Sarnia's mayor hopes a review of regulations governing churches, soup kitchens and food banks is coming back to council for the last time on Monday.
Mike Bradley hopes council approves the city staff report, recommending a simplified bylaw model based before 2002 as council had asked for in their November and October meetings.
He says if passed, churches or other religious organizations will be able to operate without government intrusion.
"We should not be intruding in the operation of churches," says Bradley. "The previous proposed bylaw by staff has us deciding how much of the space in a church was for worship. It had all sorts of other intrusions in how much space they could have for pantries to give food to the poor."
Mayor Bradley believes the city would have battled a Charter of Rights court case if it did not back off on the restrictive bylaw changes.
