Tiny residents had their say on the north Simcoe library board fallout regarding Penetanguishene at this week's council meeting.
Councillors, however, provided actions of their own just beforehand.
Although reimbursement for Tiny Township residents wasn’t approved until the previous meeting of council, last night’s meeting included a multi-faceted resolution aimed to make library membership and program costs equal to what the community has experienced so far.
Mayor Dave Evans raised the amended motion during council’s matters for consideration.
“My amendment to this motion is to take it to the next step in terms of giving our staff direction in terms of negotiation,” said Evans on Tiny’s involvement with three current library boards, noting a potential fourth in the future.
“My amendment would be that the reimbursement is handled as it has been in the past,” he added. “I don’t want people to be getting confused if they go to one library board and they have to pay money and another one they don’t. We want it to be as seamless and as transparent, and to provide the same level of library services that we have in the past.”
Coun. Steffan Walma agreed with an additional request for staff to look at how Tiny residents could have funds in-hand rather than be turned away.
“I would just like to offer an amendment to further improve that, given that we are outside of a contract and we have this reimbursement program working in the interim of having a… call it a ‘preimbursement’ program," he said.
“If individuals don’t want to or can’t afford the $200 out of pocket, the municipality would issue a cheque written out to the library of their choosing – well, it would be Penetanguishene because the issue hasn’t occurred in Midland or Springwater,” Walma added.
Further discussion arose as CAO Robert Lamb and deputy CAO Hayley Leblond addressed the various challenges with giving residents funds in advance, explaining that auditors prefer a clean and transparent paper trail which council’s proposed options would not accommodate.
Said Lamb on one suggestion: “The challenge… is that they (Penetanguishene) believe, and rightly so, that we have outstanding invoices with them that we have not paid; therefore they are not looking to extend additional credit.
“Our issue isn’t with the library board,” Lamb added. “Our issue is with the council of the Town of Penetanguishene who made a decision that had a ripple effect; and they have been given the remedy for how to correct that, that would allow us then to pay the outstanding invoices.
“But council direction was to not pay those invoices until such time as they appointed our representative – as we had for 30 years – to the library board, as a representative of this municipality on the governance,” Lamb shared.
Council approved the motion for consistency across the libraries as they had been in the past, asking staff to look to the possible solution for non-disruptive service funding which could be brought to the upcoming 2024 draft budget discussion next week. Also, council granted delegated authority to Lamb and Leblond to accept and execute the various library board agreements, with the exception of Penetanguishene which would be reviewed by council before finalization.
Following the regular council meeting as residents poured into the audience, a deputation by Tiny resident Janice Murton held council to task on the library issue.
Citing each council member’s actions and public statements through several media publications, including MidlandToday's coverage, and letters to the editor, Murton read verbatim from her submitted letter the ways that Tiny’s actions had gone against their strategic plans and campaign promises.
Her scheduled deputation was put on the agenda in advance of the council meeting that addressed the ‘preimbursement’ amendment. Murton referenced the reimbursement aspect, calling it neither “streamlined nor is it seamless.” She added: “My ($200) cheque apparently goes out this Friday.”
The lengthy deputation received a hefty round applause from the chamber attendees, who promptly vacated the meeting once council stated they would receive the deputation as information; their haste surprised the following deputation regarding Waypoint Centre for Mental Health, garnering a remark that the room had been cleared.
The delegated authority of library services agreement motion can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the Township’s YouTube channel.
