Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Greater Napanee’s State of Emergency will remain in place for the time being.
Councillor Terry Richardson put forward a motion to terminate the State of Emergency at the Nov. 10 meeting held in Selby, but it was defeated by a vote of 4-3.
Councillors Bob Norrie and John McCormack joined Richardson in voting in favour to lift it while councillors Ellen Johnson and Dave Pinnell Jr. voted against lifting it, as did deputy mayor Max Kaiser and mayor Marg Isbester.
Isbester re-instated the State of Emergency on Oct. 14. It was originally declared in March and was left in place until Sept. 10, when it was lifted for just over a month before Isbester, following a suggestion by Greater Napanee Emergency Services, signed the papers to go back under the State of Emergency. At the time Isbester noted the decision isn’t meant to close businesses, but was a preventative measure to cover the town in the event staff was unable to perform their duties due to the pandemic. The State of Emergency allows for the town to easily re-deploy staff where needed and also absolves the town from certain legal minimum standards of maintenance.
“It is my humble opinion that the last thing this community needs is to sideline its elected officials from their duties they are elected to do,” said Richardson when explaining his reasoning for his motion to terminate the State of Emergency.
Norrie agreed while pointing to anti lockdown protests that have taken part in Aylmer, Ont.
“I’m also looking at COVID anxieties,” said Norrie. “With all the authorities and the prime minister saying he wants to shut things down, he said that (Nov. 10) and pay everybody, our premier wants to leave things open but help everybody. So mixed messages are going out. The medical officers of health, some are saying different things. People are confused and I know (mayor Isbester is) thinking with (her) heart…you truly care about this town and there’s no one who would ever doubt that. But there’s a lot of people feeling that they’re being controlled.”
Though Isbester didn’t support the motion, she agreed the councillors made good points.
“I’m trying to find the words to separate state of emergency to what I feel we really should be in right now,” said Isbester. “I think we should be in a state of protection and recovery. Unfortunately there just isn’t anything like that. So state of emergency is my only choice and I still believe that it’s the right choice even accepting some of the things that those other councillors have said.”
“I don’t want to be in the pandemic either,” added Isbester. “I’m just as tired of it as you are. Because of my position as both mayor and warden, both of which I signed on for, I’ve had the most exposure to it and by that I don’t mean exposure in a bad way, I mean exposure to it in all the partnerships and all the levels of government from the top right down to our own levels right here in Greater Napanee.”
Isbester noted all members of council received phone calls following the Oct. 14 decision to go back under the State of Emergency, some negative and some positive.
“The second wave is upon us, numbers are climbing, perhaps not as much as other areas but on a per capita basis they are higher than what we want,” said Isbester. “With winter setting in and everybody headed inside, they are expected to climb higher. I look at the further extension of the shutdowns in the hot spots all because many of them think it’s over or are sick of it or simply don’t believe in it.”
-Council voted unanimously in support of giving Greater Napanee management special staffing authority for one year.
The decision followed a report by Greater Napanee CAO Ray Callery, who noted the measures could be needed as a result of the ongoing pandemic. The special measure, which will remain in place until November 2021 and then be re-visited, allow management to offer short term paid leave for employees. The measures would be used in incidents such as an unexpected school closure or a nursing home encounters an interruption in service due to the pandemic, leaving employees unable to come to work. The special authority also allows for alternative work sites in the event a COVID-19 outbreak forced employees to be relocated.
“We don’t anticipate it to come up regularly, it’s just in case it does happen to have that authority and obviously we would need council’s approval to do that,” said Callery.
Richardson noted the report was ‘forward thinking’ and expected similar measures would be adopted at the provincial level.
-Council passed a motion to appoint Greater Napanee Emergency Services deputy fire chief John Koenig as the town’s acting fire chief.