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Councillor wants shelters
regulated Local News - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 @ 16:00 A city councillor's proposal to regulate existing and future homeless shelters is set to return to council for debate. Coun. Bev MacDougall attempted to raise the idea at last week's council meeting under the category of urgent business. MacDougall said licensing is needed to control hours of operation, signs, permitted activities and other aspects of shelter operations. "I believe, down the road, there will be requests for more (shelters)," MacDougall said. "We put rules around everything else. Why wouldn't we put rules around this?" Some councillors, however, said they felt caught off-guard by the surprise motion, which council did not have in writing prior to the matter being brought up. "I think there should be proper notification to both council and the public so they offer input to help us in making a decision on this issue," said Coun. Andy Bruziewicz. Council voted to table the matter, which will be brought back to a later council meeting. MacDougall said she's not proposing to introduce the regulations just for the sake of creating red tape. "Behind (the idea of) a licence is an attempt to set some regulations and set some parameters, and that's really what this is all about," she said. "It's not to throw bureaucracy at anybody. It's to govern operations." If successful, MacDougall said her motion would apply to any future homeless shelters as well as existing facilities, which currently only includes the temporary hostel council approved at the River City Vineyard church on Mitton Street. MacDougall did not participate in any council discussions related to the River City Vineyard matter. As a resident of the neighbourhood, MacDougall declared a conflict of interest. Mayor Mike Bradley called the proposed regulations premature, given that a decision hasn't been made by Lambton County council as to what action it wants to take with regard to homeless shelters. "It's too soon to start regulating something that's not been settled upon," he said, adding that some of the issues raised can be dealt with through the zoning process." |
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