’s meeting of council.
The county is being asked by the province to commit to allowing 5,700 new homes to be built in Norfolk by 2031. To help meet the target, the province is offering the county about $1.5 million a year for the next three years as well as the so -called strong mayor powers.
The strong mayors powers and provincial money are given to municipalities that agree to meet provincial housing targets under the provincial plan.
Councils that accept the strong mayor power by Oct. 15 will have a mayor able to pass housing-related bylaws with the support of one-third of council, and override council approval of certain bylaws.
Norfolk councilors at a council-in-committee meeting last week voted to reject strong mayor powers and declined to submit a housing pledge to the province.
During last week’s debate several councilors including Coun. Mike Columbus and Coun. Alan Duthie said they couldn’t support the housing pledge or strong mayor powers without more information.
“I’m just not prepared to sign the municipality up for something that we don’t yet have all of the answers to,” Duthie said. “It’s unfair to ask us to sign this contract without having all of the information.”
Duthie said the messaging to the ministry should be that the county does “want to play ball” but Norfolk needs more information before it can do so.”
Columbus said he wasn’t comfortable with the idea because there were just too many unanswered questions.
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