Council has historic year, says mayor

Past 12 months defined by challenge and change for municipality
By Chris Simon Innisfil Scope December 29 2010
There’s no doubt, 2010 was an historic year in the eyes of Innisfil’s new mayor, Barb Baguley.
Four years after her defeat in the 2006 municipal election, Baguley capped a successful political comeback in October. For Baguley and the eight other members of town council, the past year was one of change and challenge. In total, six new members of council were voted in earlier this year — one of the highest levels of turnover in the municipality’s history.
“It’s an exciting time,” said Baguley. “It’s a new job, it is not at all like the deputy mayor (position). It’s a point of first contact for a lot of people. The phone volume is increasing, which is a good thing. It means people are reaching out to bring problems or positive things to me. It’s a very steep learning curve.”
Politically, 2010 also heralded a potential new era in relations between the town and City of Barrie officials. Barrie mayor Jeff Lehman visited Innisfil’s council chambers earlier this month, and announced an intention to work cooperatively with other municipalities throughout the region. Town council expressed similar goals, and if the messages are genuine from both sides, it appears the municipalities are moving past the animosity of the annexation battle.
Earlier this year, the city officially received several thousand hectares of land from the town, as part of the province’s Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act.
“We started to develop a different attitude towards delivering our services,” said town CAO John Skorobohacz. “We’ve started to take a hard look at cutting red tape and doing things more in line with other municipal best practices. In dealing with the development community, improving upon practices in that area with regards to winter control (and) maintenance, billing and collections, improving the flow of communication and meeting with the industry on a more frequent basis has been a big step forward. We’re gaining their confidence in terms of supporting initiatives, (like) updating engineering standards and creating a (development) guidebook.”
Other events and initiatives from 2010 will also shape the municipality for years.
South Simcoe Police opened the multi-million dollar North Division station renovation, while work on two Innisfil Beach Road precincts is nearly complete. Just after the municipal election, the province released a proposed amendment to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, which recognizes the Innisfil Heights employment zone. However, the proposal also lowers growth projections for the town, and demands 40 per cent intensification for new development — which town staff and consultants have argued will be impossible to meet.
“Before the election, there was a lot of completion of projects,” said Baguley. “Council from the last term tried to complete some of their projects and get the underway. One of the most significant things that came out was the amendment to the growth plan. That will have a significant impact on Innisfil. The new council hit the ground running with that. An election year definitely is different; the last council would have put to bed some of the issues they’d been dealing with.
“Once June rolls around, you don’t get a lot of business done. But the business of the corporation goes on.”
Work on the Inspiring Innisfil 2020 strategic planning process has been underway for months, with recommendations expected to shape town policies for the next decade, said Skorobohacz.
“The opportunity to engage the federal government in obtaining a grant for Inspiring Innisfil happened earlier in the spring,” he said. “That’s a really critical piece for us going forward, in terms of developing a new community strategic plan and an encompassing economic development and tourism strategy.
“That’s going to be a big part of what the new council gets to establish its priorities around.”
The municipal government also faced some internal challenges this year. A major corporate restructuring was completed, although the town is still experiencing a staffing shortfall.
Earlier this year, The Scope reported that an estimated six municipal employees had been fired for theft-related incidents since January.
The new council also passed a pilot project, which aims to overhaul the procedural bylaw for regular meetings, and make the public consultation process easier.
“We saw a fair number of challenges, but we also seized on a lot of opportunities,” said Skorobohacz. “This has been a rebuilding year for us. There was a fairly sparse compliment of staff; when I came on board, there were 23 positions vacant. That required a lot of due diligence and effort to start building the organization. We’re well along the way. By the spring, we should be pretty well back to 100 per cent compliment, which is critical for us to deliver on a lot of the expectations people have. We’re holding people accountable for their actions; if they don’t perform, there are consequences.”