A big first step was made Tuesday night toward strengthening relations between the City of Kingston and its university or college-going constituents.
It’s no secret that tensions between the local student population and the city have heightened in recent years.
With three post-secondary institutions, St. Lawrence College, Royal Military College and Queen’s University, it’s not uncommon for partying to spill into the streets, causing headaches for neighbours, police and by-law enforcement.
At Tuesday night’s Kingston city council meeting council voted in favour of the creation of a working group involving parties from all sides, to ease future issues.
“It shouldn’t be on the backs of our regular citizens to try and resolve the issues. It’s a city issue and as I said when I campaigned, the students are our constituents,” said Coun. Conny Glenn at Tuesday’s meeting.
Coun. Glenn, who put forward the motion, proposed a working group comprised of city councillors, city administration, by-law, non-student representatives of all three schools, the Queen’s Alma Mater Society, the St. Lawrence Student’s Association, RMC Student Government and a landlord or property manager.
Glenn said that working on problems that students face will also help better the city in the long run.
“We have students come here, they train, they’re well educated, they’re bright, and they leave. and we need to have those people stay,” she added.
Coun. Don Amos, who’s district has portions of two of the three schools in it, backed Coun. Glenn’s proposal.
“These are good communication aspects that will come from this working group, so, I appreciate it and I’ll be voting for it,” said Amos.
Council voted, and the motion was approved.
Now, staff will begin working on the structure of the working group, and will return to council with suggestions later on this year.