Anyone who has sat with a mismatched group of friends to share equal slices of pizza might understand the troubles of Tay Township in their joint-municipality partnership recently within the Severn Sound Environmental Association.
Eight municipalities of the Severn Sound watershed, including Tay, pay the Severn Sound Environmental Association (SSEA) annually to act as a conservation authority. As southeast Georgian Bay was listed as an area of concern in 1987, the SSEA was formed in 1997 to stop pollution and clean the water, achieving the result in 2004.
A funding model was established in 2009 when the Joint Municipal Service Board was created, based on Municipal Property Assessment Corporation data, and only changed once when Orillia left the SSEA in 2018.
In Tay, a re-examination of the whole SSEA funding model has been the centre of controversy as increasing budget requests prompted council to only approve a hike in funding equal to the township’s own municipal tax rate (2.68 per cent) and not the SSEA’s ask for a 12.33 per cent amount. Nearly $8,700 remained to be paid, resulting in an exchange of letters between the finance departments of the SSEA and Tay on the short pay of the invoice.
The general funding formula takes the number of a municipality’s watershed-touching properties (for Tay: 6,101) and the related MPAC assessment within (for Tay: roughly $810 million). The average of those two numbers result in the percentage of cost share (Tay: 12.6 per cent), and a base amount of the SSEA total core operating budget (Tay: roughly $63,000).
To further complicate matters, Tay had been the treasurer municipality within the joint group until February when Tay council gave notice they were leaving the treasurer position, resulting in the SSEA to search for another joint member to take up the task. A six-month extension was requested for Tay to stay on, and was granted.
Funding formula figures are explained as being a 55 per cent portion of the core operating budget as established to recognize each municipality’s differences in area, population, revenue, et cetera, while the other 45 per cent of the core operating budget would be an equal split among all municipalities to acknowledge how each would benefit equally.
During the recent meeting of Tay council, discussion occurred between Mayor Ted Walker, Deputy Mayor Barry Norris (the council representative on the SSEA board), and Coun. Gerard LaChapelle on two SSEA matters.
As per a CAO/deputy clerk, SSEA update report, staff laid out Tay’s contributions to the organization while recommending that a request be made for the SSEA to review and update the funding formula as well as the joint members’ letter of agreement, and that the resolution be passed on to the other seven municipalities asking for support.
LaChapelle expressed concerns that the size of SSEA activities and costs were growing, with “no mechanism in place that this council – or any council – could control,” adding he wasn't sure on how many core services Tay utilized.
Norris agreed, but pointed out that the core services were part of the SSEA strategic plan that the joint municipalities had agreed upon.
Core services are what the SSEA provides for all, but non-core services can be selected by each municipality and charged accordingly. A two-thirds majority of the eight partners – Tay Township, Tiny Township, Midland, Penetanguishene, and the townships of Georgian Bay, Oro-Medonte, Severn, and Springwater – need to agree on memorandum of understanding decisions regarding the SSEA.
If it were a paid pizza, the eight municipalities would each get the same size slice with basic core toppings, but some would pay for extra toppings on their slices after the flat fee. Only after eating their slice would those paying realize they might not get the toppings they wanted, or feel they’re paying inequitably for their slice or toppings, all of which would be adjusted the next time a pizza is ordered.
An SSEA board meeting from February included a discussion where vice chair Danielle Alexander informed Tay alternate representative Paul Raymond that regarding the budget “as (the SSEA) board, we approved it unanimously,” adding that any alteration to the budget should have been spoken to at that time.
It was a statement Norris reiterated in the Tay meeting.
Walker pounced on the comment in a rapid-fire back-and-forth where he asked Norris if Tay’s voice was heard at the SSEA table, with Norris admitting although he raised issues that: “I get outvoted.”
Said LaChapelle: “What’s held over our head is the strategic plan… ‘this is what we agreed to.’ If we agreed to it, let’s change what we agreed to.”
Council voted in favour of the staff recommendation and moved on to the SSEA letter asking for payment of the $8,700 invoice.
“Has everyone read this letter?” asked Walker to the stifled laughter of council members. His short remark asked if he was confused in it being the same organization asking for a 10-day response to the invoice, right after requesting a six-month extension on requiring a treasurer.
Said Walker: “That’s what I mean about the lack of respect for Tay Township that this organization has shown ever since we had the nerve to question the amount that we were paying, and the amount of the exorbitant increases that this group was passing on to us each year. I’ve said at different times I don’t want it to be antagonistic, but they sure make it difficult when they come up with something like this.”
The discussion escalated in levels of offence taken: Walker cited disappointment with their attitude; and LaChapelle said he was offended and “thought this was kind of like a threat, more or less” because of the pushback.
Instead of responding to the invoice, Walker directed Tay staff to ask the SSEA for executive committee meeting minutes, an answer to why Norris wasn’t invited to the meeting, and for the location in the memorandum of understanding where amounts need to be paid on which date. Norris agreed, also noting that no board member questioned the short pay appearing on financials.
Walker put two more barbed comments in before the matter concluded, involving transparency and the timeline for a response from the SSEA.
MidlandToday contacted SSEA Chair Steffen Walma, who stated that as of the conversation the SSEA hadn’t received any formal request to re-examine the funding formula by Tay.
Regarding the shortfall letter and its 10-day business response time, Walma replied that it was sent as such so the SSEA would know how Tay would respond.
“They do have money within their reserves within the organization that would be able to cover the shortfall,” said Walma, “but they did not provide direction, so we wanted to make sure that we knew their intent so that we can carry on with operations within the organization.”
He added: “We need to figure out how we’re going to deal with this because we’re talking about something that has never happened before. We are in uncharted territory.”
As a best-case scenario where a compromise and reunification of the joint municipalities could occur, Walma offered: “Hopefully we can all figure out a solution together and move forward in a way that’s best for the environment and Severn Sound – and I mean the actual environment.
“If things take a turn down a road we haven’t been down before, we’ll just have to deal with those as they arrive.”
The Severn Sound Environmental Association update report as well as the SSEA 2024 core payment letter can be found in the agenda page on the Tay Township website.
Tay council meets for committee of the whole meetings every second Wednesday of the month, and regular council meetings every fourth Wednesday of the month. Archives and livestreams of council meetings are available through the Tay Township YouTube channel.
