Penetanguishene Mayor Doug Rawson reiterated that a quarterly heads of north Simcoe meeting was about recreation assets across the region, while noting lack of neighbourly involvement with a town-penned user-fee study proposal.
Each quarter, the municipalities of Penetanguishene, Tiny Township, Midland, and Tay Township gather to discuss the things in north Simcoe and their own communities. They are represented by the Mayors, Deputy Mayors and CAOs in the meetings.
At the recent regular meeting of Penetanguishene council, Rawson took a moment during the member statement portion to address the article ‘Heads of council meeting yields little progress on user-fee study’ which provided Tiny Township’s discussion and reaction to that larger third-quarter gathering.
“The spirit of that discussion was really about everything from beaches to walkways, to trails, pickleball, arenas and the like,” said Rawson, noting the lack of breadth in the article. “The spirit from our community, and I know from Midland, is: ‘how do we make recreational assets and programming accessible to more people?’ I think we’re working hard on that.”
Speaking with Rawson after the council meeting, he reiterated to MidlandToday that overall recreational assets were the focus of the heads of council meeting.
“I would say the arenas are the bigger cost factor, but we wanted to look at all assets,” said Rawson.
Rawson noted the user-fee study proposed by the town to other municipalities in the year, which resulted in interest from Midland but which Tay Township declined; Tiny Township also chose not to act on the request for the study.
“We met with our neighbours a few months ago to say: let's put all of our recreational assets in a bucket, and let's look at this and share that across North Simcoe’.
“Tiny has not acknowledged it, nor is willing to have a conversation or move it forward, and we're trying to make recreational programming accessible to everybody,” said Rawson.
“I think the problem is the community users who are using it are going to end up paying, because we are no longer going to subsidize non-residents, because it costs everybody and we need to be fair about this.
“I don't think all of my neighbours are being fair and honest,” Rawson stated.
In discussing the once-heated conflict of the Penetanguishene Library Board regarding appointees and unpaid invoices between the councils of Penetanguishene and Tiny, Rawson said that nothing had changed from his town’s perspective.
“Tiny has decided they no longer want to be a participant with our community,” said Rawson, noting Tiny’s partnership deal with Midland and its library.
“We’ve still opened our doors to them, but I believe this has become personal. The library board has moved forward with their own policy on how they're going to be doing that,” Rawson noted.
“We have services that are available to residents, but the town of Penetanguishene will not subsidize outsiders without a meaningful dialogue and relationship.”
The North Simcoe letter for user-fees and charges for all recreation amenities and services can be located on the agenda page of the Town of Penetanguishene website.
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53 when available, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of council meetings are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.
