It’s rare to see mayoral exchanges outside formal municipal events, but a concerned social media post regarding North Simcoe septage bore witness to the mayors of Midland and Tiny Township sharing their reasonings for decisions made and paths forward.
Since an announcement by Midland in December that the town would no longer be accepting external hauled waste to their wastewater treatment centre septage receiving station due to $200 million in projected infrastructure costs and replacements over 10 years, other municipalities were left scrambling on where to ship their disposals.
It was noted within the December report to Midland council that between 2017 through 2022, Tiny Township contributed 59 per cent of the septage to the plant; more than Midland’s own 12 per cent, Tay Township’s 15 per cent, Penetanguishene’s 10 per cent and Elmvale’s 4 per cent.
“Where are we going to dump our sewage?” asked the resident, citing over 500 holding tanks within the township. “A plant is going to cost millions. We need something now. We can’t wait until everyone needs to pump. This matter is critical. What is the plan to help Tiny residents?”
The comment generated other discussion, including a response shortly after by Midland Mayor Bill Gordon who replied that an offer was extended to Tiny, Tay and Penetanguishene “to co-fund the approx $3 million in mandatory upgrades to Midland’s plant that Midland doesn’t need to do for its residents - and won’t do for free for our neighbours. Our taxes can’t go up so others can stay low.”
He added that “each municipality’s share is tens of millions cheaper than anything they’d try to do on their own,” and while the response appeared to alleviate the resident, Gordon also noted that with “so far no takers” Midland was planning to do upgrades that would exclude the received septage acceptance but with future consideration if said funding materialized.
Discussion died down until over a day later, Tiny Mayor David Evans posted a brief retort to Gordon’s comment.
“Tiny made an offer to fund the entire renovation and invest in your facility with only stipulation that Tiny would retain ownership of our investment,” wrote Evans. “In return, we got a vague $1.5m estimate and then an updated $3m estimate with no details. Tell the truth… Tiny will invest but not like in the past where we get nothing.”
At noon the next day, Gordon left a lengthy response to Evans and the public, stating that none of Evans' claims for negotiations had come before Midland council aside from others’ requests for Midland to keep accepting external septage. Gordon also nudged that Midland would expect a proposal once other municipalities looked “to validate the costs and what percentage you'd like to contribute and how you could rationalize (return on investment) for your ratepayers.
“I'd argue that you were getting plenty of value from the previous septage relationship where you did not have to invest and simply paid a minimal service fee rather than all the capital and operating expenses borne by Midland's ratepayers,” reiterated Gordon.
No further responses emerged from either Gordon or Evans following the posted comment.
MidlandToday reached out to both mayors regarding the public exchange.
By phone, Evans said that Tiny Township rotated through a five-year septage inspection and emptying cycle at roughly 2,000 residents per year, with non-residential septage from marine, mobile toilets and other potential chemicals unsafe for agricultural spreading requiring an external facility, as there is currently no sewer system in Tiny.
"I will admit that in the past, Tiny probably has not paid their full share," said Evans. "Tiny would get septage taken away and not really worry about where it went in terms of disposal, in the winter time and in the summer. A lot of people don't realize that (much of the) sewage in Tiny goes on farmers' fields."
Evans shared that he was not one to engage on social media often, but felt a counter-position to Gordon "in this context was sufficient."
Per Gordon's comment that nothing had come before Midland council formally, Evans agreed the municipalities' public works departments had worked formally together while unofficial discussions were informal.
"The impression taken by us in the (Midland response) letter, maybe erroneously, was that they really weren't that interested in it and working with us. The impression was if we came back and we said we were interested in $3 million, it might jump to $6 million. Possibly it could have misconstrued, but it's also a reflection that the discussions are at a very preliminary stage."
Noting that the North Simcoe municipalities worked well together on a regular basis, Evans added that he spoke amicably with Gordon on many topics throughout a given week and sometimes several times a day.
Through email to MidlandToday, Gordon expanded upon his stance as he explained his goal was to assure concerned Tiny residents while showing what the path forward could be.
“My reply was to provide context,” wrote Gordon, “and I chose not to take the bait about ‘tell the truth’ which implied that I was deceptive in my comments to the resident’s concerns,” adding that he would “take shots on my integrity very seriously.”
“I know that we are in talks with Penetanguishene, but that there seems to be no momentum with Tiny and an outright rejection of cost sharing from Tay - if the words of their deputy mayor at a recent meeting are any indication,” Gordon stated, calling the position unfortunate as it could “dovetail” on continued cost-sharing requests for the Midland-borne North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre.
As well, Gordon addressed the separate populations as per the 2021 Canada Census of the four municipalities amounting to 51,951 residents for Midland (17,817), Penetanguishene (10,077), Tay Township (11,091), and Tiny Township (12,966). Projections estimate that Simcoe County is anticipated to grow approximately 50 per cent in population by 2046.
“I am a firm believer in shared services, eventual amalgamation to enjoy the synergies that reduced quadruplication of services would bring North Simcoe, and the power of bringing our collective tax base to wield against our common infrastructure deficits which have become very clearly defined through our asset management planning.”
Gordon, who frequently voices his opinions online, said he felt that his comments had sufficiently addressed the matter and would only gauge continuing the discussion if a response held further value.
An update to Tiny Township's ongoing discussions toward the septage issue was expected to be presented to council at the August 28 meeting, according to Evans.
