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Residents gather en mass at council regarding East Energy Pipeline

North Bay City Council had a full house on Monday evening, with environmental issues taking centre stage. Presentations were made by area residents concerning the impact of the East Energy Pipeline to the community.

North Bay City Council had a full house on Monday evening, with environmental issues taking centre stage.

Presentations were made by area residents concerning the impact of the East Energy Pipeline to the community.

The major issues surrounding the pipeline centred upon the concerns about the environmental ramifications that a spill or leak could have on the Trout Lake Watershed, which provides the city with its drinking water.

The North Bay Taxpayer's Association was also at council, voicing their concerns over a hand-picked audit of a single city department that has had little detail released to the public other than the unaccounted for loss of 32,000 litres of fuel from the public works yard.

Surprisingly, council didn't try to explain or justify the how or why behind the unaccounted loss or attempt to increase the transparency of the issue by releasing the entire audit to the general public.

In addition, representatives of the North Bay Fire Department made a special presentation, inviting councillors and the mayor to visit and learn about their professional duties during a specific shift at house #1 on Princess St. November 23rd.

Council also discussed the arbitration process and the stances taken on each side regarding the reduced budgetary expenditures to their emergency services and what firefighters could deem as the limit of their responsibilities when attending emergencies.

Council also began to discuss the pro and cons of the solar rooftop FIT Program, in particular, it's implementation at 300 Lakeshore Drive, otherwise known as the North Bay Mall, and how subsidies in the program may or may not make it advantageous to the development of the city and its hydro electrical infrastructure.

For further details on some of these stories, please revisit BAYTODAY.CA.