Council meets off the radar

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

Tucked away in Scugog, the Nestleton Waters Inn played host to regional council ahead of its final council session before the summer break, and councillors were talking about the future.

Looking to update its strategic plan, which spanned from 2009 to last year, regional councillors and staff discussed what direction the region should head in the next five years at the retreat.

More informal than traditional council gatherings, councillors threw around ideas such as more collaboration with local post-secondary institutions such as UOIT, making broadband Internet more accessible for all of Durham’s residents and expanding agricultural-based businesses.

Speaking for his group of councillors toward the end of the meeting – councillors and staff broke off into groups to brainstorm ideas – Oshawa councillor John Aker highlighted two key things the region should be looking at in years to come.

“We’ve been fortunate in Durham Region in that we haven’t had strong effects from climate change, but we’ve seen it happen elsewhere on TV,” he said to the outdoor gathering, later making specific references to California.

The meeting did not come without controversy, as some have called it an unneeded expense.

At the March 25 meeting of the finance and administration committee and the April 1 meeting of regional council, Oshawa resident and formal mayoral candidate Rosemary McConkey questioned why the meeting couldn’t be held on site at regional headquarters, and also called for the meeting to be webstreamed, as is the case with all other council and committee meetings.

The meeting, open to the public, was not broadcasted online.

In May, Sherri Munns, the region’s director of corporate communications, told The Oshawa Express that the office of Regional Chair Roger Anderson has set the budget for the retreat at $2,000.