Part 1: Awards, Community Giving, and a Short List of Council Business - 03/25/2025
- PECConnect
- Mar 25, 2025
- 7 min read
The County Council regular meeting at Shire Hall on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, beginning at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Steve Ferguson chairing. The meeting opened with a land acknowledgement and a reminder that proceedings were being livestreamed and would form part of the public record. After confirming there were no declarations of pecuniary interest, Council confirmed the agenda and then moved into a closed session under the Municipal Act to deal with two matters: an acquisition or disposition of land in Picton, and litigation or potential litigation related to a reconstruction project.
View the entire PEC Council meeting, or continue to speaker comments and councillor votes.
Arbitration Costs and Industrial Land Sales
When Council returned to open session, Ferguson explained there were two motions coming out of closed session before the regular agenda moved on. First, Councillors Roberts and Hirsch brought forward a motion authorizing payment of $1,466,653.33 to K. Mulrooney Trucking Ltd. in response to an arbitration award. Council carried the motion.
Next, Councillors Branderhorst and St.-Jean moved the authorization to sell municipal industrial park land to Tim Dainard Electric Inc. and Otter Energy Inc., with the parcels described in detail during the meeting. Ferguson noted the by laws to authorize these sales would be approved in open session at the April 8, 2025 Council meeting. Council carried this motion as well.
Even without debate on the floor in this moment, these were the kinds of decisions that show what closed session often contains: big dollar outcomes, legal and land matters, and the formal votes that bring parts of that work into public view.
Announcements and Proclamations
Council then moved into announcements, starting with Roberts, who shared three items. He promoted the Sophiasburgh Recreation Committee’s Maple Pub Night 2025 in Demorestville, highlighted a fundraising dinner for the County Food Hub at Base 31, and then marked the significance of March 25 by referencing the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march led by Martin Luther King Jr., connecting it to the Voting Rights Act.
St.-Jean followed with two announcements, promoting City Revival’s annual spring fashion show with food bank donations, and sharing details about the rebranding of St Andrews Presbyterian Church as The Andrew, described as “a space for every story.”
Ferguson then added his own remarks, noting the anniversary of the 2020 declaration of emergency tied to the global pandemic, and pointing to Maple in the County happening throughout the municipality. He also read several proclamations, including Daffodil Month, Parkinson’s Awareness Month with World Parkinson’s Day, Green Shirt Day as part of Be A Donor Month, World Autism Day, and National Epilepsy Awareness Day.
Civic Recognition: Alexandra Bake and the Picton Library Expansion
The tone shifted as Ferguson moved into a presentation he described as one of the best parts of the job: recognizing local contributions in a public way.
Ferguson spoke at length about Alexandra Bake, describing her long standing impact on Picton, including work connected to Main Street and heritage focused renovations that, in his words, predated the municipality’s Picton Heritage Conservation District. He then introduced Barbara Sweet, CEO of Prince Edward County Public Library, who had submitted the nomination.
Sweet described Bake’s role as Honorary Chair of the Picton Expansion Fundraising Committee, saying Bake worked over four years arranging events, meeting donors, and building support that helped raise close to $3 million, described as over 80 percent of total costs. Sweet also spoke about how the expanded library space is being used, from children’s programming and meeting rooms to a sound room supporting recordings, including a moment she highlighted as especially memorable: a broadcast from Picton Library.
Ferguson then read the civic recognition certificate, emphasizing Bake’s leadership, the fundraising achievement, and the practical community use of the expanded library space.
Feed the Meter and What It Pays For
Council then heard a deputation from the Hastings and Prince Edward Learning Foundation, introduced by Ferguson as Kelly Brace, Executive Director, and Jen Barrett, Resource Development, speaking about Feed the Meter, Feed the Kids and the broader work of the foundation.
Brace explained the foundation’s mission as supporting student learning, well being, and achievement, but framed it in very plain terms: many students do not struggle because schoolwork is hard, but because life barriers make it harder to show up ready to learn. She described barriers like food insecurity, lack of clothing and boots, hygiene needs, and the cost of essentials like eyeglasses. She also walked Council through three core programs: Food for Learning, Sharing Cupboards in secondary schools, and a Student Emergency Fund that schools can access to meet urgent needs that keep students engaged and attending.
Barrett then focused on Feed the Meter, thanking County staff and Council for supporting the program. She said the Food for Learning program spends over $100,000 each year in the County to support more than 2,200 students, with almost 600 students participating each day, which she described as about one in four. She also promoted the Prom Project, which provides free formal wear to students for prom and graduation, and shared current donation needs, including small and medium suits and size 16 plus dresses.
During questions, Maynard thanked the foundation and asked what prom items were most needed, while Roberts asked about how many emergency fund requests and technology supports were coming from the County schools. Brace said she did not have the emergency fund breakdown on hand but would provide details, and she believed three County schools had received technology support in the $3,000 to $5,000 range, noting she would confirm.
Ferguson then presented a cheque for $2,448.35 connected to the Feed the Meter effort, and Council formally received the deputation by motion.
Remuneration and a Purchasing By Law Shift
Council’s first item for consideration was an annual finance report on the statement of remuneration and expenses paid to Council members and municipal appointees for 2024. Ann Wood, Manager of Finance and Deputy Treasurer, explained it as a legislated annual requirement and noted it was consistent with previous years aside from updates. Council carried the motion to receive it for information.
Next came a report that landed in the moment the way municipal policy often does: practical, timely, and tied to outside forces. Council considered changes to the purchasing by law framed around Buy Local, Buy Canadian, with an added requirement that staff monitor and report back ahead of the 2026 budget deliberations on tariff impacts, including cost escalations, supply chain disruptions, and bid competitiveness.
Matthew Nestorovski, Procurement Coordinator, explained staff were recommending increasing the open competitive threshold from $50,000 to $100,000 to align with current trade agreements, which would allow more use of local and domestic suppliers at higher values when conducting quotations.
Roberts pressed on whether there were provincial or federal barriers that limited what municipalities could do. Nestorovski referenced restrictions tied to trade agreements, and Sam Branderhorst (speaking in that capacity during the item) added that municipalities buy a huge volume of goods and services annually, and the sector has been looking for clearer direction on how to leverage that buying power. Maynard focused on how ongoing and flexible the approach would be, and also pushed for “local” to be understood in a way that supports not just the County but the surrounding region, since nearby communities directly affect County residents. Staff responses suggested that functionally the policy already captured that broader Canadian business category, and that a fuller by law review was also underway.
Council carried the motion.
Membership Adjustment for This Term
Council then returned to a question that had been referred from a previous meeting: appointing a councillor to the Built and Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee. With no immediate volunteer coming forward to fill the second councillor seat, the Clerk outlined an alternative: amend the committee’s terms of reference to reduce councillor representation from two to one, similar to changes made on other committees.
Councillor St.-Jean asked whether reducing a councillor seat should also mean adding an additional public member, both to maintain capacity and to broaden participation. Discussion touched on volunteer interest and the value of skills and experience on heritage matters. In the end, Council approved an amendment that reduced councillor membership from two to one and replaced that seat with an additional public member.
Council then approved a set of routine items by consent, including previous minutes and committee reports. Two by laws were also adopted, including a by law to amend the procurement and disposal by law connected to Buy Local, Buy Canadian, and a by law adopting an amendment to the Official Plan described in the minutes as General Amendment No. 6. Council then passed the confirmatory by law and adjourned at 8:08 p.m.
Key Takeaways
Closed session outcomes still come with public votes, and this meeting included a major payment tied to an arbitration award plus clear movement on selling municipal industrial park land.
Council is actively adjusting how it buys goods and services, using the purchasing by law as a tool to support local and Canadian suppliers while also watching tariff related pressure points before the 2026 budget cycle.
A lot of what shows up in a Council meeting is about community infrastructure in the broadest sense, from celebrating the work behind the Picton Library expansion to hearing how programs like Feed the Meter, Feed the Kids remove barriers that affect whether local students can actually show up ready to learn.
Disclaimer: This article is based on a meeting with an approximate duration of 2:09:48. 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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