Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau is looking back on the Town’s accomplishments in 2021.
In a social media post, Charbonneau says, “There’s no doubt that 2021 has been a challenging year. But, for the Town of
(Saugeen Shores) it has also been a year of great accomplishments that are worth celebrating.”
Chabonneau says, “We issued more than $130 million in building permits, creating opportunities for new people to live and work in Saugeen Shores,” and notes the town, “Welcomed several new businesses to its community.”
He adds, “We made our streets safer by lowering speed limits and creating community safety zones around our hospital and schools.”
In September, council approved a universal speed limit in urban areas of 40km/hr, unless otherwise posted and several other areas with reduced speed limits. Councillors also approved seven new stops signs, seven new four-way stops and four new Community Safety Zones with increased fines for speeding in those zones.
He says the Town completed construction of the Lamont Sports Park which is in Port Elgin’s south end. The baseball park includes a number of diamonds with irrigation and lighting, and will have connecting paths to the Saugeen Rail Trail, temporary washrooms (to be enhanced later) and parking.
Charbonneau says, “We settled the decades long land claim dispute between Saugeen Shores and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation.”
Highlights of that settlement in the 25 year old include the Town of Saugeen Shores providing about 1.7 hectares of municipal property, financial compensation and a commitment for ongoing municipal support for housing development. The claim went to trial in 2019 and Saugeen Ojibway Nations and Saugeen Shores reached an agreement on September 21st.
He also notes a new VON medical clinic opened in town and recruited two new physicians.
Charbonneau also points to some work on affordable housing, saying, “We received (and began to implement) the report of our Attainable Housing Task Force.”
Charbonneau writes, “As always, we have every reason to be proud of our community and optimistic about its future. I’m looking forward to 2022 as we face our challenges and seize our opportunities together.”