Tiny Mayor David Evans is enthused about the response the township received at the recent AMO Conference.
“Council was able to connect with other municipalities to share challenges and ideas on common issues many of us share,” Evans said of municipal representatives who attended the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) Conference in Ottawa last week.
“We also had two very successful delegations with two ministers and their staff regarding settlement boundaries and septage management.”
Evans went on to outline those meetings and what he feels they accomplished, beginning with a delegation on the development of settlement areas with Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra.
“This delegation focused on Tiny’s advocacy to expand township settlement area boundaries in controlled and sustainable ways and the provincial policies that constrain this,” Evans said.
“Following our delegation, the provincial government announced the new provincial planning statement that provides more flexibility for municipalities to make these changes, including the ability to consider settlement area boundary expansions at any time.”
Evans said the township hopes to see these changes implemented in the county’s Official Plan as soon as possible to allow the township to address the demand for more land for housing for current and future residents.
As well, Evans and the Tiny team along with others from north Simcoe met with Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma and her team to discuss septage management issues.
“Currently, the township relies on Ministry of Environment-approved field spreading and neighbouring municipalities with wastewater treatment facilities,” Evans said, noting the township also invited Midland personnel to join its delegation since septage was previously accepted by our neighbours.
“However, Midland’s wastewater treatment facility requires upgrades to resume accepting septage from other municipalities,” he noted.
“Minister Surma provided positive feedback and informed us of potential funding opportunities that the township will pursue, in collaboration with the Town of Midland, that address both treated and untreated sewage and eliminates the application of untreated sewage in Tiny.”
