• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Response to the Guergis, Collins, McLean attack mailings

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In Candidates / Election 2014
Oct 24th, 2014
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By Bill French

Having attended most of the council meetings of the last six years, I was awaiting for the true colours of Guergis, Collins and McLean  to surface at some point in this election. The mailings in the last few days confirmed my thinking.

All three of them have made the Midhurst Secondary Plan the single issue, not me. I definitely oppose the current plan as it is really bad planning and will destroy the financial, social and environmental well-being of Springwater in the long term. Think about it. Does building a new city the size of Orillia on prime farmland make any sense to you? When the MSP was first passed by the township in 2008, the county objected 3 times as it did not meet the Places to Grow Policies. The Warden of the day was Guergis. Collins and McLean as County Councillors approved the plan in 2011. The Province appealed the decision to the OMB for the same reasons as the County rejected it the first time. The plan did not meet the Places to Grow Policies. The province only dropped part of the appeal after the developers lobbied and a letter from Collins requested special consideration which became the Midhurst Special Rule.

As far as the fear mongering lawsuit threat. I have never said a council led by me would stop the MSP. I have said in my writings and at all candidates meetings that I, with the will of the council, will request the Minister to revoke the Midhurst Special Rule. That is it. The province has full authority if they feel new evidence can be presented that illustrates the MSP is flawed. We all know there is plenty of evidence. The problem started in 2009 when Guergis asked for 31,000 people. Collins reinforced this request in her letter to the minister in 2011.

This election is about broken government and poor leadership.

The last 8 years first led by Guergis, and then Collins and McLean in the last fours years have done this:

  1. Taxes have increased by 25% over the last 8 years
  2. Debt has grown from under $1,000,000, when Guergis and Collins came on council, to close to $10,000,000 by the end of next year according to the numbers from Springwater finance.
  3. The discretionary reserves, that are for unplanned needs, are being used to soften tax increases and will be gone at the current rate by 2016. There was close to $6,000,000 as recently as 2012.

So if you think emptying your bank account and running up your credit cards works well on a personal basis then maybe you support this type of bad fiscal management. I don’t.

There is a single issue in this election if you really think about it. It is called leadership. We have had eight years without it and that is why we have a deteriorating financial picture and the worst development plan that has ever been tabled in Springwater.

It is your decision. For a better Springwater with proper financial leadership, open government and controlled progressive growth – Vote Bill French for Mayor on October 27th.

Link to Guergis flyer 

Collins,McLean flyer

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