Ontario Clean Water Act report presented to Terrace Bay Council

This weeks Terrace Bay council meeting featured a presentation explaining the Ontario Clean Water Act.

Before the presentation, the minutes of the previous council meeting were presented and adopted. Patrick Couture presented the Annual report and summary on the current status of the water services in Terrace Bay. The report focussed on the current capacity for water supply and treatment and included incidents of adverse water quality for the last period.

These reports have to filed annually in accordance with the Ontario Clean Water Act and act as a guide for budget planning in order to maintain the safety of the drinking supply in Terrace Bay. Any non compliance must be followed up with corrective actions as required. In summary, the drinking water system was found to be able to meet the current demands for water use in the municipality. A short discussion followed that helped to clarify the operations and responsibilities of OCWA. There are currently some issues with the state of the electrical equipment at the water treatment plant and a plan is in place to address the problems.The council voted to accept the report from OCWA as dated.

Next item up was a report from Public Works focussing on clean up week. Fees for landfill use are waived during the period and both Schreiber and Terrace Bay have access to the site for the term of the Spring Clean Up week. Residents in both communities take advantage of the time to enable households to dispose of unused goods and recycling of materials where applicable.

A hazardous waste event will be held again in the parking lot of the tourism building in June. All households are encouraged to take advantage of the event in order to lessen the work load at the landfill site.

Another item in the report highlighted the operation of the outdoor pool during summer hours. Applications will be accepted for the lifeguard positions prior to the pool opening in the summer. The positions must be filled before the pool is opened.

The customer service agreement for the arena is up for renewal and a new tender was accepted as the current service company will no longer be available for the next season. The final item in the report dealt with repairs and future equipment purchases for the arena. The Northern Ontario Heritage fund will assist with the costs.

Special projects coordinator report was next and focussed on a social media marketing package and its included costs. The benefits of the marketing campaign were highlighted in the report and it was agreed that this should be carried over for the next year.

All reports were accepted. then

Then, CAO John Hall gave his report that started with the disposal of older surplus assets including some heavy equipment and vehicles that have recently been replaced by newer items.

General dispersements was brought forward and approved. All bylaws resulting from this meeting were then approved. Under communications, an agreement to support an effort allowing municipalities to retain surplus proceeds from tax sales of municipal properties.

There were no participants in question period and the meeting was adjourned to in camera to complete matters from an earlier meeting.