Part 1: GIS Planning, Picton Marina Updates, and Community Improvement Funding – 02/26/2026
- PECConnect
- Feb 26
- 5 min read
The County councillors met as Committee of the Whole on Thursday, February 26, 2026, at Shire Hall in Picton. The point of this kind of meeting is to talk through reports, ask questions, and shape motions that are not final until they come back to Council for a formal decision.
After confirming the agenda, the meeting moved quickly into three main items that tied together in a familiar municipal way: better data for better decisions, better operations for a key waterfront service, and outside funding to support a longer planning process.
View the entire PEC Council meeting, or continue to speaker comments and councillor votes.
A closer look at how the County uses GIS
The first major discussion was a presentation about the County’s use of GIS, short for Geographic Information Systems. Kathy MacMillan and Melissa Dick from Esri Canada spoke about a current state assessment completed with County staff.
Dick explained GIS in plain terms: it is technology that layers information onto maps so people can make decisions based on place. For residents, that might look like a public map viewer that helps confirm property-related information. For County staff, it can mean tools that track and manage things like roads, trees, water infrastructure, and development activity.
The presentation emphasized that GIS is already deeply baked into daily municipal work. County mapping supports infrastructure planning, long-term budgeting, environmental tracking, and communicating with the public about what work is happening and where. Dick also pointed to the pressure municipalities face for clearer information about road construction and how tax dollars are being spent, and described GIS as one way to organize and share those details more effectively.
A big theme was that staff want to move beyond simply storing data and making maps. The stated goal is to use GIS more for analysis, communication, and decision support across departments, including areas where use is still emerging.
Esri’s benchmarking tool placed the County in a “developing” stage of GIS maturity, with gaps especially in strategy and in technology and data. The main recommendation was for the County to create a formal geospatial strategy and a governance framework so future investments are guided by a clear roadmap and tied directly to business needs.
Councillors asked practical questions about how the benchmarking compares to similar-sized municipalities, and whether GIS could track operational issues like culverts that need repairs. The answer was yes, including the option for mobile reporting workflows that create work orders for staff.
Staff report: what GIS looks like inside the organization
Following the presentation, Grant Hopkins, GIS Supervisor for the County, spoke to council about what the County’s GIS team has been working on and why the assessment lined up with issues identified in other reviews, including manual processes and the need for better integration and automation.
Hopkins described a shift in demand inside the organization. Instead of GIS staff always pitching possible uses, more staff are coming to the GIS team with specific problems they want to solve. He also shared a concrete update on infrastructure mapping progress: the County is in the high 90 percent range for water and sanitary mapping completion, with stormwater mapping still in progress.
There was also discussion about what should and should not be public. Hopkins explained that some layers cannot be shared due to privacy rules and sensitive information, including items protected under MFIPPA and certain site data like archaeological locations. Other information, like zoning and official plan layers, is part of a push toward more transparency through an open data approach.
Council received the GIS report for information.
Picton Marina: a successful restart
Next, the meeting turned to the Picton Marina, with Troy Gilmore, Director of Operations, introducing the report and recognizing staff who helped bring marina operations back in-house for the 2025 season.
Albert Paschkowiak, Environmental Services and Sustainability Supervisor, walked through what was accomplished and what still needs improvement. Staff opened by mid-May after a tight turnaround, offering slip rentals, transient docking, fuel services, sewage pump-outs, ice, boat launches, and parking. Paschkowiak reported roughly $185,000 in revenue and an operating shortfall of just under $20,000, which he tied largely to necessary repairs and catch-up work discovered early on.
The discussion focused heavily on learning and improving. Pain points included manual slip management, limited docking space during peak season, and missing dockside services like water and hydro. Paschkowiak outlined planned improvements already reflected in the current budget, including a marina management system to track payments and usage data more cleanly.
The biggest forward-looking piece was a request for council support to enter discussions with the owner of docks occupying Water Lot 1. Staff said they had been approached and wanted authority to explore an operating agreement and report back to council with details. Paschkowiak noted there may be 67 additional slips involved, but emphasized that everything depends on the terms and that staff would return to council before anything is decided.
Council supported the motion for staff to pursue discussions and come back with a draft operating agreement proposal for the 2026 season.
Funding for an “Invest in PEC” Community Improvement Plan
The final report came from Karen Palmer, Economic Development Officer, who explained that the County was successful in securing funding that would help cover the cost of specialists to develop a Community Improvement Plan under the Planning Act.
Palmer described the plan as a tool to incentivize certain property upgrades that could support community and economic goals. She noted the process is expected to take about a year and includes both external and internal consultation. Council also supported bringing a bylaw forward at a future council meeting to authorize the related contribution agreement.
Key takeaways
The County is treating GIS as more than a mapping tool, and council is being asked to support a more strategic, organized approach to how data guides decisions.
Picton Marina operations had a strong first season back under County management, and staff are now looking at practical upgrades and a potential agreement that could expand public docking space.
The County secured outside funding support for a Community Improvement Plan, which will be a longer, consultation-heavy process that can shape future incentives for property improvements.
Disclaimer: This article is based on a meeting with an approximate duration of 1:17:58. Due to the length of the meeting, our team was not able to independently review the full recording in its entirety. As a result, we relied on software-generated transcription, automated summarization, and automated recognition of speakers and participants, which may not be entirely accurate. All transcriptions, summaries, and related content are prepared by our team in good faith and on a reasonable best-efforts basis. The content is provided for general informational purposes only and is intended to support public understanding of the topics discussed. While reasonable efforts have been made to present the information accurately, automated processes may result in errors, omissions, or unintended misinterpretations. This article does not constitute an official, certified, or verbatim record of the meeting, and it should not be relied upon as such. Readers are encouraged to consult original source materials, official minutes, or recordings where available for confirmation or clarification. Questions, requests for clarification, or suggested corrections may be submitted to hello@pecconnect.ca for review and consideration.
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