Time to restructure Simcoe County and start over again

‘Rant’ New Tecumseth Free Press Online
Simcoe County’s roots as an organized territory, reach back to 1843, when 19 townships, including Adjala, Essa, Innisfil, Tecumseth and Tosorontio, and the islands in Lakes Huron and Simcoe were proclaimed a District. In 1845 Simcoe District grew to 24 townships. In 1850 the District was abolished and replaced by the County of Simcoe.
It seems very little has changed since then other than the population explosion, Barrie and Orillia separating to city status, industrial and manufacturing transplanting agriculture as the main economic activity in the southern half, restructuring that chopped 32 municipalities into 16, the GTA reaching New Tecumseth’s Hwy 9 border, you know, minor stuff.
Simcoe County’s white skinned founding fathers back in the day had much in common regardless of whether they came from Tiny and Tay townships or West Gwillimbury. They were all leaders of agricultural communities or the hubs/marketplaces like Alliston, Beeton, and Tottenham.
Leaving out the obvious changes brought on by modern inventions since 1850, original members like Adjala, Tosorontio, Tiny and Tay townships could easily step back to 1850 without anyone spotting five differences while the same cannot be said for the likes of New Tecumseth, Bradford, and Collingwood. Yet here we are still today, 16 member municipalities of a County which yesterday approved planned expenditures of $517 million, most of which for New Tecumseth’s purposes will be spent elsewhere. The shortfall, which needs to be raised by taxes will be $98 million, or two per cent more than last year.
In 2009, New Tecumseth ratepayers contributed the second most amount of money to Simcoe County at $9,441,191 plus a waste management levy of $1,734,246 – about $11 million. Innisfil, with its lucrative Hwy 400 corridor assessment, was number one at more than $10 million.
Let’s say for rant’s sake, half (I bet less) of New Tecumseth’s taxes to the upper tier are spent here. The rest goes to subsidize bridge and road repair/construction, landfill development in places like Tiny, and Severn, and Tay, all beautiful parts of the world. Simcoe County’s small town members like Springwater mayor Tony Guergis, vying for his 4th term as Warden, all swear that’s what makes Simcoe County such a special place; the notion that we’re all in this thing together, and that even though we live over an hour apart from end to end, it’s the “greater good” that links us.
Maybe that was good in 1850, even 1950, but in 2009 and into 2010, what’s good for north Simcoe should not be paid for by south Simcoe, and that works in reverse too.
Imagine if New Tecumseth was able to keep the additional $9 million in revenue each year, or better yet, keep it in our hands to spend, maybe Beeton wouldn’t still have a 62 year old arena. Instead, it’s paving roads to Severn or Flos and bridges in Sunnidale (for illustration sake)
The mayor and deputy mayor of Tiny Township, (and I pick on them only because they are the perfect example) have no business (in County context) by their vote determining whether New Tecumseth, Bradford, or Collingwood for instance, can amend their official plans, or zoning bylaws. Just like they shouldn’t interfere in Tiny Township.
For the past decade, accelerated over the past three years under Tony Guergis’ watch, Simcoe County’s warden and planning department, and senior administration have pulled every string they could to lobby for even more control over local municipalities by making plays for planning, and hard services – water, wastewater. They want one Official Plan, one planning department, and control over all water and wastewater treatment systems and allocation authority for capacity.
New Tecumseth mayor Mike MacEachern has been taking the brunt of abuse recently from many of his Simcoe County council colleagues, for having the wherewithal to agree with a provincial government planning vision for Simcoe County that focuses growth on five urban nodes including New Tecumseth, Bradford, Collingwood, Barrie and Orillia.
This group has formed a committee which is chaired by mayor MacEachern. They have agreed to an eight point “Statement of Common Principles” that among other things, opposes “water and wastewater treatment collection and distribution services being transferred to the County of Simcoe.” They’ve also agreed that Simcoe County can not participate outside of observer status. No vote.
Some, including warden Guergis are likening it to treason, since the majority of County council – weighed too heavily in favour of rural/small municipalities north of Essa – favour a County-centric plan. It’s ludicrous.
The provincial government’s vision doesn’t add more people to the County’s population projection of 667,000 people by 2031, it redistributes most of the allocations to the five hubs, and expand Barrie’s municipal boundary by approximately 2,293 hectares (5,666 acres) effective January 1, 2010.
It also opens the door to a regional wastewater pipeline running along side the water pipeline from Collingwood, pumping treated effluent from sewage plants in south Simcoe into Georgian Bay, with municipal hook-ups along the way and a regional cooperative, in south Simcoe anyway, that would operate it all.
As long as the Liberal government at Queen’s Park is meddling in Simcoe County’s internal affairs by rejecting its Official Plan, an OP that encouraged sprawl over intensification in harder and more expensive communities to service, might as well kick the door wide open and allow for a new round of restructuring that at minimum creates a North Simcoe and South Simcoe, even though that’s the second best alternative to the status quo. The preferred option letting New Tecumseth become a separated city, and simply allowing us to buy services from the County like Barrie and Orillia does.
In 2002, New Tecumseth council’s champion of separating from the County was former councillor now mayor MacEachern. The Town went so far as to commission a cursory study of how much the Town could save on its own. Among the findings then on the transportation side: “There are approximately 40 lane kilometers of County Road 10 (Tottenham Road) and 30 lane kilometers of County Road 1 (Beeton Road) located in New Tecumseth. Simcoe County reported 1,607 lane kilometers under its jurisdiction. New Tecumseth’s share of the County’s road budget – winter and maintenance – was $1,471,793. The county’s average cost per km is $8,131. New Tecumseth has 647 lane kilometers of road at a cost of $5,950 per km. Adding 70 km “should be incremental cost. Projected cost was $416,563, a savings of $1 million. That was then. The County road network has only grown since then by a few kilometers so that spread is greater today.
Simcoe County is broken because it is 159 years old and showing every one of its years. It is the least accountable level of government with taxation power and that on its own is reason enough to put it out of our misery.