By Olivia Timm
PETERBOROUGH-Peterborough approved several plans at Monday nights Committee of the Whole meeting, one being a re-count on the number of homeless in the city.
Coun. Clarke began by saying, “We have heard anecdotally that we have about 30 street people and about 200 who are in danger of being homeless but it was always anecdotal. I really think getting a proper count to truly tell us what the scope of the problem is, is important.”
Coun. Therrien said she would be happy to support the count as well. Having worked for a not-for-profit sector that somewhat looked into homelessness, she questioned is there would be any consideration in having the count in a warmer month than March.
“Having a count happen in March is perhaps not the best time of year to get a truly accurate count because it is still quite cold outside, people might be couch-surfing or staying in other areas.”
Staff member Mrs. Clancy said, “the Province does have a timeframe that limits – it must be March, April or early-May.”
Clancy also said that, “in this next enumeration attempt, we will be looking at strategies that will take us out into the rural community and try and get a hidden homelessness to offset the potential under-representation that you raise.”
In other business, Councillors approved to adopt a fee schedule for new business licenses they plan to charge for landlords who rent rooms in houses to students: $75 to register a four-bedroom rental house as a business, for instance, and $50 to renew that licence annually.
Council had one item that came out of closed session – the recommendation that a by-law be passed to authorize part of 586 Harper Road, which is a maximum of 1.099 acres, be declared surplus to the needs of the municipality and be sold to Roshan Holdings Inc. to support additional development requirements for the proposed hotel complex and casino for $109,900.
Council will also be holding a public meeting on Wednesday, June 28th at 6:00 p.m to present the 2018 Budget Guideline Report and hear from citizens. Mayor Bennett said, “Staff has done a great job of giving us guidance on what we are doing and where we are going, and certainly there is significant information here for some programs that we are going to be faced with going forward.”
Coun. Riel also agreed that the document is one that has had great thought put into it, and he hopes next week’s public meeting will be full of informative discussion.
“Hopefully people will show up and engage themselves and certainly read this material if they can of what we are trying to propose and what we are trying to do. Certainly, we are trying to move the City forward,” he said.
 photo credit: bettie_xo People 0185 via photopin (license)
