Councillor Matt Sammut has brought forward two notices of motion asking council to halt current spending on the town’s wastewater environmental assessment (EA) and to form a wastewater committee.
But at the Erin council meeting on Feb. 16, his motions gathered no support from other councillors at the table.
Sammut requested council stop spending on the EA until the assimilative capacity of the Credit River was re-examined and an independent engineering firm provided another opinion on the EA.
The motion did not have a seconder and was not debated.
Mayor Allan Alls explained council would need to change it’s procedure and pass a motion to reconsider before moving ahead with the motion.
Sammut said he believes that “at any point council could come back and re-address it and stop the process.”
He added, “Now I’m being told that was not the case and we’re moving forward and we have to do a lot of steps to actually put it on halt.
“I think that’s a shame and I was provided misinformation and if it was in public session, the public was provided misinformation.”
Alls then moved on to the next motion, which asked for council to form a committee for servicing and growth.
“I think we have some phenomenal community resources, some people who are absolutely involved, huge wisdom and expertise in our community,” explained Sammut.
“I think somehow we need to show somehow the community that we are trying to form a linkage with them to improve communication and to get feedback.”
Councillor John Brennan who seconded the motion, said he could not support it.
“I think it duplicates to some extent the purpose of the environmental assessment,” he said.
“The purpose of the environmental assessment is to provide the options to go forward or not going forward, and we’ve been discussing this whole thing … for so many years now, it’s practically consulted to death.
“Quite frankly it’s time for us to get off the fence and make decisions,” he added.
Both councillors Jeff Duncan and Rob Smith said they would welcome input, but residents should form their own group, rather than have it be a council committee.
The motion failed after Duncan, Smith, Brennan and Alls voted against it.
