Essex County Council notes for Wednesday, March 17

by Sylene Argent

County Council to ask Province to create level-playing field for wine industry

County Council moved to support Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos’s motion that will call on the Province to create a level-playing field and provide Ontario’s entrepreneurial wine industry with opportunities to invest more in innovation and job creation, while providing consumer choice and convenience for the purchase of Ontario Wine.

  Santos raised the issue at the previous County Council meeting, through a Notice of Motion.

Further to Santos’s motion, County Council will urge the Province to eliminate the 6.1 percent tax that is supplied to VQA in the 2021 budget; enable Ontario wines to offer direct delivery, with margin, to grocery stores; establish a long-term VQA wine support program at the LCBO to increase shelf space for these wines; and eliminate import taxes on 100 percent Ontario VQA wines.

  A letter outlining the aforementioned recommendations will be circulated to Niagara and Prince Edward Counties, MPP Taras Natyshak and MPP Rick Nicholls, the Premier, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural affairs.

  Santos said the Notice of Motion was meant to protect the wine sector across the region.

  He added, in terms of trying to balance the playing field for wines – and when looking at how competitive the market is – there are different programs that are providing a relief through rebates to wineries, especially around the import taxes, that allow that rebate to be reinvested into local wineries.

  He said the import tax represents 35 percent of the tax, on top of additional fees they are responsible for.

  This type of help, Santos said, would be welcome.

Motion carried unanimously.    

Meeting start time changed for next Term of Council

At the March 3 County Council meeting, a question was raised regarding as to whether meetings could begin at 6pm instead of 7pm.

  In order to officially change meeting start-times, the Procedural Bylaw would need to be amended through a majority Council vote. Discussion last Wednesday noted this could be done at the following meeting, if desired.

  Since the previous meeting, a survey was sent out to members of County Council, to ascertain if there would be any issue with moving the meeting time an hour earlier, Mary Birch, Director of Council and Community Services, said. As a result, she noted two members indicated there would be issues with them being able to attend an earlier meeting start on time.

  This may be an issue County Council may want to hold off on and consider it at the end of this Term of Council, so it could be in place for the next term, Birch suggested.

  LaSalle Mayor, Marc Bondy, said he brought the question forward. He said he did not want to put anyone in danger of not making the meetings, and was not sure it would be fair to vote on the matter at that time, if there were two members of County Council who could not make the earlier meeting start work. He thought perhaps it would be best to follow the suggestion to consider putting the new start time in place for the next Term of Council.

  Bondy made a motion to make the change in effect for the next County Council term. Motion carried.

Snively thanks EMS for vaccine assistance

Essex Mayor Larry Snively took the time to thank Essex-Windsor EMS Chief, Bruce Krauter, for the work put in to set up administering the COVID-19 vaccine through the local paramedic service. In addition, he thanked all the volunteers and professionals involved.

  “I had a lot of good feedback in the last couple of days about Leamington and Windsor [target clinics] from neighbours. They said it was going so smooth, they were really, really impressed,” he added.

  Krauter said it is a team effort, and thanked County Council members for their support.

  On March 17, Paramedics with Essex-Windsor EMS were on hand at the Temporary Emergency Shelter at the Aquatic Centre in Windsor Wednesday helping to vaccinate against COVID-19 persons experiencing homelessness.

  On March 11, members of the Essex-Windsor EMS Vulnerable Patient Navigator team vaccinated 44 residents of an apartment building, who had pre-registered for the mass vaccination clinics for those aged 80 and over. It was noted these individuals would have difficulties getting to the vaccination clinics.