By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland has put Northumberland County on notice with his remarks at Wednesday’s Cobourg council meeting – reform your social services or he will get the Province of Ontario involved.
The remarks arose during debate on the daytime warming room he is trying to establish to bookend the overnight warming room the county set up.
Cleveland led off his litany of grievances with the claim that he had asked Northumberland County to set up a 24-hr. warming centre on the Golden Plough Lodge campus and, instead, they would only go for an overnight service which they initially planned to put in council chambers.
“That motion was dismissed by my fellow council colleagues. I believe I was actually laughed at for making the suggestion,” he recalled.
Asked when that happened, he said, “I can’t remember the date. I would be happy to get back to you on that.”
Asked for further details, he continued, “I can’t speak for the County of Northumberland or my fellow councillors’ unwillingness to listen to the single representative from Cobourg sitting around the horseshoe. What I will say – I have now for many moths been calling for a complete and total review of Northumberland County social services for a variety of reasons, this being the major one.
“Should that review not take place fulsomely and independently, I have the entire and full intention of asking the Province of Ontario to intervene and conduct a full review of that department. I seem unable to communicate with my fellow county councillors the severity of the situation or the need to take action.”
Cleveland expressed optimism that some change might be on the horizon, with recruitment going on for a new Chief Administrative Officer and, of course, municipal elections in the fall.
Meanwhile, he said he is compiling “a comprehensive file of all the costs Cobourg taxpayers have borne over the last three and a half years, of which I will be submitting a full and complete invoice to the Province of Ontario.”
