Shared building services were nearly renewed at the recent meetings of Penetanguishene and Midland, costing roughly $190,000 for each town over three years, but saving Penetanguishene from needing its own chief building official and/or department.
Passed at Penetanguishene council last month, the agreement could have been ratified at a recent Midland council meeting. However, it was pulled for discussion, delaying the resolution until the October 16 meeting of council.
Midland Coun. Catherine MacDonald asked town staff for a clarification of the percentage changes between the previous agreement expiring at the end of September and the new agreement to explore at the end of January in 2027, as well as to the January date change; staff provided responses within the meeting.
Mayor Bill Gordon took the opportunity to speak to the efforts of both towns in getting the agreement negotiated.
“This has been going on for quite some time, and a lot of back-and-forth negotiations trying to make it so that Penetanguishene gets really good value out of this partnership – the shared relationship – but Midland’s not carrying the water,” said Gordon, “so the cost recovery is baked into this; an equitable share of the time and effort of the shared staff is in here.”
Gordon also praised the staffs for “finding this amazing cost-sharing initiative with our two towns working together; and that sharing is caring, and working collaboratively without fully smashing us together in an amalgamation – which is a whole other conversation.
“We're doing these little things and they really matter,” he added.
Later in the Midland committee of the whole meeting, a report on a joint feasibility study for the shared fire services of Midland and Penetanguishene was pulled by Coun. Bill Meridis for further discussion.
In the reporting structure section of the terms of reference for an executive steering committee, Meridis pitched that the term ‘significant requirement for funding’ being brought to Midland council should instead be changed to ‘any requirement for funding’ being brought to council.
The request was defeated as no appetite was had for what staff described ‘significant’ to be anything over 10 per cent, amounting to roughly $6,500 on the $65,000 cost to Midland. With the entire matter approved, ratification is anticipated to occur at the next regular meeting of Midland council.
Following the meetings, Gordon told MidlandToday that the fire services study would provide greater clarity on how the needs of each municipality are addressed.
“We don't know whether this is going to work out to be something that is favourable to Penetanguishene in the end, because they operate a fully volunteer department and we’re composite,” said Gordon. “But we don’t know what we don’t know.
“It’s a relatively expensive study, and it can lay the framework for further talks. And as we work towards amalgamating or sharing more services over time, this is a big one.
“Because we don't have control over police costs, fire is a big expense to the community and one we don't have a lot of latitude to dial down the spend on,” Gordon noted.
The two reports for the joint OBC building services agreement and the feasibility study executive steering committee and terms of reference are available in the council agenda on the town of Midland website.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.
