Council chambers at Sarnia City Hall. (Photo by Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley from Twitter)Council chambers at Sarnia City Hall. (Photo by Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley from Twitter)
Sarnia

Sarnia council considers job cuts, expanded virtual meetings

Another virtual Sarnia council meeting will be streamed online Monday morning.

Mayor Mike Bradley said they're keeping the agendas short with emphasis on urgent matters only, but approval is needed to hold virtual public engagement meetings as well.

The mayor said he believes the city will experience a boom when the pandemic crisis is over, and in the meantime, planning and rezoning hearings have to be dealt with in some way.

"There's probably half-a-dozen right now that are held up because we can't meet to hear delegations and have staff in the room in the traditional way," said Bradley. "So it will be tricky, some of these rezonings involve apartment buildings and other projects, residential development, and we're looking at a way that we can have a virtual town hall meeting so the public can get their input and council can make a decision on that particular project."

Bradley said, while dealing with the virus is the priority right now, there are some specialized projects that are being advanced.

"The Plank Road project will proceed with safeguards, the heavy load corridor is receiving funding and we'll look at what else we can do with safeguards for the construction workers. But you need to keep on advancing the city and positioning it, the economic partnership in the next week or so will be looking at how we exit this," he said.

During Monday's meeting, city council will consider not filling vacant positions, or hiring students and seasonal workers. A total of 164 positions will be impacted to offset lost revenues due to COVID-19.

Council's virtual meeting begins at 10 a.m.

-With files from Melanie Irwin

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