Elliot Lake Lake Director of Finance and Treasurer Amy Sonnenburg will present the city's 2022 insurance renewal at tonight's virtual Council meeting.
She told the last meeting of the finance and administration committee the increase is still 13 per cent higher than last year.
It could have been much higher.
In her report, Sonnenburg wrote that since June of 2021 she and city staff have been working on risk mitigation regarding city activities to help curb insurance premium increases.
She said the city saw a premium increase for 2022 at 13.52 percent which included new policies that added drone, environmental impairment, excess transit and marine liability for just under $25,000. That is three per cent of the global increase.
"BFL Canada (the city's current insurer) said the increase for 2022 is well below what most municipalities are paying city staff are committed to continuing working with BFL," said Sonnenberg.
Also at Monday night's virtual meeting, council could approve a date and format for a public meeting on the future of the long-planned city recreation hub.
At council’s last meeting in February, Coun. Chris Patrie said a report on the rec hub needs to come to council first, then to a town hall-style public meeting.
He wanted an engineer’s report on the proposed new facility on Ontario Avenue to go to a future council meeting before more public input is sought.
CAO Daniel Gagnon suggested that any meeting be held before the end of March would work.
He also recommended a hybrid format to accommodate both council members and the public on Zoom and in person.
Mayor Dan Marchisella said user groups should participate in the meeting. He also wanted a special meeting to be set up so council could focus on the recreation hub, without the need to deal with all the items in a regular council meeting.
Coun. Ed Pearce said it would be best to bring the report to council first so information could be publicized regarding the costs and time frames.
Coun. Sandy Finamore said she only wanted to debate the issue once, preferably before the public. She suggested the Collins Hall as a venue where more people could take part.
That would include members of the public and user groups. Mayor Dan Marchisella also said he wants user groups involved.