Terrace Bay council met for their first meeting in February. After accepting the minutes of the previous meeting, there was a quick update on the ROMA conference. Meetings with various ministers seemed fairly positive.

One issue that is becoming more popular is the issue of temporary and holiday housing, especially in terms of bylaws regulating Air B’nB’s. Temporary workers at the mill need accommodation and in the summer with most hotels fully booked, this becomes a problem for housing of workers.

Attendance at the upcoming Thunder Bay Municipal League conference was brought forward and will be attended by the mayor and council. The other big conference news is NOMA in the summer and all councillors and mayor are eligible to attend. The AMO conference will happen later in the summer in London Ontario. 

The Treasurer gave an update on tax revenue increases through an interim levy that will be implemented for 2023.

The recreation director brought forward a proposal to apply for funding for summer students. Typically 3 positions are filled by the grant and the students are given the opportunity to work over the summer months before school starts in the fall. An additional grant will be applied for through the Resilient Communities programme and can help to finance recreation programmes throughout the year. The 2023 Family Ski event was also brought forward and will be a 3 day event to be held pending snow conditions.

Payroll items were approved and past. Finally all bylaws were adopted, followed by Question period. A resident in attendance asked about how Terrace Bay was approaching financing and approval of developers building houses and holiday homes. There is a current development being planned for the Hydro Bay Area and more projects would be welcomed if they meet the requirements of the town planning act. Another resident sent a request during the meeting asking for the rationale behind council attending so many conferences. The importance of such events are usually preceded by a need to procure funding and is considered the best method of interacting with the ministers responsible for funding future and ongoing projects.

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