Madness in Midhurst

By David Strachan Springwater News January 5 2011

If you have travelled in the US, or overseas, you may have had occasion to ask a resident a question about their town or village and you might have been surprised at how little they know. Or maybe a foreigner has asked you a question about Canada, that you hadn’t considered before?  My point is that we don’t seem to notice the things that we grew up with as much as we notice the things that are foreign to us.

Wonderful as Canada is, I think most people would agree that you will have to travel long distances to find charming olde worlde villages resembling anything like those in Europe. I grew up in the UK and lived in Toronto for 35 years. Perhaps it’s my European heritage that helps me appreciate a charming village when I see one. Midhurst, in the Township of Springwater, is just such a village. 

Many small villages in Southern Ontario, grew up around the intersection of two straight thoroughfares, on relatively flat ground. Midhurst on the other hand, was founded on Willow Creek, a freshwater stream which runs through a winding gorge from Little Lake, just north of Barrie, out to the internationally renowned Minesing Wetlands Conservation Area. 

Around 1825, the first grist mill was built on Willow Creek at a site now commemorated on the village memorial at the corner of Finlay Mill Road and Wattie Road. Four other mills were to follow close by, together with a soap factory, a distillery and two hydro-electric plants. In 1888, Willow Creek became the first waterway in Simcoe County to successfully supply hydro-electric power to Barrie.

Fast forward to 2012 and, if developers and the Township of Springwater get their way, Midhurst is about to change. Within the next 2 years, construction could begin on 3,850 new dwellings, adding about 10,000 more people to a village with a current population of 3,500. The plan also provides for a population of 30,000, within 20 years.

Can you imagine what this will do to a charming village? Midhurst would become the same size as Orillia is today! And guess what, most residents didn’t find out about the plan until November 14, 2011, when the Township hosted a meeting to inform the public. In spite of claims of public consultation, to my knowledge, no notice ever went out with tax or water bills and no plans were announced in the Midhurst Community Newsletter or even in the Springwater News – only in the Barrie Advance!  

A ray of hope has fortunately come from the Province of Ontario, as they have appealed the Midhurst Secondary Plan to the Ontario Municipal Board. They point out that the plan contains growth forecasts way in excess of those permitted by the Province and even by the County of Simcoe. The plan also ignores Provincial directives for confining growth to existing built up areas with existing municipal wastewater systems (Midhurst doesn’t have one), or to designated green field sites.

And where will the jobs come from for 10,000 people? (Readers from Council, take a moment for a sigh. ”Can this writer not see how many construction and spin off jobs will be created?”). 

Springwater has very little manufacturing, few raw materials, few remaining trees to harvest and only a healthy, but threatened farming industry (the second largest industry in Ontario by the way). We can work our butts off servicing each other, but if we are not producing anything to ship out of the County, where does the money come from to pay for the goods coming in? Has Council not thought about who will pick up the tab when the development ends and our high density housing is occupied by the unemployed? And who do you suppose will be paying for the extra police, fire and medical services required? Surely not Springwater Township ratepayers? 

If anybody needs more evidence of how short sighted this plan is, take a look at Barrie. The city has one of the highest growth rates in Canada, one of the highest levels of unemployment and higher property taxes than Toronto. And the developers are on record as claiming that “the Midhurst Secondary Plan can help put people back to work”. Sure, let’s bring more people in to do the work and pay them welfare when they’re done. 

Oh, and where do you suppose the plan calls for dumping Midhurst’s wastewater? Well it’s into Willow Creek, up stream of the Minesing Ramsar Wetlands.  

Great planning!

Footnote:  The Intergovernmental Action Plan (IGAP) – a joint study by Ontario, Simcoe County, Innisfil and Barrie – concluded Barrie should expand to the south. Lake Simcoe and its tributaries can handle growth better than the Nottawasaga River valley that’s already stressed by settlements.

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