Fire Master Plan — Cultivate update — ongoing remediation process
Article by Bill Hornbostel
Port Hope’s Council unanimously voted in favour of a by-law to designate 65 Ward Street a historic property in their June 21 session. While there was no discussion about the designation during this session, Councillors had vigorously debated designation during the Committee of the Whole on June 7.
The Committee of the Whole heard multiple presentations about the new draft Fire Master Plan, the state of Cultivate, and an update on the Port Hope Area Initiative.
Terry Gervais, Vice President of Government & Private Services at the Loomex Group, spoke about the new draft Fire Master Plan. He talked of the purpose of the document: “It does help you make sense sure that you’re meeting your legislative requirements on the protection and prevention act, it will provide recommendations for the appropriate levels of service or public education, code enforcement and fire suppression that your for your municipality, it will allow staff to write counsel with the information on making decisions that will protect lives and property for your municipality, as well as the safety of your firefighters and provide a clearer picture of the communities the current community emergency services and your anticipated needs for in the future.”
The plan provided thirty recommendations; topics included departmental organization, training programs, the locations of the fire stations, opportunities to work with neighbouring fire departments, and resource deployment.
Two of those recommendations concerned relocating Fire Station 2, and Gervais spoke about modelling potential locations based on the road network, assembly times, and response times, as well as overlap between stations. “What we’re recommending is you look towards the east or near the Welcome area,” he stated.
The draft Fire Master Plan is available on the Municipal website (link).
Jeff Bray spoke about Cultivate, which started in 2015 as a food festival and has since expanded to five festivals, including Launch! and Hibernate with a new venue at Haute Goat. Bray spoke about Cultivate becoming a non-profit arts organization and tapping into Provincial and Federal arts funding.
“The goal with this series,” said Bray, “is to further establish Port Hope as a cultural way-station for the presentation of live art between Toronto and Montreal, to add community-focused programming to the offseason, to secure new local sponsors and establish some food/drink/accommodation partnerships, and encourage tourism to downtown Port Hope during the off-season.”
The presentation was followed with a staff report recommending that Council approve the use of the Haut Goat property for Cultivate from September 23-5, provided they meet conditions for traffic control, accessibility, fire safety, and so on.
For more information about Cultivate, visit cultivatefestival.ca.
Mark Hughey gave an update on the progress of the Port Hope Area Initiative. He talked about the upcoming license renewal hearing for the Port Granby site at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC); Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is seeking a one-year extension on the Port Granby site, so that CNL can align the licenses of both Port Granby and Port Hope at the same time. The CNSC hearing will take place on November 22, 2022.
Hughey talked about the progress of remediation sites. He stated that the 95 Mill Street and Waterworks East sites were completed, and that work by the viaducts is underway. Dredging continues at the harbour, and work on reinforcing and upgrading the harbour walls has begun.
Hughey said the Pine Street North consolidated site was “a textbook project, it went off without a hitch.” He also stated that restoration is underway at the Strachan Street Ravine, that the Waterworks West remediation is to start this year, and that planning is in progress on the Alexander Street Ravine.
Then Hughey spoke about upcoming industrial site remediation. Work on the Chemitron Lagoon and Sculthorpe Marsh will start in 2023, as will work on the coal gasification plant. Once work in the harbour is complete and equipment is removed, work will begin on removing waste from the Centre Pier.
For more on the PHAI, visit phai.ca.
Council also passed two resolutions. The first approved the installation of a rainbow crosswalk at a prominent intersection by June 2023, with a budget of up to $15,000. The second approved collection of asset management plans for 2022-24, as required by the Province; the plan includes plans for Drinking Water, Wastewater, Stormwater, and Transit Asset Management Plans.
The Committee of the Whole also received a report recommending by-laws to amend the Official plan to align it with Provincial policy, and the Comprehensive Zoning By-Law to allow up to two residential units on both urban and rural properties.
Council will also resume in-person sessions starting July 5.
To watch the full video of the Council and Committee of the Whole meetings (including virtual meetings), you may visit the Port Hope YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/MunicipalityPortHope. Zoom meetings are now also being livestreamed on the same YouTube channel.
For agendas, minutes, and a calendar of meetings, you may visit Port Hope’s Council Portal, porthope.ca/agendas-and-minutes. https://porthope.civicweb.net/Portal/PDFs of resolutions, by-laws, reports and presentations are available through links in the meetings in which they were presented.
