council group pictureThe Hollinger Open Pit looks to the future at Monday’s council meeting.

Officials with Goldcorp will present a land use plan for their ongoing project.

Council will also hear about a site plan agreement for the old Lionel Gauthier school, a zoning amendment on Maple South and an update from the TEDC.

Our live blog starts at 6:00pm.

(Keep refreshing the page as the night goes along for updates!)

Marks isn’t present.

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We start with a quick zoning amendment for 635 Government Road North.

It was submitted by Joel Vachon, and is to re-zone it so self-serve storage buildings can be erected.

This is the first public meeting, so people can voice their concerns or approval of the amendment.

Campbell asks Vachon about the storage buildings, and Vachon says he’ll be renting out the space.

Nobody is here to speak against it, and this will come back at a future meeting.

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Now for Goldcorp to come up to speak on the Hollinger Open Pit.

Ryan Neely and Dawn-Ann Metsaranta are here to speak on what the future holds for the land being mined out.

Phase 1 is to be completed by October 2017.

Phase 2 is expected to take around 15 years.

Long-term, they are looking at having walking trails, a beach and a lookout point.

CLICK HERE and HERE to see a picture and details of what they have planned on the short and long-term.

Campbell asks about timelines, and Metsaranta says they’re hoping to get started by this upcoming spring.

Doody brings up that the lookout point might be a good place to have a tower for people to look over the city and the ongoing Hollinger operations.

It is a fluid document, so changes can be made.

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Now the TEDC is up with their quarterly update.

All their numbers from January-September 2015 can be found HERE.

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Membership fees for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which is just under $6,500 is up next.

Not much to add on this, and will come back.

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Next is a petition on the Hydro One sale.

This will come back.

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A petition on the Police Services Act from Neebing.

This will come back.

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To Porter Airlines, asking for support to land jets.

This isn’t to land the jets in Timmins, this is to land jets in an expanded Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto.

Doody says they need to support this as much as they can.  Bamford says they need to remember how important Porter is to the city, and anything to support it is supporting the city.

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Now to a zoning amendment for Maple Street South.

If you remember a few months back, this is from Jennifer Burtch to use her home as a Montessori school with eight kids.

A nearby resident Neil McVicar spoke highly against the amendment during the first public hearing on this, with concerns of parking and child safety among his points.

You can read his note, plus many others from other residents speaking for and against it by clicking HERE.

Bamford says he sees no compelling reason not to support this.

This will come back for full approval December 7th.

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Now to a direct sale of land for Langmuir Road.

This will come back.

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Christy Marinig is back to discuss the rail park.

She says they need to have a working pad for the sub base grading before the frost sets in for the winter.

Marinig recommends approval of a tender bid from Interpaving for just under $345,000.  Six companies put in bids as well.  This one is the cheapest (the second cheapest is just over $30,000 more).

This will come back during the special meeting.

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To the special meeting, the first one is to support Porter Airlines.

It is unanimously approved.

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Now to the food bank and parking fees.

They are looking to approve that any parking tickets between December 1-11 to go towards the food bank.

“This is an issue for all of us,” Bamford said.

He says for the people who say the city isn’t helping the issue of low income homes in the community to look at the over $6.5-million spent annually to help the poor.

Bamford adds he’s not in support of adding more dollars to this, especially when talk of increasing user fees to earn money for other issues is on the table from the KPMG report.

Dubeau supports Bamford, saying the city shouldn’t spend more dollars but residents and councillors as individuals should show more support for the poor.

Campbell, Doody, Grzela, Wawrzaszek and Black approve it, Dubeau, Bamford and Rinaldo vote against it and it passes.

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Rail park preparation from earlier tonight is the lone item on by-laws.

It is approved.

and council is going in-camera, so that means COUNCIL IS ADJORNED!