Cornwall Council suspends rules, procedures, debates Ngoundjo motion

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A Cornwall town council set to discuss a wide range of topics has had to jump through some hoops to dive deeper into a controversial matter that has had tongues wagging in the town for months.

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A counselor. Fred Ngoundjo’s notice of motion, which was ruled out of order by City Clerk Manon Levesque a week before the only regular meeting in July, was finally discussed when the council, needing a two-thirds majority, invoked a suspension of rules and procedures that allowed for a debate.

cone Denis Sabourin proposed the motion, and the councilor. Dean Hollingsworth agreed to second, the suspension of the rules and procedures finally came to a 9-0 vote.

“Yeah, I’ll support it, I always love a good debate,” Hollingsworth said with at least a hint of derision.

Ngoundjo’s motion was ultimately defeated after discussion, but the discussion alone — with a bizarre pause, as it turned out — was a small victory for councilors who have some reservations about going ahead with t.the Massey Commons trauma housing facility, at least as currently proposed.

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Ngoundjo’s move? Reconsider siting eight micro-units at Massey Commons and actually put them on the lower level of the Ninth Street housing complex that opened about a year ago; housing offices there would be moved to Massey Commons.

Ngoundjo’s motion said in part that Cornwall must establish “much needed transitional housing in the best possible location with the most appropriate health and social care in the surrounding area”. He said the planned micro-units don’t fit well in the development because they are zoned public while the rest of the building is zoned residential, which was recently identified as a major planning issue by city officials before the board of adjustment.

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Ngoundjo’s motion said the micro-units are temporary housing units that involve constant shifting of residents in and out of the building and area and is not a good mix with what Massey Commons is intended to be. Also, having the facility on Ninth Street near McConnell Avenue would put them near the hospital, community mental health and addiction services, and a large grocery store.

The motion basically captured, in mild language, much of the anger that erupted among residents near the proposed Massey Commons when a public meeting was held in late February and spawned at least two committees that they opposed the institution.

The motion and Ngoundjo’s comments after it was introduced were quite a departure from his own words at the council table a few months ago when he said of Massey Commons “there is a right location and there is a wrong location – I chose the wrong location.”

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At this week’s meeting, Ngoundjo said: “The point is not about stopping the process (to Massey Commons), the question here is about the residents inside that we’re going to have here and the potential source of problems that this situation can have. bring to this area.”

The debate was just getting underway – Hollingsworth said moving the eight micro-units might be a great idea, but the question he had would be at what cost to taxpayers? – when the administration’s discomfort with chat seemed to go to another level, or at least to another room. Mayor Justin Towndale, after Hollingsworth’s comments, told council that CAO Mathieu Fleury was seeking a five-minute recess and would grant it.

Towndale and Fleury were joined outside the council chambers by Mrdirector general of human services and long-term care Mellissa Morgan and other administrators, and when they returned, the adviser. Maurice Dupelle let them have it.

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“Regardless, Mr. Mayor, I just want to point out that I’ve been on the council for 14 years straight and I’ve never seen anything like this happen,” Dupelle said. “I found it disrespectful to the rest of us sitting around the table, disrespectful to the administration (members) who were not included and disrespectful to members of the public. . To you, Mr. Mayor, to you, Mr. Fleury, I’m not sure how you thought that was a great idea, because it certainly wasn’t.”

Towndale said he appreciated Dupelle’s comments and added that the series of motions already passed during the meeting was something that was not seen often, and that it was brought to his attention that the procedure was not followed correctly, which required the timeout.

After all the discussion, uproar, and much more procedural confusion, Ngoundjo’s motion was defeated, 6-3.

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