Centre Wellington council wants more time to think about whether to declare the township a "fair trade town."
Ward 4 Councillor Fred Morris and Ward 5's Walt Visser said they wanted to question economic development manager Dave Rushton and look into the issue further before going ahead with supporting the designation.
It was deferred to an upcoming committee of the whole meeting for further discussion.
A group of residents has been studying the fair trade movement for months, and propose designating the township as a fair trade community, with the township agreeing to buy fair trade coffee and tea for all meetings and events.
Further, it's being recommended that a representative from economic development would be assigned to the residents' Working Group for Fair Trade to uphold Centre Wellington's continued commitment to the fair trade town status.
"This is an issue that speaks to our sense of sustainability from a global aspect," said culinary tourism co-ordinator Barb Lee, who presented the report and recommendation to council last week.
Other municipalities like Barrie and Vancouver have taken the step of designating themselves as fair trade communities, and Toronto is considering the move, she said.
Having the local council use fair trade certified product and support the fair trade town campaign is one of six things that has to be in place to get fair trade town status, the report to council states.
The fair trade movement aims to ensure producers of foods like coffee, tea and chocolate are paid a fair price and work in safe conditions. Supporting the initiative "puts Centre Wellington on the forward-thinking edge of tourism, thereby diversifying our 'brand' and attracting even more visitors,” the report states.
The township's involvement would be to support a continued commitment to the initiative, and represent the township at the working group meetings; while the working group is charged with ensuring the township's commitment, having broad representation from the community, reporting on the initiative and organizing events for National Fair Trade Week.
But Morris said by supporting the report's recommendation, it seems the township is "taking on a cause."
Centre Wellington has a long-standing policy not to endorse activities of special interest groups - one reason why council doesn't proclaim special "weeks" in honour of various causes.
The report suggests to him that the onus would fall on the township to organize Fair Trade Week events, which would be directly endorsing the fair trade cause.
Councillors need to research fair trade on their own before making a decision on the issue, he said.
Visser agreed with Morris's call to defer the matter. "I have a great number of questions and concerns," he said.