Cobourg Council – Councillor Calls for Limiting Number of Emergency Shelters
(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Councillor Adam Bureau has called for an amendment to its Emergency Care Establishments Bylaw to put a cap on the number of emergency shelters that can be licensed and operated in town.
“I thought coming up with this would be a good idea, seeing how there’s a lot of complaints we have been getting for people getting brought into Cobourg from all over the county, and we thought this would be a good way to remediate that in order to lessen the burden on Cobourg,” Bureau said at Wednesdays council meeting.
Bureau is also calling for a provision that the cap can be lifted (to allow for additional licensing of emergency shelters) “when there are additional emergency shelters operating within the other lower-tier municipalities in Northumberland equal to those that are currently operating in the Town of Cobourg in order to be sure that sheltering options are equally distributed within the county for those in need within their own municipality.”
The notice of motion comes a week after Mayor Lucas Cleveland issued a call at county council for other Northumberland municipalities to take their fair share of the homeless population that seems to be largely centred in that town.
A staff report, including costing, will be brought back to council.
