Marshall has had battle-filled year

By DOUGLAS GLYNN Midland Free Press January 10, 2013 

PENETANGUISHENE — Mayor Gerry Marshall casually describes 2012 as “an interesting year.”

Interesting, indeed, when you consider that he doggedly pursued what he believes are inequities in provincial funding programs and the high cost of policing.

He laughs at a suggestion that Premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature to keep him at bay. But, there’s no disputing he has been a force the provincial government has had to reckon with on a number of issues.

Just ask OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis how tenacious Marshall can be.

Lewis recently acknowledged that the rising cost of policing, in terms of salaries and technology, has made the policing model in Ontario virtually unsustainable.

“The Commissioner’s comment validates what we’ve been saying all along,” Marshall said in a year-end interview.

“I note,” he says, with a sense of satisfaction, “the commissioner, like us, recognizes that all police forces, including his, will have to go through a metamorphosis of some nature and need to be open to different service delivery models.”

A critic of policing costs since he signed a five-year deal with the OPP in 2011, Marshall has been instrumental in mobilizing a coalition of municipalities to lobby Queen’s Park on the issue. In fact, he met for talks on the subject earlier this week with OPP brass in Orillia and feels progress is being made.

He has joined other municipalities in pursuing changes to the provincial heads and beds tax. The $75 per head or bed fee is paid to municipalities by health-care facilities, colleges, universities and correctional centres in lieu of property taxes.

“The heads and beds tax has been frozen since 1987,” he says. He believes it should be increased to $146 to match the increase in inflation.

“For instance,” he says, “we get a cheque from Waypoint for $17,000, but it costs us $200,000 annually to provide police and fire service.”

In a surprising move last month, town council sent the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health a bill for $600,000 to cover police and fire services for the three-year period from 2010 to 2012.

Marshall says he’s confident the town has the authority to levy the charges, based on a section of the Municipal Act.

He also believes the town is being shortchanged when it comes to how much it receives under the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF).

Last year, we got $127,000. In 2013, we will get $122,000, because there’s a 5% reduction.

“Due to a Statistics Canada anomaly,” he says, “Penetanguishene — because it is within commuting distance of Midland — has lost its identity as a town of less than 10,000 people. And that impacts the amount of our OMPF grant.”

He’s talked to Donna Cansfield, parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Finance, and says “she realizes we should be really receiving $1.4 million.

“It was a difficult conversation for the province,” he says, “but when the OMPF cheque is cut in February we should be receiving the larger amount. If we don’t, I’ll be asking for a rationale explanation as to why we aren’t.”

Marshall says municipalities that have common concerns have to band together and speak with one voice to the provincial government.

That’s what he and his counterparts in Midland, Tay and Tiny are doing about Georgian Bay water levels. The foursome are planning meetings with the mayors of several other shoreline communities to form a coalition to approach the province with their concerns.

He’s made a point of meeting every Liberal leadership candidate that’s come within 50 kilometres of town because, he notes, one of them will be the next premier and the others will likely be cabinet ministers.

He has raised with them the concerns about the Georgian Bay water levels.

“Their first reaction is: that’s a federal issue. I agree it is, but small businesses all around the shoreline are being impacted by low water levels. If they have to spend $250,000 to dredge their harbour they will have to raise their rates and risk losing business,”?Marshall said.

“If that happens, it means fewer people in your restaurants, grocery stores and elsewhere. It’s not just Penetanguishene that is affected,” he says. “There are 67 communities and thousands of jobs impacted.”

In 2012, he stepped into a larger role at Simcoe County Council by being elected vice-chair of the corporate services committee.

He is behind a bid to have the county provide $1.6 million to the 16 member municipalities for economic development.

The idea, he says, is to provide each municipality $50,000 a year over two years. He believes the four north Simcoe municipalities could pool their funds for economic development purposes.

He’s optimistic about the coming year.

“We weathered our second zero tax increase,” he says of the 2013 budget.

“Our commitment to capital is driven by the need to keep our infrastructure and facilities current and for the replacement of old water and waste water infrastructure.”

In addition, the town will be paying down its debt another $680,000 without any reduction in services, he adds.

“Being fiscally responsible hasn’t affected services,” he adds. “We are still plowing roads the same as before and treating our parks the same. Everything we did in 2012 we are doing in 2013.”

He’s pleased the town received an $84,000 provincial grant to make the Huronia Park washrooms wheelchair accessible.

“This will certainly contribute to our upgrading efforts and plans for this park,”?Marshall said.

“Like most municipalities, the town has infrastructure needs.”

He said the town is awaiting test results to see if the Robert Street well can be brought back on line.

“Our water storage facilities —one is over 100 years old and the other is 80 years old — are in need of attention,”?he said.

“And there are streets that need repaired. Champlain Road needs fixed. That would be a $1.5-million infrastructure project.

“If all of a sudden we got some OMPF funding and Waypoint was paying for police and fire we’d have money for that sort of thing and the improvements our merchants would like to see on Main Street,”?Marshall said.

“All those things become viable when you have money,” he says.