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Council meets tonight, here are some items to keep an eye on

Doctors talking about treatment of addictions, new financial impacts of COVID-19, and a Pumping Station 4 update are expected
2018-05-07 Timmins City Hall MH
Timmins City Hall. Maija Hoggett/TimminsToday

Timmins council is back in action tonight.

There are a number of items of note on the agenda for the Oct. 27 agenda.

Items to keep an eye on in the agenda include:

  • A financial report looks at updated impacts of COVID-19 on the city. According to the report, up to the end of September the city had lost a total of $4.5 million in revenue. "Air travel, sporting events, and court have not returned to pre-pandemic levels therefore, increasing the lost revenue from our original projections," reads the report. The report also notes that the funding and total savings to the end of last month total $4.4 million, and "covers our lost revenue to date." On average the operational savings on expenses has been $100,000 per month. Read the full report here.
  • Doctors Louisa Marion-Bellemare and Julie Samson are giving a delegation about the medical perspective on the treatment of addictions in Timmins. Last week, the Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors announced it would be writing a letter to the province and federal government asking for support and a meeting to address mental health and addiction in the north. During an update after that meeting, Timmins Mayor George Pirie said a local round table involving health agencies led by a group of doctors had met. At the time of that meeting, Pirie noted there had been 29 overdose deaths so far this year in the city. In 2019, there were seven overdose deaths in the region.
  • There will be an update on Pumping Station 4, which is located on Highway 101 in Porcupine just east of the Whitney Arena. Work on the project started in 2014. Ground-settling and legal issues have contributed to the project not yet being completed. The presentation at this week's council meeting from director of Public Works and Engineering Pat Seguin indicates the micropiling program at the site started Sept. 15. The presentation is available here.
  • An item from Pirie is a discussion about a bypass route or haul road around the Connaught Hill area. There is no report attached.
  • A number of traffic items requested by Coun. John Curley at the last meeting will be up for discussion. The items are to extend the 40 km/hr zone on Moore Street in South Porcupine to include the area in front of the YMCA site just south of Roland Michener Secondary School, and changes to the left turn signals for westbound traffic at the intersection of Algonquin Boulevard and Highway 655.
  • There is a motion to change the structure of the volunteer fire brigades. It directs the fire chief to change an existing bylaw to "mandate the volunteer brigades to be trained on, follow and adhere to all City of Timmins policies; amend how the district chiefs and officers of the brigades are appointed and include measures for increased oversight and accountability for the volunteer brigades." It also calls for restructuring the volunteer remuneration system to a "fair and equitable system that would see all the volunteer brigades across the city paid an hourly rate, as determined by council, for their service."

Timmins council meets at 6 p.m. Oct. 27. You can view the full agenda here, and watch the livestream of it tonight here.