(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
The latest fallout of the year-long encampment on the vacated grounds of the former Brookside Youth Centre facility is a call from Cobourg’s mayor to consider withdrawing from the upper-tier umbrella of Northumberland County.
“I don’t want to treat the symptoms any more, I want to treat the sickness – the sickness is our relationship with our upper tier,” Lucas Cleveland declared Wednesday at council’s Community Services, Protection and Economic Development standing committee meeting.
“Ninety per cent of the issues we face in this community, 90% of the issues our residents are upset with – what we need to do is either junk our relationship within the Northumberland County organization so we have better opportunities to make decisions in our own town, or we should look at separating from the county.”
“That would take years upon years and years to do,” fellow committee member Adam Bureau pointed out.
Director of Legislative Services Brent Larmer noted that the town is already $20,000 over its 2024 legal budget.
Cleveland nevertheless pursued the idea.
“For the past 20 years, we have operated within a system that hasn’t always served us. The problem is, we didn’t realize how it didn’t serve us because we didn’t have the complex societal issues of the past seven years,” he said.
The population of the county’s seven lower-tier municipalities is 80,000, served by – Cleveland said – eight levels of government. Wouldn’t it make more sense, he wondered, for Cobourg, Port Hope and Hamilton Township to get together to form their own municipality.
Another issue is the predominantly rural nature of that population of 80,000. He cited the problems the Municipality of Port Hope is still experiencing almost a quarter-century after the Town of Port Hope and Hope Township were pressured into a municipal merger by the provincial government of the day.
“If we are not willing to come together as a single tier, we as Cobourg council can start looking at options for separation,” Cleveland stated.
“Our staff and this council are at the limit in the sense of what we can and can’t do.”
The remarks came following a heated presentation by James Bisson, sharing his 60-day action plan on the encampment – what he called a made-in-Cobourg solution that he believes will see the grass-roots volunteer efforts of citizens, business groups and faith-based organizations prove effective in addressing a problem the county has failed to make progress on.
Bisson referred to “documentation” he has amassed that will guarantee their success, insisting that time is limited. Though details have not been announced in concrete detail, he believes it has been provisionally sold by the province with a closing date by the end of the year. In any case, he said, there is always the chance the sale will fall through.
The presentation was paused twice for committee chair Aaron Burchat to caution members of the gallery to refrain from applause.
Part of Bisson’s action plan is a public debate between Moms Stop The Harm and an organization he has found called Breakpoint Communities Association. MSTH is a group working for safe supply, safe injection sites and harm-reduction measures, and Bisson called on council to revoke the motion of support for the organization that it passed several years ago.
He repeated the slogan “taxation without representation” several times over the course of his address, insisting that the county has put Cobourg in an untenable position,
“I didn’t vote for Mandy Martin and I never will,” he shouted (referring to the former Northumberland County Warden whose term expired in December), “but she’s making decisions and impacting our community in a way that we cannot change the outcome.”
Decrying the lack of action, he described the county and the province as “sitting there with eyes closed and fingers crossed, hoping it will all work out in the end,” he said.
“I’m asking the council of Cobourg to lay a flag in the ground and say, ‘No more.’”
In the end, the committee voted to refer the list of Bisson’s requests to staff for a report. The list includes
Enacting a Tents and Encampments bylaw to prohibit encampments on public and private property without a license
Repeal the automatic authority Northumberland County has to use town assets for emergency encampments
Review the ECE bylaw regarding overlap during the transition to the new county shelter at 310 Division St., Cobourg, and potential provider amalgamation
Repeal town support of the MSTH resolution
Enact a Community Organizations and Advocacy Registry for management and public scrutiny
Nominate a councillor as town liaison and spokesperson on encampment issues
Launch a public engagement campaign with updates, polling and public debates
Nominate members for the Community Liaison Committee for 310 Division St. that will hold stakeholders accountable
Cleveland challenged Bureau’s motion, asking what was the point of a staff report. For example, the county would have the power to use town assets for emergency encampments even if the town did vote for a repeal.
Larmer replied that the response could clarify matters of jurisdiction and provide updates. For example, the town already does have a 2023 bylaw that bans tents and camping in parks without permits and sets curfews.
Burchat encouraged Cleveland, if he so wishes, to pursue this plan in the form of a notice of motion to council.
