Barrie, Innisfil, County make peace while upper tier asks for more growth

New Tecumseth Free Press Online
At a special committee of the whole County council meeting this morning in Midhurst, the mayors of Barrie and Orillia made rare appearances as guests seated on the chamber floor, listening as their upper tier colleagues peppered an Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs representatives with questions and criticisms about the provincial government’s “vision” for Simcoe to 2031.
Barrie mayor David Aspden and Orillia mayor Ron Stevens, were mostly there as observers, declining to comment on matters they deemed to be internal county issues.
Mr. Aspden’s appearance triggered a truce between Barrie, Innisfil and the County, expressed in a motion approved unanimously that ends any further objections to pending boundary adjustment that takes effect Jan. 1, 2010 between Barrie and Innisfil. It also confirmed the County did not object to the provincial government’s population allocation to Barrie.
However, they did object, and want changed, the fact that the Province shifted 40,000 allocated future population growth amongst Simcoe County’s 16 municipalities to Barrie.
“We’re not asking for those numbers to be taken away from the City of Barrie. We’re asking for an additional 40,000,” said Warden Tony Guergis.
On June 4, the Provincial government released its Vision for Simcoe Area. a growth planning document that overrides Simcoe County’s new official plan in favour of five key urban nodes, anchored by Barrie, and including Orillia, Alliston, Bradford, and Collingwood. It doesn’t boost the projected growth of 667,000 people by 2031, but redistributes the allocations to the five hubs.
Under the County’s plan, New Tecumseth would have been limited to 49,000 people, a level already surpassed if all the planning applications currently working through the Town’s approval process were built out. The Province has bumped that to 60,000.
This morning the mayors and deputy mayors of places like Penetanguishene and Rama, and Tay Township told Mr. Clay they have spent millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements over the past few years to accommodate their growth needs and official plans. But the provincial government’s plans reduced their allocations, meaning costs to maintain those systems are now going to create heavier burdens on their communities.
The additional 40,000 would raise the County’s total population projection to 707,000 by 2031.
As part of this exercise, County councillors also agreed to commission a review of all the various water and wastewater systems operating within the County, including the “matrix” of arrangements there are between municipalities, including New Tecumseth and Collingwood.
The County’s senior administration this morning were steering councillors to move on a masterplan study with peference to regionalized services coordinated by the upper tier. New Tecumseth mayor Mike MacEachern said they should stay away from “terminology like regional” and concentrate on coordination of services.
Barrie mayor Aspden summed up his city’s position on losing control over their water or wastewater systems by stating “the word region is not in my vocubulary.”
What seems to be shaping up is the notion of municipal service boards, and involving the five urban nodes, and then those nodes extending services to communities around them.