Last February (2020) Elliot Lake City Councillors told city staff to set up a training session by Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing personnel for Council and senior staff.
But the COVID-19 pandemic caused the training session to be postponed since in-person meetings with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) representatives were not then, and still are now, not possible.
"It would be appropriate to revisit the Council direction in light of the changing landscape and proceed with the overdue training session," said Elliot Lake CAO Daniel Gagnon said in a written report to Elliot Lake City Council Committee of the Whole coming Monday night.
"It is recommended that staff be directed to convene a special council meeting, as soon as possible, in an electronic training session via Zoom that would be open and broadcast and include:
- Presentation by MMAH Presentation by the
- Integrity Commissioner (IC) Robert Swayze.
"Attendees would be all council members, senior staff and as many committee appointees as is possible (via Zoom or a Zoom hybrid using the Collins Hall for those members who are not Zoom capable).
"There would be very little cost to the amended training session. Simply a few hours of the fee for the IC (less than $1,000)," Gagnon concluded.
Also at Monday night's Committee of the Whole session, the Interim Curator of the Elliot Lake Nuclear and Mining Museum, Amelia D'Amato, will make a presentation recommending the city go ahead with a new Elliot Lake Guided Tour App.
She wrote, "The initial cost of our partnership with BuildFire included an Annual Pro-Services charge of $1,488 USD and the Standard Set-Up fee of $2,500 USD. Together, these came to $5,536.37 CAD. The annual subscription and services fee to keep our app on the market in subsequent years will be $1,488 USD (approximately $2066 CAD)."
D'Amato continued, "Amidst the confusion and constraints of COVID-19, an idea was formed that an app would be created to promote Elliot Lake’s rich cultural heritage in the form of a historical guided walking tour through our downtown area."
"These tours would substitute Elliot Lake’s museum and heritage sites which were experiencing limited access and outreach due to pandemic restrictions, as well as to combat the ennui of people remaining indoors and (maintaining) physical distancing.
"Guiding participants through a variety of tour spots—from monuments, historical buildings, and public art—this app will offer historical images, background, and personal testimonials to be perused at leisure," she went on.
"Available in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, this app will be accessible to all citizens and tourists with a mobile device, free of cost.
"The fee will be figured into the Nuclear and Mining Museum annual budget, but can be easily offset through the selling of advertisement space within the Local Business entry point of the app," concluded D'Amato.
The Guided Tour App and mandatory training items will be presented at Monday night's COW meeting which will be live-streamed on the Elliot Lake city website at 7 p.m.