Ward 8 councillor Nicholas Ermeta will be hosting another neighbourhood meeting at Fiddlesticks Community Centre to hear concerns from the community.
On Nov. 25, starting at 6:30 p.m. representatives from the City of Cambridge and the Region of Waterloo will be fielding concerns and comments from the community. There is no agenda at the meeting and topics could range anywhere from homelessness and property standards to budgets and ways to mitigate speeding on residential streets.
The meeting will also be attended by Cambridge regional councillor Doug Craig who has been around long enough to know these meetings could go "either way."
"I'll have my body armour in the car," Craig joked over the phone. "I think the most important thing about these meetings is that they are casual and there's a casual interaction in which people can raise any issue."
Budgets and the new roundabout coming to Franklin Boulevard and Saginaw Parkway are expected to be big topics at the meeting. The region just approved the $22 million roundabout and underpass with construction slated to start in 2027.
In a previous interview with CambridgeToday, Ermeta said these neighbourhood meetings are a way for residents to get their foot in the door of municipal politics and allow their representatives to hear their concerns.
"At council meetings, there is a more formal setting that requires the item to be on the agenda to be able to speak to it. However, this Neighbourhood Meeting will be informal in the sense that there is no agenda and people can speak to any issue of concern to them," he said.
Craig has recently joined several other Cambridge councillors in opposing the use of the notwithstanding clause to shut down encampments and expects to hear concerns about that at the meeting.
"There are two things with that; one is that the notwithstanding clause and how it's not appropriate and the other is the fact that communities and neighborhoods are as vulnerable as vulnerable people in terms of the issues they're facing," he said.
