The Mississippi Mills Town Council voted to rescind the Heritage moratorium yesterday evening at a Committee of the Whole. The vote was 7-4 with Councillors Jill McCubbin, Val Wilkinson, Bernard Cameron and Mayor Shaun McLaughlin voting against the motion to rescind. Councillors Duncan Abbott, John Edwards, Denzil Ferguson, Alex Gillis, Christa Lowry, Jane Torrance and Paul Watters voted for the motion. In discussing his reasons for voting against the motion, Mayor McLaughlin stated:
This motion asks us to make a choice between two groups of residents. That adds to the divisiveness that already exists around the issues of a heritage district and Enerdu. The moratorium idea is widely supported in the community. It was community leaders, not staff or Council, that initiated the idea.A much smaller group now opposes the moratorium. We should not make a decision based entirely on which is the bigger group, but base our decision on what brings the best result for the community.There is a naïveté built into the motion that–if we just dump the moratorium–people opposed to the heritage district will drop their opposition.
I doubt it.
ADDENDUM: A reader notes that Tuesday’s vote was not a final decision by Town Council, but rather a preliminary agreement by the Committee of the Whole to bring the motion to Council for a final vote at its February 17 meeting. At this point the moratorium has not been rescinded.
