Can council rookies comprehend Growth Plan?

Fresh faces must get up to speed
By JENNIFER BURDEN Orillia Packet and Times November 26 2010
Within the first two months of inauguration, newly elected mayors and councillors will be asked to comment on a complex plan that will shape Simcoe County growth over the next 20 years.
The Ministry of Infrastructure released its Simcoe County Growth Plan notice of proposed amendments to regional municipalities on Oct. 28, three days after municipal elections. The ministry advised municipalities that comments must be submitted no later than Jan. 31, 2011.
The Simcoe County Growth Plan will govern where and what kind of growth is permitted throughout the county.
Simcoe County council is requesting an extension until the end of February. Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop has raised the issue twice at Queen’s Park.
“It’s very unrealistic,” said Simcoe County Warden Cal Patterson. “In some cases, the mayors are brand new to the community and the politics of the municipality.
“There is certainly a learning curve and an understanding,” Patterson added. “It’s not going to happen.”
With more than a 50% changeover in leadership within the county following the election, municipalities are asking the province to slow down and give them a chance to bring new councils up to speed on the growth plan before requiring them to provide feedback.
The province “sat on this for two years and then they ask for comments when councils are going through municipal elections and faces on councils are changing,” Oro-Medonte Township Mayor Harry Hughes said.
“We would like to see as quick a decision as we can get because it’s holding back private investment and development,” Hughes added. “But at the same time, we don’t want to see something that is going to be done in a manner that is going to cause all kinds of problems in the future.”
Outgoing Severn Tow nship Mayor Phil Sled agrees and supports requesting an extension for comments.
“Coming up to speed with the growth plan itself would take a while for new councillors for sure,” he said.
But Orillia’s mayor-elect Angelo Orsi says the incoming council should have a response in time to meet the Jan. 31 deadline.
“Our new council will be updated in December and I believe that a response to the matter should be made by the date,” Orsi wrote in an e-mail.
Orillia Mayor Ron Stevens said that position may be a little naive.
“There are only two existing members of council coming back — seven of them have to be brought up to speed and there is a lot of preamble here,” Stevens said.
Returning Ward 2 Coun. Michael Fogarty said that because Orsi comes from a business background in development, he knows the growth plan inside and out.
That isn’t the case for the other six other new council members.
“Imagine if this document was just being put in front of you, having never looked at it. I think it’s adding pressure where none needs to be added,” Fogarty said.
Fogarty said the new council has enough on its plate learning how to manage a $61 million budget in time for talks beginning in February.
“To throw something else that literally dictates what our region is going to look at for decades to come when you have a council that has had a couple months to look at it, I think it is a little unfair,” he said.
Dunlop is trying to encourage the province to slow down the process by at least three or four months. “I just find the whole thing so irresponsible that they would do this at a lame-duck period,” he said.
But the province isn’t backing down on its timeline.
“We set the 90-day period to give municipalities, and especially new Simcoe-area councillors and mayors, plenty of time to study the draft amendment and develop their responses,” Ministry of Infrastructure spokeswoman Anne Smith wrote in an e-mail.
The population is forecast to reach about 670,000 by 2031, a 52% increase from the county’s 437,100 population in 2006.
Note:  technical briefings for members of the public Tuesday November 30.