Coun. Bill Gordon wants staff to look into reopening facilities and services such as public washrooms.
"The parks are open and the public washrooms are going to open at some point," he said. "People's bodily functions don't stop during the pandemic. We need to do better to get those services open for people's needs. When can we expect to see things like the washrooms to open?"
Gordon was asking these questions during Wednesday's committee of the whole meeting as the group of elected officials launched into a discussion around the COVID-19 financial impacts report by staff.
Gordon said he understands cleaning public washrooms requires a far heavier staff, especially in the pandemic, but added that it can be done.
"I know we can hire students with the wage subsidy that is available, the federal government will pay 100 percent of their wages," Gordon said.
In addition, he asked what's preventing the town from managing waste disposal at the harbour and garbage bins along the trails.
Further, Gordon said, he was concerned about the port-a-potty at Midland Bay Landing that's being vandalized and tipped over.
"That's the most gross thing to happen to a port-a-potty," he said. "We placed (it there) in the fall, but the real target audience are people who will use it during these days. I think we need to move it to some point in that park where we can chain it. I'd like to know if our contractor is able to fulfill the cleaning of the port-a-potty."
But environment and infrastructure executive director Andy Campbell said the town hasn't hired his department's 15 summer staff.
"That's a lot of manpower," he said. "What the recommendation of this report does is to give direction to staff to start hiring some of those employees. Right now, we have no staff working weekends."
CAO David Denault added that opening up facilities like public washrooms is at the top of the staff's reopening list.
"We're trying to figure out in the regulations what, in fact, we are able to do," he said.
These two views were backed by chief financial officer Michael Jermey.
"As it stands now, if you approve the recommendations as they are, then we proceed to open the harbour on the weekend, we proceed to open the parks on the weekends," he said. "That's where this is ultimately going at this time."
Council voted unanimously to approve the recommendations in the staff report along with a move to continue deferring penalties or interest for non-payment of the June 29 property tax installment until the first of the month following the lifting of the declared emergency.
Council also supported staff recommendation around the continued suspension of paid and time parking fees.
