{"id":7797,"date":"2024-11-11T16:51:38","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T20:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7797"},"modified":"2024-11-11T16:52:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T20:52:53","slug":"new-faces-other-changes-as-region-of-queens-councillors-hold-first-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/11\/11\/new-faces-other-changes-as-region-of-queens-councillors-hold-first-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"New faces, other changes as Region of Queens councillors hold first meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Scott Christian, mayor of the Region of Queens, is preparing for the newly elected council’s first meeting. (Rick Conrad photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Queens County residents can expect more than just new faces around the table as regional council meets Tuesday, for the first time since the October election.<\/span><\/p>\n

Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian says people will also notice changes in how meetings are run. He says they\u2019ll be a little less formal, and give councillors more opportunity to address residents\u2019 concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we can, making it feel more approachable and trying to generate good, fulsome conversation,” Christian told QCCR in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

“So a little less formal, a little more conversational with the hope of making it more engaging for the public and to really foster good conversation around the table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the first issues they\u2019ll tackle on Tuesday is the new outdoor pool at Queens Place Emera Centre<\/a>. In his campaign for mayor, Christian said he wants the pool to be a year-round, indoor facility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The region broke ground on the new pool on Oct. 4. The $8-million structure is slated to be open by 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian says he and the rest of council will discuss the region\u2019s options if councillors eventually decide to upgrade the project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven’t had an apportuity as a council to debate this and I look forward to hearing what my fellow members of council, what their perspectives are on it,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“But at this stage, the motion will just be related to having better information. From my perspecitve, that’s the first appropriate step, is to have a complete understanding about if we go down that path what are we getting ourselves into, but also what opportunites are there, what willingness is there on part of the various funders at the table and the construction company who’s been engaged to pursue a shift in scope?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Before becoming mayor, Christian was a private and public sector consultant. He was elected in a tight race in the Oct. 19 election with former Queens County educator Terry Doucette.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The other new faces on council<\/a> are Roberta Roy, Courtney Wentzell, Wanda Carver and Stewart Jenkins. They\u2019ll be joining re-elected councillors Maddie Charlton, Jack Fancy and Vicki Amirault.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian says he\u2019ll be working as mayor full time. And he admits he has a lot to learn.<\/span><\/p>\n

But he says he and the rest of council have had a good start, thanks to guidance from CAO Cody Joudry and a productive two-day training and orientation session in Halifax last week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“What I heard loud and clear throughout the campaign was a desire to see our council working effectively together. I think that we’ve already made some really great strides. I’ve had conversations with each and every member of the council and sought to hear them out. … I think we made some really positive strides as a group in terms of coming together while we were in Halifax. … And another thing too is working effectively with other members of the community, with other organizations, and other orders of government, and what I hear is a real comitment across the team to start to do those things.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian says there\u2019s a lot of work to be done. But he also says that with a staffing crunch at the region, he and the rest of council need to be patient.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We as a council need to be realistic in terms of the capacity of the staff right now to execute on some of the work that is important. The whole team has a real commitment to addressing the priority concerns in the community, but we need to do it in a way that makes sense.”<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Christian says he hopes he and the rest of council can get the public more involved and engaged in the region\u2019s business.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are accountable to the pepole of Queens and we need to make sure that they are well informed and that they have access to the decisions that we’ve made and the conversations we’ve had in reaching those deicsions.”<\/p>\n

The new Region of Queens council meets Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. at council chambers on White Point Road. You can see the agenda here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/nov1124newsupdate.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

QCCR acknowledges the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s Local Journalism Initiative.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queens County residents can expect more than just new faces around the table as regional council meets Tuesday, for the first time since the October election. Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian says people will also notice changes in how meetings are run. He says they\u2019ll be a little less formal, and give councillors more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[543,2593,2595,472,95,291,49,1497,24,2594,226,2597,2441,96,2596],"class_list":["post-7797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-council","tag-council-meeting","tag-courtney-wentzell","tag-jack-fancy","tag-maddie-charlton","tag-politics","tag-queens-county","tag-queens-mayor","tag-region-of-queens","tag-roberta-roy","tag-scott-christian","tag-stewart-jenkins","tag-terry-doucette","tag-vicki-amirault","tag-wanda-carver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7797"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7801,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797\/revisions\/7801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}