The most contentious issue currently facing a large swatch of area residents is arguably non-resident user fees for local facilities, and Penetanguishene council had another say at last night’s meeting.
However, resolution could be on the horizon.
Before getting to a staff report on non-resident user fees for the town in recreation areas like the Penetanguishene Memorial Community Centre, council members heard from two delegations by sports leadership at the podium.
The first was from Justin Robitaille, a board member with the North Simcoe Girls Hockey Association, who spoke as a parent on behalf of regional children.
“Children who struggled through the pandemic and for multiple years after – and the repair work seems to be just happening now,” said Robitaille. “I strongly appeal to council to consider deterring away from this non-resident fee as the demographic it’s going to affect primarily are ages 5 to 15; I feel that that demographic over the last three to five years has been through enough.”
Tim Garratt, an executive with the Penetanguishene Midland Minor Ball Hockey Association, provided a thorough delegation that touched on building self-esteem, pride and confidence through youth sport.
“As adults in this community, we have an obligation to provide guidance and an outlet for our youth, regardless of the geopolitical boundaries that exist,” stated Garratt. “It is with great pride that our program has put Penetang, Midland, Tiny and Tay at an elite level by working together. We are a regional program; we are not a Penetang program, we are not a Midland program.”
Garratt pointed out that increased fees would "out price" low-cost sports for financially-marginal families, and that a decrease of registrations would impact not only town revenue but also spin-off revenue for local businesses; he cited that assurances of no increases to 2024 user fees gained double the registration numbers over the past week for his organization.
His biggest impact may have been at the moment he put his foot down. “As the administrators of the sports program, we’re not tax collectors. We will not be collecting any user fees that are imposed; that will have to come from somebody in town whether it’s an administrative clerk at the front that has to collect the funds. We will pay what we’re expected to pay, but we won’t collect the user fees,” said Garratt.
For his suggested solution, Garratt proposed the formation of a regional recreation committee to examine regional facilities and groups, their needs and how to support them.
Later in the agenda under the finance and corporate services section (chaired by Coun. Bonita Desroches, who had declared a conflict of interest due to her occupation as recreation director for Tiny Township and stayed absent from all conversation during the night), the report and its recommendations were discussed.
The dense nine-page report referenced a non-resident user fee report on the North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre presented to Midland town council in February, and its similarities for consultation and analysis to Penetanguishene.
Coun. George Vadeboncoeur began by stating opposition to the principle of non-resident user fees, despite understanding their need. “I don’t agree with those actions (taken by other municipalities), but I don’t think two wrongs make a right. If we start implementing our own non-resident user fees, I don’t think that’s the way to go.”
Coun. Suzanne Marchand admitted: “I had to go back and read this report a number of times. There’s a lot of information, there’s a lot of moving parts. I keep coming back to: How are we at this point?"
She praised the associations for their delegations, loosely suggesting that the affected children aged three through 18 “need to put their jerseys on and go to the council chambers in Tiny Township, they need to go to Midland, they need to be here. They need to have voices, and demonstrate that this is a huge impact that they have no control over.”
For Mayor Doug Rawson, he plainly sided with Vadeboncoeur, Marchand and affected groups that non-resident user fees shouldn’t be implemented. However, he laid out the history and reasoning for Tiny’s withdrawal to Penetanguishene on financial contributions along with subsequent letters.
Rawson further reiterated that costs would likely increase when a proposed multi-use recreation facility would be constructed, but pulled back to the immediate problem and the impact on regional residents.
“I think this council needs to endorse written correspondence formally from our council to our neighbours, saying: ‘do you want to reconsider your approach?’ suggested Rawson. “We’re willing to sit down and have an honest conversation and be adults, that there’s no impact to our community and our residents. Let’s be big people, and let’s take a leadership role in this.
“We should be able to do this council to council, and not have to bring up 28,000 residents to come up with a solution,” he added.
Council passed two amendments on the resolution: to endorse Rawson’s correspondence letter, as well as a housekeeping item on wording in the recommendation. Staff recommendations were for further public consultation, an amended fees and charges bylaw for non-residents and excluding regular user groups and associations, and a further review prior to the 2025 budget.
In speaking with MidlandToday, Rawson shared how strong North Simcoe once was as a regional entity for sports and recreation, but lamented: “All that fell to the wayside for literally $25,000.”
When asked if he would entertain the thought of a North Simcoe event where the affected councils would hash it out in front of a large-scale audience of every affected sports organization, Rawson stated he would be the first one there.
The non-resident user fee review report can be located on the agenda page of the Town of Penetanguishene website.
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of council meetings are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.
