Councillor John Edwards reported yesterday on his concern that some fellow members of Council appear ready to jettison core principals of the Community Official Plan — a document that was developed over years through extensive public consultation — in favour of a strongly pro-development agenda. As Councillor Edwards said:
Mississippi Mills started off with a very open and consultative approach to decision-making. It is one of the reasons the rural and small-town character of our community has become a centre-piece of our economic development strategy. However, if we erode and ignore ‘ground-up’ grass-roots consultations as a fundamental way of doing business we will end up like all the other municipalities where the development industry completely controls the future.
This issue is up for debate in Council tomorrow night, and we encourage everyone concerned about the direction our town may be headed to attend. Note that the start time for this session is 5 PM, March 6, not 6 PM as earlier stated.