Urban node status: Midland and Penetanguishene seek input

By DOUGLAS GLYNN Midland Free Press January 18 2011
The people of Midland and Penetanguishene will have an opportunity tonight to offer suggestions of what they think a joint urban node should be.
The first of three meetings to explore what becoming an urban node will mean is being held at 7 p.m. in Brian Orser Hall at the Penetanguishene Arena.
Tonight’s meeting is to gather public input. A second meeting in Midland on Feb. 17 will be to generate discussion about the ideas heard tonight. The third meeting in the spring will report on the findings of discussions between the two towns on the future directions for the joint urban node.
Penetanguishene Mayor Gerry Marshall describes an urban growth node as something “a little bit ambiguous.
“We’re not 100 per cent sure what it will look like. It’s got rough edges and needs to be polished and brought to a final format. So, we’ll let people know that! We’ll share what we know and what we think we know. We hope they share with us their vision and what they think we should consider; what do they want us as a team to explore?”
“They other thing we want to let them know is that Penetanguishene and Midland are talking about the economic opportunities for jobs and the sharing of services that a growth node will provide.
Midland Mayor Gordon McKay describes the meetings as a forward looking exercise that will evolve over the coming years.
“The province has put us on notice (by granting the towns’ request for joint urban node status) that all sorts of people are going to want to live in Simcoe County over the next 20 years. A good chunk of them -and the jobs associated with them -are going to come to the Midland-Penetanguishene area.
“It’s challenging not just in the theoretical sense, but in a practical sense. For instance, how are you going to do adapt your service delivery approach?
“We need the public’s input,” says Mckay, “because its going to profoundly shape the future of our municipalities over the next 20 years. So, let’s start talking about this right now so we are all part of the solution.
“I doubt very much at this first meeting people will offer specifics. They might say this could be an area to explore, or that could be something to consider. We will take that and feed it back to people at a second meeting, then start a more intensive discussion.”
Marshall points out both towns have bright councils but, he emphasizes, “there are many different stakeholders whose ideas need to be considered and understood.”
He says one thing being considered by Penetanguishene is exploring whether there’s an opportunity to share police services with Midland, as the town’s contract with the OPP expires next December.
“What that would that look like? Should we involve Tiny and Tay and have a regional type police force to serve all four municipalities?
McKay points out that sharing of services is already starting to happen naturally, even though there has not been a grand plan or official sanction.
“That’s happening because our municipalities turn to each other; share some services. But it’s always been sort of under the covers. This will bring it out into the public.
“I’ve already had conversations about parks. Is there anything we could do in terms of parks service delivery; street repairs? We need a truck to do this. Do you need two trucks? No, one will do it nicely.
“Can we share these sorts of things? The broad answer is yes, we can! Obviously there a lot of details to be worked out, but this will kick start this whole help-f ul discussion,” he adds.
Marshall points out that both municipalities collect taxes and do payrolls. “We both duplicate a lot of services.”
He points to Kitchener Waterloo as two municipalities that share services, but retain their distinct identities.
McKay adds that trying to integrate the two towns would “be inappropriate.”
Marshall says both municipalities are ready to move forward. “We have staffs working on it, two mayors working on it -two sets of councillors and we have two of everything.
“What we need now is input from the public,” he adds. That’s essential to the process.”