A lot of experience walked out the door at Elliot Lake City Hall Monday night.
At the City Council meeting, Elliot Lake Economic Development Advisory Committee chair Marie Murphy-Foran, and members Edo Ten Broek, Cam Tucker and Laurie Blake all resigned from the city's Economic Development Advisory Committee.
"I'm disappointed that the members have chosen to resign. But I understand, I think it's a sign of their frustration," said Councillor Tom Turner.
"When we haven't had meetings for nine months, then projects that different advisory committees are working on come to a grinding halt. The city was dealing with ever-changing situations and information from higher governments about how things were going. Whether we could plan was very limited.
"The end result was we weren't communicating with our volunteers, because we had no information that we could count on to tell them that we were getting back together, pursuing projects. The tumbling domino effect here was that, while perhaps council may have very limited information, I think the volunteers have little or nothing. And so I think we could have done a better job," concluded Turner.
That left Turner, fellow Councillor Ed Pearce and two citizen volunteers, vice-chairs Steve Antunes and Frederick Henwood, as the only remaining Economic Development Advisory Committee members.
"I think it's a very sad day. I think we have a problem when people of their quality are leaving volunteer committees and I think we have to have a discussion about that. I really do," Councillor Pearce said.
Councillor Luc Cyr said the four defections represent a big loss for Elliot Lake.
"This is actually a tragedy for Elliot Lake. We're losing decades of experience here and people who would give dozens of hours per week for the community to help make Elliot Lake a better place. Post mall collapse, these people put in hours and hours and hours to help us rebound.
"We have to find a way to show better appreciation for the efforts done by our volunteers, and we all have to work together better. This is a failure of us working together," concluded Councillor Cyr.
Mayor Dan Marchisella stated, "These individuals have been involved in economic development, and other initiatives and committees for many, many years in our community so it is definitely with regrets that we see them go."
"Just like to comment, I've sat on the board, these boards, with some of these people for more than a decade," said Councillor Chris Patrie.
"It's not just with regrets – it's very, very sad to see us losing people that have put that many hours, and years into working on behalf of our community, to see them leaving in these numbers. I'm just really sorry to see them all go."