Minutes of Meeting 12 March 2012

Attendees:

John Sankey: He presented the agenda for the meeting and asked for any additions.

Motion: To approve the February 2012 minutes. Moved by Peter Brimacombe, seconded by Peter Foulger, carried.

John Sankey: Marilyn Koch went to the Bronson Avenue Reconstruction meeting last Monday night.
Marilyn Koch: The meeting was well attended. The City presented its plan for Bronson Avenue which is to basically rebuild Bronson Avenue as is but with a new traffic light at Arlington. While she was there, question period was calm and most of the questions were about disruptions caused by construction. There was one question about access onto Bronson from a minor street.
Issie Berish: What do the local community associations think? The original consultants' report is not going to be followed, how will that fact affect our community?
John Sankey: The original consultants' report would have added left-hand turn lanes which would have resulted in smoother traffic flow. There will be no improvement and in fact we will see a small degradation because of the new traffic light at Arlington.
Peter Brimacombe: With respect to through traffic, the Centre Town Community Association would be very much like the Ottawa East Community Association where he served for 10 years. There would be overwhelming opposition to through traffic. There is a contradiction in designating a street both an arterial and a main street. This contradiction also applies to Hunt Club Road where we want to preserve the arterial nature of the Road.
John Sankey: There are three options: we could do nothing; we could register a pro-forma objection; or we could make a strategic objection.

Motion: There is a conflict between the designation of Bronson Avenue as an arterial and its designation as a main street. The HCCO supports the designation as an arterial and recommends removing the designation as a main street. Moved by John Sankey, seconded by Peter Brimacombe, carried.

John Sankey: Passed out the Councillor's Report.

John Sankey: A year and a half ago, Hunt Club lost community control of our recreation centre. A month ago, the Hunt Club Riverside Community Services Centre (the CSC) made the decision to abandon community control and to merge with the large South East Ottawa Community Health Centre (SEOCHC). This a great loss to our community. Over the past year and a half, the CSC had made major progress in placing the Centre on a sound policy and managerial basis. The one unresolved issue was that government agencies under-funded our Centre. They gave it one tenth the per capita level that other health centres in the city receive. The CSC Board has under-valued community ownership, involvement and responsibility and this attitude has led to two major errors. The first error was to assume that our community was incapable of correcting this inequality, that we would always be considered a second class community as we stand, and to instruct their consultants accordingly. The second error was the assumption that in joining with SEOCHC we would immediately gain access to all the services we were presently being denied. Given this fundamental disagreement he has resigned from the CSC Board.
John Sankey: He introduced Mohammed Said. Mohammed is the President of the CSC Board. He is also a professional Child Protection Worker with the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa.
Mohammed Said: Given the long history of lack of stability of the CSC and issues with mismanagement and service delivery, the CSC Board embarked on cleaning up Operations and strengthening Governance without losing focus on programming and service delivery.  A great deal of progress has been achieved so far. The Auditor General had first decided to audit the centre in 2011 but then cancelled his plan after attending our AGM. The next phase was to determine where the CSC is heading given the history, capacity and funding situation. How do we ensure delivery of sustainable quality and quantity of services to the people in the catchment area.  Our motive and focus on service delivery has been the main principle and driving force in any decision we make. A Moving Forward committee was established to review lessons learned from the past, and where do we go from here. Two consultants were hired to provide us with the perspective of external professionals.  The consultants reviewed relevant materials, examined similar experiences and met with 39 stakeholders. They came up with three options as follows: Option A: to continue as a stand alone organization.  Option B: purchase of service from a larger organization, preferably South-East Ottawa Community Health Centre. Option C: a satellite office of a larger organization, preferably South-East Ottawa Community Health Centre. Each option has pros and cons.  The consultants recommended option C. The CSC Board unanimously opted to abandon Option A.  Discussions focussed on Options B and C. We hired the consultants again to find out how much it would cost us to go with Option B (purchase of service). On the basis of all the information that is available to us as well as different perspectives and input from stakeholders (including funders and local community members), the CSC Board moved a motion to select Option C (run as a satellite office of South-East Ottawa Community Health Centre.  It will all depend on its decision.  The process is not yet complete. The CSC Board receives $350,000 from the City and $130,000 from other funding agencies.
Peter Foulger: The South East Ottawa Community Health Centre gets a lot more money than our CSC. The Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) is a provincial body that determines funding.
Gisèle Loiselle: She is glad to hear that health services to our community will improve because there is a real need.

John Sankey: Ecology Ottawa is pushing to reduce the untreated sewage in the Ottawa River. Every year when the existing sewer system is overloaded, untreated sewage goes into the Ottawa River. The amount of untreated sewage that goes into the Ottawa River is significant. There is zero co-operation with the City of Gatineau.

Motion: To support Ecology Ottawa's initiative to clean up the Ottawa River. Moved by Gisèle Loiselle, Peter Foulger, carried.

Gisèle Loiselle: A section of Twyford near her Co-op is covered with water because the drain is blocked with ice.
John Sankey: Phone the City (311).

Peter Brimacombe: Liz Russell is again organizing a clean-up day for McCarthy Road. The date is Saturday May 19.
John Sankey: He is cleaning up Uplands Drive instead. The other day he picked up the dog poop that was left over from the winter.

Next meeting: Monday, April 2 at 19:00