It’s been almost two months since Oro-Medonte Township Deputy Mayor Peter Lavoie introduced a motion that called for the amalgamation of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA) and the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA).
While the majority of municipalities that would be affected by the motion haven’t taken a position publicly, two have and neither of them are in favour of the idea.
The Town of Wasaga Beach and the Town of the Blue Mountains have given the proposal the thumbs down, as has the NVCA’s board of directors.
At its council meeting this past Monday, the Town of the Blue Mountains unanimously passed a resolution opposing the possibility of a merger.
“It wasn’t supported for a number of reasons,” Coun. June Porter, who represents The Blue Mountains on the NVCA board of directors, told BarrieToday’s sister publication CollingwoodToday earlier this week.
Porter said an amalgamation was seen as an “unnecessary distraction,” lacked a business plan and would represent a burden on the participating municipal members.
Blue Mountains Coun. Gail Ardiel agreed.
“(Amalgamation) is not a good move. It would be too large of an area,” said Ardiel, suggesting that instead of a costly and disruptive amalgamation process, that steps be taken to address any concerns Oro-Medonte has about NVCA operations.
“They could do that and leave the rest of Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority the way it is,” Ardiel said.
Last week, the Town of Wasaga Beach said no to amalgamation and urged other municipalities to exercise patience as the NVCA appears to be making headway with some of the challenges it’s faced in the past.
Wasaga Beach Mayor Brian Smith said the recent improvements the NVCA has made are enough to convince him to say no to amalgamation at this point.
“If you talked to me a year ago, I’d say, 'let’s do this amalgamation thing,' we’ve got to find a solution to the problems,” Smith said during the town’s March 6 council meeting. “Today, I’m of a very different opinion.”
Smith said he’s seen, and heard, numerous improvements in the NVCA’s service delivery since the late December appointment of the conservation authority’s interim chief administrative officer, Sheryl Flannagan.
When Lavoie made his motion, he said Oro-Medonte believed there would be advantages of “economics, consistency, timeliness and governance” to merge the entities.
In an email to BarrieToday on Friday morning, Lavoie said he hopes to be able to “more precisely frame the reasons supporting amalgamation which are not at all those currently set out in the press” in the near future.
He expects that the township will bring the motion to Simcoe County council for discussion in April.
“While there is a process set out in the provincial legislation, it is not very prescriptive, nor does it have required timelines,” he said.
Jonathan Scott, chair of the NVCA and a councillor in the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, reiterated the conservation authority’s assertion that a merger is neither necessary nor advisable.
“Such a process would be disruptive, could lead to a loss of local control and would create a bigger bureaucracy spanning a very large geographic area,” Scott said in an email to BarrieToday on Thursday afternoon. “Because there is no analysis, any claim of cost savings is speculative; the opposite could equally be true.”
Scott said he doesn’t know when the amalgamation motion will be discussed by all of the municipalities involved.
“Oro-Medonte put forward a motion to trigger the amalgamation process, and so it is up to Oro-Medonte to call that public meeting to discuss amalgamation, if they so choose,” he said.
“The NVCA board has unanimously opposed the amalgamation, and a growing number of member municipalities have also unanimously voted to indicate they would be in opposition to an amalgamation if Oro-Medonte proceeds with a public meeting on the matter at this time," Scott added.
— With files from LJI reporter Chris Fell