Nov. 16 City Council Highlights
Council got underway by debating for 10 minutes if they should add a 5 minute late delegation to the agenda. They finally agreed to hear the late delegate with regards the medical marijuana issue in Nanaimo.
NEDC chair Mr. Andre Sullivan delivered an update on activities with that corporation including their search for a new CEO to replace Mr. Angus. The new CEO will be the third to hold that office since the NEDC was formed.
Mr. Matthew O'Donnell appealed to council to ask the RCMP to entertain a cooling off period with regards their current order to local medical marijuana to cease operations. It was claimed that locally the shops have 5,000 card carrying members who are in need of medical marijuana. The idea that these patients could be treated as criminals is something Mr. O'Donnel feels no one in the community supports. The point was made that all levels of government including the newly elected Federal government are all moving towards the legalizing of these type of sales.
A new CAO has been chosen by city council, and the new CAO will be announced if they accept the offer from the city.
Council agreed to grant a DVP parking variance at 1721 Fleet Street which will allow an auction company from the mainland to expand their business to Nanaimo.
After considerable discussion council agreed on Wine store zoning criteria which they had previously passed which would not allow a wine store in any location that is not site specific. That would require an existing supermarket to apply for a rezoning if they wished to add wine sales to their current location.
Food trucks came one step closer to becoming reality in Nanaimo. However, there is still more consulting and tweaking required to come up with agreed upon locations for food trucks and trailers throughout the city. The plan presented by staff was felt to be too restrictive in it's present form and did not allow for 'grouping' of trucks in the downtown area. Council passed a motion to endorse the food truck licensing process in principle but is looking for more flexibility to be built into the final bylaw. How long before those changes come back before council was not stated.
Why do these blowhards need to waste our time with rhetoric and campaign like bombast on every small issue? Why can't they just vote on small items like this? Why do so many of our councillors feel compelled to tell us why they are for or against and to huff and puff and blow themselves up so often during these meetings. I mean like who cares.... just vote on it already. At the end of the day ALL that was done with the delegation's presentation/request was...... NOTHING.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the new CAO... surely Mckay meant a TEMP CAO. There IS a big difference you know......
One day people in Nanaimo will be able to consume some cannabis order a burrito from a food truck and then get a bottle of wine from Thrifty's.
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