New Tecumseth quietly turns 20, a brief look back to its birth

New Tecumseth Free Press Online January 3, 2011
On New Years Day 1991, The Corporation of the Town of the Amalgamated Municipalities of Alliston, Beeton, Tecumseth and Tottenham was born, conceived through an arranged marriage of reluctant partners who fought and complained about the forced coupling throughout the year long gestation period.
The pending arrival of this new test tube municipality was officially announced to the public on June 6, 1990, by John Sweeney, then the Ontario Liberal government’s Minister of Municipal Affairs, when he tabled for First Reading Bill 177, An Act respecting the Amalgamation of certain Municipalities in the County of Simcoe.”
“Members may recall that back in January I indicated that changes would be taking place in South Simcoe as a result of investigations as to the growth pressures there,” Mr. Sweeney told the Legislature. “This legislation will amalgamate Cookstown and Innisfil into one municipality, Bradford and West Gwillimbury into another, and Alliston, Beeton, Tottenham and Tecumseth into a third. It reflects the input of a transition team composed of representatives of all eight municipalities who are working at the present time and whom I would like to thank.”
And it moved quickly through the process, receiving Second Reading on June 16, 1990, where then Simcoe West MPP George McCague, who served for two decades with the Progressive Conservative government side in various cabinet roles, was in the legislature that day.
Thanks to Hansard, Mr. McCague’s comments accepting the inevitable end result of the amalgamation are presented below in celebration of 20 years:
This bill affects an area in which I have lived all my life and which I understand very well. The purpose of the bill is said to be because there were five annexation proposals in the amalgamated area and a couple in the other areas which the honourable member for Simcoe Centre represents.
I have somehow a suspicion that there is another hidden agenda here, not just the fact that I trust the Minister of Municipal Affairs. ……..
However, there may well be another agenda, and one of the agendas, of course, I think is that there is a great demand for development in the area. It is an area within easy reach of Metropolitan Toronto, where housing is cheaper and where land, of course, is cheaper. It is a good place for people to bring up their families. Also, I have done a little study on industrial development in the area. I note that the Honda manufacturing plant is in this area and that any place Honda has decided to locate has grown substantially in a fairly short time period.
The ministry had to consider the five annexation applications that existed. I am sure there was some commitment by the government, maybe the previous as well as the present, to provide infrastructure – sewers, water, even housing – for the development that may result because of the presence of a car manufacturer. The councils got themselves into a position of disagreeing on a few items and the minister took the bull by the horns and said, “We think there should be three municipalities made of this area instead of four.”
When the councils of the municipalities were at an impasse, they did urge the minister to proceed with whatever it was he thought was best for the area. I am sure the minister or his staff would be the first to agree that the elected officials as well as the appointed officials of the eight municipalities have co-operated to the utmost possible to proceed with this legislation even though there are differences of opinion on some aspects of it.
It is important, I think, that this legislation proceed so that the municipalities know where they are going. The member for Durham-York does not know and I do not know when the next election is going to be, but should an election intervene between now and the end of the year, the municipalities would certainly be in limbo. If we can pass this legislation this afternoon or get it to third reading this afternoon, I think it will serve the municipalities well.
It is too strong to say that this legislation was imposed upon the municipalities, but in order to accomplish what the government thought was proper for the area, there really was not much choice but to have some sort of an amalgamation and some sort of larger municipalities with, as the member for Oxford did, sort of a one-man tear around the country along with a few of his Liberal colleagues a few months ago, and then have the ministry staff write a report for him.
Mr Speaker, you will recall that at the time I raised the issue of whether or not that committee should have been an all-party committee of this Legislature. That question is not very hard to answer. It should have been. The member for Durham-York today is getting co-operation from all sides of this House because the ministry people, the local politicians, elected people, made us all part of the system. I think the member for Oxford will be the first one to admit, maybe not right here but I sure could persuade him to do it outside this House, that an all-party committee is much better than nine of his colleagues who, I mentioned at the time, were getting nothing more than a geography lesson of the province.
However, I am sure the parliamentary assistant will want to assure me today that along with this amalgamation, along with the people of the area going along with the wishes of the government of the day — the government is using a good deal of foresight in this, I would be the first to admit — that if this is to pass, there is quite a large commitment on behalf of the provincial government being made today, I suggest to members, that is assistance above and beyond when it comes to infrastructure. The people of the area just cannot afford to bank all the development that the government foresees for the area. I hope that the parliamentary assistant is prepared to commit the government to a high level of infrastructure assistance to the people of the new area.
The member for Simcoe Centre will be speaking about the municipalities he represents. The area I represent will be known very simply as the amalgamated area of Alliston, Beeton, Tottenham and Tecumseth. That is a fairly simple name, is it not? It looks good on a letterhead. However, according to the bill, there will be a selection of name which I understand will be on the ballot come next election — Avalon or some name like that.
A couple of things have been pointed out by various municipalities. I might just say that it is unfortunate that the municipalities received these bills yesterday and there has not been a lot of time for them to peruse them. However, in section 6 of the bill there is reference to bylaws and resolutions of former municipalities. In subsection 6(1), in particular, it has been pointed out that to rescind the bylaws and re-register them is very time- and money-consuming. It might be said that the bylaws should be deemed to be bylaws of the new municipality. Having said that, I have not run into anybody yet who knows what it is that is better than this is. It does not seem there is any particular way around it, and I am sure the ministry could explain to us what the problems are in that particular respect.
The amalgamated municipality in particular has brought to the minister’s attention early today problems that there are in subsection 18(4) about the public utilities commission with the election, wards and so forth. The ministry has worked hard to come up with an amendment for that section, which I appreciate, and from an initial look seems fine.
Tecumseth township, which is losing some land to the township of West Gwillimbury, is disappointed that there was not some kind of compensation. While the parliamentary assistant’s remarks at the beginning would indicate there may be some way of working out some kind of assistance, it was my understanding that there was going to be none, that when the boundaries were changed that was a fait accompli. The parliamentary assistant may wish to comment on that.
Section 24 of the bill talks about the hydroelectric power and each town’s municipality having to pass a bylaw before 31 December 1991. All the municipalities would have liked to have seen that section changed so that the effective date would be 31 December 1992. I am persuaded by the Minister of Energy and by Mr Taylor of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs that there is some problem with changing that date. However, in the goodness of their hearts, they may choose to voluntarily change it before the day is out.
There has been raised, I believe by each of the municipalities within the area that this bill affects, a request that the enactment of the Development Charges Act, 1989, be delayed a couple of years. I notice that this is not part of the bill. I can understand the difficulty that the ministry would have with putting that request in this bill; the problem would be the difficulty they might have with all of the municipalities in the province.
I am proud of the people in this part of the province who, having seen a need for something probably after some persuasion by the ministry people, were able to get together and work to bring about this legislation, which I hope and trust will serve the people of that area well for years and years to come. I hope too that the honourable member for Durham-York will ensure that the chequebook accompanies the passing of the bill.
The Liberal government never got the opportunity to see its creation past Royal Assent on June 28, 1990 because later that year, it lost the general election to Bob Rae and the NDP.
Click here for the Minutes of the Inaugural meeting
On Jan., 3, 1991, the interim 22 member council for the amalgamated Town of Alliston, Beeton, Tecumseth and Tottenham held its inaugural meeting and Rick Milne its first mayor. The rest of council:
Deputy Mayor Jim Heath (Tecumseth)
Reeve Joan Sutherland (Tottenham)
Deputy Reeve Gary Burton (Beeton)
County Councillor Jack Anderson (Alliston)
Councillors Allan Bennett (Beeton)
Keith Bishop (Tecumseth)
Rick Coleman (Beeton)
Jeff Dawson (Beeton)
Diann Gaston (Alliston)
Elmer Hawkins (Alliston)
Doug Jebb (Tecumseth)
Ralph Klopf (Beeton)
Ray Lisk (Tecumseth)
Iain Mackay (Tecumseth)
Bill MacKenzie (Alliston)
Al McInnis (Tottenham)
Ruth O’Leary (Tottenham)
Paul Pesikaka (Tottenham)
Ken Pratt (Alliston)
Pat Russell (Tottenham)
Aiden Whelan (Alliston)
The name New Tecumseth was chosen as a ballot item question by voters in the November 1991 municipal election. It soundly defeated the other choice, Banting. Mr. McCague, who retired from Ontario politics in 1990, would become New Tecumseth’s first elected mayor in 1991. He served one term. Mr. Milne won their rematch in 1993. He served one term, defeated by retired Banting Memorial High School principal Larry Keogh, who served two terms. He was defeated by then councillor Mike MacEachern, who just won his third term in October 2010.