Milton Pool. Photo Ed Halverson

The only concrete action taken at the latest Region of Queens council meeting was the decision to create a pool committee.

Councillors Jack Fancy and Vicki Amirault will be joined by two members of the Queens Community Aquatic Society and two residents at large on the six-person panel.

However, Mayor Darlene Norman says it still isn’t clear what responsibilities the committee will have.

“What they’re going to talk about? I don’t know. Maybe they can discuss how to encourage more people to become lifeguards or other things, because they really have no authority to make decisions,” said Norman. “We’ll just see how it goes.”

The push to build a new pool gained steamed earlier this year when it was announced an anonymous donor was gifting $3 million towards its construction.

Since then, some members of council and the Queens Community Aquatic Society have been pushing to tie the new pool to the development of a new library.

The mayor says municipal staff time is at a premium right now and no one is available to sit on the committee and provide resources as they are already working on several other major projects in the community.

“Our engineering and our CAO and our planner, they’re very involved with the building of the new Queens Manor, highly involved with that. We’ve got some major street work going on,” said Norman. “We’re, like many municipal units, we’re struggling with our staff shortage numbers. We don’t have enough labourers in our engineering department.”

Norman says staff is fully prepared to take the on the development of a new pool in 2023.

“At which time they will consult with the community about an outdoor pool, location, etc.”

The committee is expected to meet in early October and Norman says council will attempt to determine what the committee’s function will be before that first meeting.

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Back Row – Councillor Ralph Gidney, District 2; Councillor Carl J. Hawkes, District 7; Councillor David Brown, District 6; Deputy Mayor Kevin Muise, District 1; Councillor Jack Fancy, District 5. Front Row – Councillor Maddie Charlton, District 3; Mayor Darlene Norman; Councillor Vicki Amirault, District 4. Photo courtesy Region of Queens

The Region of Queens experienced a lot of “firsts” when council was sworn in last week.

In the region’s 24-year history, Mayor Darlene Norman is the first woman to ever hold the top post in the municipality.

At 29 years old, District 3 Councillor Maddie Charlton became the youngest person ever elected to council.

Norman and Charlton join District 4 Councillor Vicki Amirault, to account for the largest number of women on Queens council.

Mayor Norman sees this as people’s attitude’s becoming more progressive.

“People in Queens are not looking at gender,” said Norman. “They’re seeing people for who they are. They’re looking at their personalities and their strengths and it’s not who’s got the skirt and who’s got the pants.”

Norman says she’s never allowed herself to be pigeon-holed because of her gender.

“I grew up with three brothers and no sisters so I climbed the biggest trees and hunted and did what my brothers did. I never really felt that I was second shoe because I was a woman. But yet I realize that the world sees it that way, often,” said Norman.

Charlton says she was aware she was the youngest person campaigning to be on council but was pleasantly surprised by the reaction from people on the doorsteps.

“I was overwhelmed by the support I got from people,” said Charlton. “They were so excited that someone younger was running. People would often talk about how they wished people would. But given the current way council is run, it’s really hard for someone to be able to go to those council meetings in the daytime and work.”

Fortunately for Charlton, she is self-employed, operating her own hair salon out of her home. She says her clients have been very understanding about scheduling their appointments around council meetings.

Charlton said a few people did challenge her ability to maintain her family life and keep up with her council responsibilities, but they were in the minority.

“And I know that, had roles been reversed and my husband had been out campaigning that he would not have been asked that,” said Charlton.

She doesn’t take it personally and believes the question is all part of a learning curve for everyone in the municipality.

Charlton is hoping residents will be more involved in the work council is doing. To that end, she would like to change council meeting times to allow more people to engage with council.

“People just feel like they don’t know what’s going on. I would like to see more evening council meetings,” said Charlton. “At one point that’s how it always was, there weren’t daytime council meetings, they only happened in the evening.”

Charlton says live-streaming council meetings has been a great way for the public to be aware of what is going on and she would like to see that continue.

Mayor Norman feels the make up of this council is a good mix of older and younger people, each bringing their own perspectives to the discussions.

She says council will need to prioritize updating the their land use zoning and planning but aside from that, she will look to councillors to bring what they’re hearing from the community to the floor to determine the course they will take over the next four years.

“That’s really the role of the mayor, is to unite a group of people, bring them together to a common decision and accept that decision,” said Norman. “If I don’t agree with something but the majority of council agrees with it, even as the mayor, I will accept that decision and go forward with that decision, because that’s what a true council does.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson