Homelessness and warming centres are major concerns these days and some on Belleville council want to make sure Hastings County comes up with long term answers to the problems.
Councillor Garnet Thompson made a motion to ask the county, which is responsible for social services on behalf of the city, to provide a detailed report on permanent solutions regarding warming and cooling centres.
Thompson cited recent confusion regarding location of the warming centre and at what temperature it should be activated.
However, Mayor Mitch Panciuk ruled the motion out of order for two reasons with one being that the motion was redundant as Hastings County was already working on a homelessness master plan.
” … and both Warden Phillips and CAO (Jim) Pine have told me that they expect the Health and Human Services Committee to be considering a report at their February meeting.”
Councillor Thompson instead made a Notice of Motion to ask the county for a report which will be voted on at the next council meeting with Councillor Sean Kelly adding that it was paramount the issue have a long-term solution soon.
