Sault councils from both sides of the U.S./Canada border get together

Municipal representatives from both sides of the St. Marys River came together Monday night for the first joint council meeting in six years.

Included in the evening was the presentation of the keys to the city between Sault Michigan's Don Gerrie and Sault Ontario's Matthew Shoemaker.

It's an honour only done a handful of times for each city.

Discussion and presentation throughout the night ranged from an update on the International Bridge, to ways the municipalities can work together.

Shoemaker said tourism is chief among the ways the two can help each other.

"What's good for them is good for us," he said.

Especially when it comes to the many visitors from cruise ships.

"It's about finding ways that tourists who stop here can go there, and vice-versa," Shoemaker said.

The meeting also saw the updating of a Mutual Aid Pact to help one another's fire departments in case of an emergency.

"If we've got a fire or multiple fires that require additional bodies that we don't have then we can rely on them to bring people in," he said.

Shoemaker said the opposite applies, as well.

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"If they've got a fire that they don't have the capacity to fight they can rely on us to assist them,” he said.

“Otherwise the closest fire departments for each of us, for them it’s probably 80 or 90 miles away and for us it’s more than 300 kilometres away."

Shoemaker said they plan to make the joint council meetings a yearly endeavour.