MEDIA RELEASE

FROM: Mayor Chris Friel DATE: Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

Last evening, Tuesday, November 27, 2012, representatives of the City of Brantford's Strategic Growth Negotiations Task Force, led by Mayor Chris Friel travelled to the Country of Brant Council Chambers to present the City's position on the need for City boundary expansion.

The City and County last met in June of this year however, this latest meeting was the first opportunity for the City to articulate its position. Previously, the two municipalities had negotiated and signed a letter of intent in 2007 which would have seen a new Brantford boundary extend in the north to Governors Road and also include property referred to as the Hopewell lands located at Garden Ave. Although an agreement was drafted, both parties eventually announced they were withdrawing from discussion in 2009.

Although the details of the Citys request were held in a closed session, there were a number of recommendations put forward by Brantford's Mayor at the open portion of the meeting, all related to advancing a schedule of bi-weekly meetings, recognizing the need for the active participation and commitment to the resolution of the boundary adjustment by both municipalities. Mayor Friel requested that the Committee consider a date of January 8th as a point by which if the two parties were not fully engaged, that the Office of the Provincial Facilitator be asked to facilitate the negotiations.

The County of Brant received the Mayors presentation, but beyond that, the City's Strategic Growth Negotiations Task Force requests were "tabled" by the Brant representatives, with no agreement on the next meeting date and, no comment on the desire of the City to involve the Office of the Provincial Development Facilitator should the County not demonstrate a willingness to achieve a resolution. After a lengthy presentation by Mayor Friel, he commented, "The City of Brantford has put forward to the County of Brant a position that reflects the long term needs of the City - to achieve the desires of the Province of Ontario under Places to Grow and recognizing that Brantford is committed to sustainable development principles, properly planned growth, using existing infrastructure capacity to provide opportunity for new jobs and neighbourhoods." -----30-----