Belleville agrees to special meetings with MPPs and MPs in 8-0 vote

Frustrated by a lack of communication and the increasing financial burden of “downloaded” responsibilities, Belleville City Council has taken a decisive step to demand accountability from senior levels of government.

Proposed by Councillor Paul Carr, Belleville Council voted unanimously (8-0) to convene a Special Meeting of Council in January 2026, inviting local Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) to a “frank discussion” on critical community issues, formally requesting the attendance of:

• MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman (Hastings-Lennox and Addington-Tyendinaga)
• MPP Tyler Allsopp (Bay of Quinte)
• MPP Ric Bresee (Hastings-Lennox and Addington)
• MP Chris Malette (Bay of Quinte)

To discuss the following items on-the-record:

• More consultation and engagement with the City on legislation related to planning, development and other matters impacting the City.
• Legislative changes and government programs surrounding housing and homelessness.
• Funding and government expectations for homelessness, mental health and health care initiatives, including primary care.
• Funding responsibility being downloaded either directly or indirectly to the City.
• Communication with their offices regarding matters that are outside jurisdictional responsibility of Council.
• Previous resolutions that were passed by Council or correspondence sent with no responses to date from their offices.

The initiative mirrors a similar recent roundtable in Windsor, Ontario, and stems from a growing sentiment among councillors that the City is being forced to manage crises such as homelessness and addiction that legally fall under provincial and federal jurisdiction, yet lack their support.

it’s time to have a very frank discussion as community leaders to wrestle some of these issues to the ground to get clarification on where funding is, to get clarification on where results are quite frankly

Councillor Carr

it wasn’t that long ago when I called out the MPP for the Bay of Quinte and the following day he went on the radio and called me out and offered that I never picked up the phone and called.

Councillor Brown

We sit around here and we’re going around in circles, I could sit here, stand here, for 25 minutes and talk about discrepancies and how we don’t hear back and it’s frustrating

There are so many struggles when it comes back to the municipality and then you send letters to MPPs and you don’t hear back. It’s not a personal attack on them, it’s an attack on why don’t we get a response?

Councillor Kelly

if we could get them all together at the table, I’m not saying that they’re going to come — they’re not answering our letters — I think this is a great idea

Mayor Ellis