Chatham-Kent councillors will be discussing the postponement of public consultation on woodlot preservation until it hires a consultant to determine what more information and engagement are needed on a tree-cutting bylaw.
A report going to council at its next meeting on Monday night recommends postponing all meetings and activities of the Natural Heritage Committee of the Whole until a consultant is retained. That means submissions that were to go before the committee on April 11 and May 16, 2022 won't be heard.
"Public engagement commitments to the public should have the goal of involving the public throughout a decision-making process to ensure that concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and considered. This is achieved by working with the public to ensure that concerns and aspirations are reflected in alternatives developed by providing feedback on how public input influenced decisions," administration wrote in the report. "Should further engagement occur as recommended in the March 21 report, it is not clear on the specific purpose of the engagement or how the submissions from the public will be reflected in a final decision; nor could it be clearly communicated to the public how their feedback influenced the decision."
'Rageen Granny' of activist group The Raging Grannies of Chatham-Kent calls it a knee-jerk reaction to the possible regulation against cutting down trees, adding they feel shut out of the process.
"I believe this is a knee-jerk reaction on the part of the woodlot owners who fear the implementation of a bylaw and want to bully council in any way they can," she said. "We've been working hard at the grassroots level reaching out to the public for almost a year on this issue. This is like a slap in the face to all of our hard work and a betrayal to the public who are so engaged in this issue and prepared to make their voices heard on the options."
'Rageen' believes that this will be an election issue.
Local environmentalist Ken Bell calls the move a delay tactic because plenty of public consultation has already been done and the woodlot preservation options have already been laid out for approval.
"I feel that up until Monday this process has gone very well and democratically with this particular administration. In the past, there was a lot of under-the-table manipulation and that derailed the entire process," said Bell.
Bell hopes council doesn't cave to the demands of the Kent Federation of Agriculture (KFA), as he claims the committee members did last Monday night.
"It looked to me that a lot of the councillors, the ones who would have opposed it just kind of gave in at the end of it, which is unfortunate," he said.
The KFA is demanding more public input on the municipal temporary tree cutting bylaw and previously said the consultation process needs to be led by a non-biased, third-party mediator.
The temporary clear-cutting bylaw currently in place expires at the end of April. The bylaw regulates the removal of woodlots in Chatham-Kent.
Council is expected to receive a report at its meeting on April 25, 2022 to consider what to do with the bylaw.
