Governments can move at glacial paces, and when a municipal government takes summer holidays that extended timeframe can become incredibly inconvenient.
The early-September Midland committee of the whole emerged from summer holidays and dealt with numerous items from early June, including a May 29 piece of correspondence from Tay Township regarding a support request to review and update the Severn Sound Environmental Association funding formula and letter of agreement review.
Previously, Tay expressed open disappointment during their July meeting of council as Tay staff pointed out that both Midland and Penetanguishene had the opportunity to address the matter in early June but, as Mayor Ted Walker stated: “Those two municipalities obviously didn’t feel it was important enough to give consideration.”
While Penetanguishene council also received similar scrutiny, support was granted in mid-August along with an apology from one councillor who admitted overlooking the item in June.
For Midland council, council information packages appear during regular council meetings to be received as information. Only if an item is pulled does it get discussed during the committee of the whole, otherwise the package is approved without much notice. The June 12 regular meeting contained a council information package for items until the end of May, which did not include the May 29 Tay request.
Midland Mayor Bill Gordon provided the explanation that the timing of the summer schedules meant that the matter had its first opportunity in front of council on that night.
“I just wanted to clear the record that we just haven’t had an opportunity at a regular meeting to deal with these things,” Gordon said, “and we don’t deal with the stuff at our special meetings, which we’ve had plenty this summer of course, replacing our vacant council seat.
“There seems to be a bit more of an adversarial relationship between Tay and the SSEA,” Gordon added, “that leads me to believe that they may be looking to press the eject button, which is an option in the agreement. To their credit, they haven’t done that yet and they’re asking simply for a full, frank, and fair review of the funding formula to see if it could be more equitable for them.”
Coun. Bill Meridis, praised by Gordon for his "fiscally-aware" presence as the town’s representative on the Severn Sound Environmental Association, said that he was also in support of the funding formula reassessment after speaking Tay Deputy Mayor Barry Norris.
“I think a good start right now is hopefully we can get an agreement of this funding formula and review it, and it would be nice for everybody to pay their fair share,” said Meridis, adding a comment toward gauging necessary core services for the town.
In contrast, Coun. Jaz Patel as the town’s representative for the Culture Alliance in the Heart of Georgian Bay supported the matter but offered caution on Tay’s request and actions.
“Is Tay wanting to revisit on every issue at this point that we share cost with? And are we going to just keep going with new formulas every few years to their will?” Patel asked.
“The Culture Alliance is in draft right now for the budget coming up,” said Patel. “Right now we're sharing equal cost besides Tay – they’re only $10,000, everyone else is doing $12,500 – but they want to review that funding as well and do it based on property assessment or population. What I'm saying is: this is going to keep going on, so we need to be careful.”
Coun. Catherine MacDonald also supported the request, but noted: “I wish they would reconsider joining the (separate North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre) user review that they declined to participate in.”
Council concluded by approving their support of the funding formula and letter of agreement review and update, to be sent to Tay and other member municipalities.
The request for support correspondence, including the original Severn Sound Environmental Association letter of agreement, is 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.
