In the same week that the Town of Oakville took care of unfinished business the City of Burlington did too - although in a slightly less dramatic way.
Oakville put in place a by-law to regulate cosmetic pesticide use after hearing more than thirty delegations in two nights of committee work last week.
The Community and Corporate Services Committee (C & CS) of Burlington Council heard only one delegation and then went ahead and strengthened a staff recommendation to create a Burlington Transit Advisory Committee. Staff had been asked to look at this matter by the previous Council. (See CC 39 -07 on the City's website for more details.)
The Committee will provide input to Council and staff on initiatives and strategies affecting public transportation services. They'll also deal with Burlington's Accessibility Plan and will likely incorporate as a sub committee an Accessible Transit Sub Committee to deal with these matters.
The proposed terms of reference were strengthened after a motion by Councillor John Taylor to have this committee look at the allocation of gas tax revenues and also to have transit operators sit on the committee as resources. These were suggested by the delegation - your blogger.
The C & CS Committee struggled some with the committee composition concerned that the "disabled" be well represented on this new body. Staff were left to come up with appropriate wording to define "accessible transit users."
There was some debate around what a mobility device is. It says here that such devices include the newer motorized scooters and the traditional mobility device - the white cane.
The creation of this committee is one indication that municipal public transit and the environment is being taken more seriously these days. Heh, maybe we'll have a pesticide by-law in place in Burlington soon.
