Laurie Watt on Municipal Affairs

Ooooh, that smell!

The rain had stopped and the sun was shining as I stepped out of my car and took a deep breath.

Fresh air?

No.

I was in Collingwood, literally downwind from Collingwood Ethanol.

Blowing in the wind was the smell of baking … um, bad bread. While the smell of baking bread is delicious in its richness and fullness, the odour I detected had an undefinable, lower-lying layer that hit the pit of my stomach somewhat softly at first, but as the minutes ticked by, hard.

Ten minutes later, I couldn’t wait to go into the specialized Ministry of the Environment’s TAGA unit – Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer, a sophisticated lab on wheels. As the environmental officer opened the door, I eagerly took a deep, cleansing breath as I stepped aboard.

It’s an odour that the Ministry of Environment is working to define, and even nearby residents – whose enjoyment of their backyards must undoubtedly be compromised – struggle to label.

“The majority of our complaints are from neighbours,” said Jason Lehouillier, the environmental officer working on the Collingwood Ethanol file. “They try to give it a ranking of one to 10 as offensive. That’s how we’re attempting to gauge it. We’re seeing fairly elevated levels, people describing it from three of 10 to 10 of 10.”

The ministry began with relatively simple odour testing; in June and July, the ministry recorded levels as high as 116 odour units. An acceptable level is one odour unit.

I don’t know what the level would have been this week, as I talked to Lehoullier downwind from the ethanol plant, and thought of how much I’d like to take our talk inside the TAGA unit.

He wouldn’t say whether he found it offensive, nor would Ministry of the Environment district manager Phillip Bye. Their prime concern is to work to accurately define what the smell is, where it’s coming from and what can be done about it.

That’s why Bye called in the specialized unit.

“This is one of two (TAGA) units the province has. They’re very sophisticated,” Bye said, as the specialized equipment analyzed the odours, and likely ethanol-production byproducts, with a report that will identify what’s in the air.

The TAGA has been designed to specifically identify airborne substances; it was developed to address chemical fires and incidents, the first one being the 1971 incident at Inco mine in Sudbury, and later in 1979, the Mississauga train derailment and the 1990 Haggersville tire fire.

So as I prepared to leave the TAGA unit, I glanced at the computer screen, which showed a moving graph, with several high spikes. What does it mean, I asked.

Lehouillier knew what he was seeing and what I’d been smelling. He couldn’t tell me – at least not yet. When the report comes out in two months, however, I’ll have my answer.

In the meantime, I was thankful I didn’t have one of those new homes not far from the glistening shoreline, but which also happen to be just blocks away from Collingwood Ethanol. I could look forward to fresh air in the Simcoe County’s “big smoke”, Barrie, where the air is clear.

Unsung heroes fight against garbage

There’s a drastic shortage of news in these terribly dry days of summer, when city and county councils aren’t meeting. (That will change, radically next week, with Monday night at city council and Tuesday through Thursday mornings out at Simcoe County.)

Until then, making it through some days has been tough. In the news business, we’ve been responding to practically every accident and political photo op.

So this week when Simcoe County was welcoming in the area’s newest superhero, Diversion Man, and urging county residents to be heroes in the fight against garbage, we all saw some fun. The county further pleaded with us to join in a media challenge to sort garbage; we could make anything look easy.

And we did.

My team won.

At breakneck speed due to our experience in Barrie, B101 news guy Ian MacLennan, two Simcoe County Museum daycamp girls and I sorted plastic fruit and vegetables, tetrapaks, gable-topped milk containers, newspaper, kitty litter and plastics of all types into their appropriate container and ran for the garbage or recycling truck.

Like an Olympic winner, Diversion Man lifted up my left hand as I left the recycling bin at the truck and attempted to head towards the cookie tent. What I saw before me took me aback: a wall of cameras, including two TV ones. I felt like a star.

So excitedly on my way home from work, I told my little guy – who continually asks me what I want to be when I grow up, and anticipates an answer like nurse, fire fighter or policeman – I said he’d see me on TV.

He loves Daniel Cook, that cute redheaded youngster who indulges his curiosity for the benefit of others (i.e. A reporter) – so I told him I did a job like Daniel.

Eagerly turning on A Channel, we caught the item on the county beginning its organics program on Sept. 29.

More than 100,000 of these green bins are being rolled out over the next several weeks, complete with education kits to help people understand what goes in and what stays out.

On the TV screen was A Channel’s flustered team, with only their daycamp helpers showing what it means to be a hero in the fight against garbage.

No mention was made of the victorious Advance/B101 crew.

I guess sometimes being a hero means being an unsung hero. Even in the eyes of your four-year-old.

Arena could have been recreational hub

Over the next several weeks, the old Dunlop Arena will be torn down to make way for a new fire station.

The city should have maintained it as a recreational hub, especially for a growing segment of Barrie: its young people.

Unfortunately for the arena, public input came too late; it came years after inadequate maintenance and during a time when city council had weeks to decide where to put a desperately needed fire station to serve the city’s core. Land in that area is scarce – and it was a natural fit, as it was literally up the street from the existing station, and on city-owned land.

Perhaps it wasn’t a bad fit; it was an answer to a problem, yet it could have been the headquarters of the city’s youth program.

Imagine this: The Dunlop Arena could have been a roller rink, gyms and leisure complex. Barrie is a relatively young community, with 21.3 per cent of its population age 15 or younger, according to the 2006 Census. Connecting with youth is a struggle for municipalities, and that topic is on the agenda at the upcoming Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference.

Including youth not only enhances quality of life and attracts business, it cuts down on crime as kids have something constructive to do, makes streets safer and ultimately creates responsible citizens.

Instead, Barrie’s youth is at risk of estrangement. The Young People’s Centre will be homeless in several years, as the city works with landowners to redevelop the block bounded by Bayfield/Dunlop/Maple/Ross, where the city’s Downtown Commercial Master Plan envisions a theatre, with perhaps Georgian College’s School of Design and Visual Arts occupying what was the old Woolworth’s (then Bargain Shop).

A lack of vision and strategic thinking, combined with the exclusion of the public to the very last hour, led to an acceptable but not the best land use, and certain dilemmas down the road.

The city is at risk once again of short-term, convenience thinking, as it considers the fate of the old Allandale station.

There’s a segment of the community that undoubtedly feels anything is better than what’s there: a derelict station surrounded by weeds. The decision that council makes will affect the downtown and the community for the next 25 years or more.

It’s a decision council should make with input from a new Core Neighbourhoods Strategy group, but this is unlikely.

In August, a city staff report is expected on the redevelopment of the old Allandale station, and council could ratify its decision on the issue as early as Aug. 18.

But the new Core Neighbourhoods group meets again Aug. 19 – which theoretically looks like the day after city council decides the fate of the land.

This group of citizens is being asked to lead a longer-term visioning process that will encourage healthy neighbourhoods at the edge of downtown; these neighbourhoods will be the places of renewal, of creativity, and of wealth generation.

It would be foolhardy for Barrie to not include this group, especially if the city truly wants public input in shaping the city.

Perhaps the time is coming when Barrie does indeed want to listen to the public. The city declared it has “big plans” for its new communication department in a news release this week.

Perhaps the city should learn from the arena scenario or perhaps from the ethanol one. Left to the city, we’d have an ethanol plant in the old Molson brewery.

Instead, MP Patrick Brown saw the community’s concern and actually stated an opinion: that it was not an appropriate spot for an ethanol plant. City council began to pay attention only after councillors were barraged with e-mails.

Barrie can afford to lead on the old Allandale site. It is city-owned and the site has been vacant for years; the city has said repeatedly the old building is sound. Therefore, the city should not rush into making a decision whether there should be a private office complex, a YMCA or a retail village there.

If the city, however, railroads this report and sidelines the public as the train pulls out of the station, we must ask why, what is the city afraid of and who is the engineer?

Time to get creative

In municipal planning and policy circles, one of the hottest topics is how to attract the “creative class” – the wealth-generating group that can locate anywhere in today’s wired world.

It includes artists, architects, photographers, engineers, writers and an array of people in communications – whether visual or written. These are the people who observe their community and those who live in it and who seek to connect with them, to make everyone’s life better and make a living while they’re at it.

It’s a pretty desirable group to attract.

Considered a key demographic in economic development, this group brings tolerance, talent and technology.
When this varied demographic gets together, it creates an environment that attracts even more. What results is great literature, great art, great technological innovation and a great community. These people are not content to get into their cars and drive everywhere; zipping past the world robs them of experiences that make each and every day unique.

They choose to live where they can walk, talk, observe and create.

And in Barrie, they’re undoubtedly in what Ward 2 Coun. Jeff Lehman has dubbed the “core neighbourhoods”.

“What you have here is the Creative Class,” I whispered to Richard Forward, Barrie’s general manager of infrastructure and development. An engineer, Forward leads the city department that incorporates roads and culture; he’s a relatively new convert to the economic theory as espoused by Richard Florida, who has written three books on the creative class, including the most-recent Who’s Your City?

“Look over there – there’s a retired Toronto Star photographer, at least one architect and an artist,” I continued as we scanned the table. As introductions were made, Forward started; he introduced himself, his job and his neighbourhood. I continued – not leaving out the fact I am a reporter – which is someone who is paid to observe and to write.

That set the stage for everyone else to reveal who they are, where they live and what they do. Indeed, my observation about the Core Neighbourhood Strategy Working Group was proven true.

So we talked about how we’d like to get people involved; we discussed connecting with people, and creating a policy that could be applied city-wide. What is good for a neighbourhood is good for any neighbourhood anywhere in the community.

We talked boundaries, but didn’t want to be exclusive; generally, the creative types look to connect with an array of people, to give and to take. We are generally not people who depend on rules and limits.

We talked about identity and we decided we’d share our dreams and our dreads.

It’s a process that will unfold and will have to receive city council support, especially if we need city resources – that is staff and cash – to truly make a difference.

It’s a process that turns traditional municipal planning upside down. It’s street-level planning; it’s visioning where people and roads connect, at the corner or in the park.

And the objective is to create a better Barrie, a city with more vibrant neigbhourhoods, where individuals connect, share and create. We each leave our mark, whether on the community or on each other, and we all end up richer for it.

And that is what community should be about.

More to story than a flashy SUV and fast boats

When Toronto and its media look northward up Highway 400 into Simcoe County, they always wonder what’s in it for them.

In the July issue of Toronto Life magazine, we get a glimpse of the Toronto mentality, with the eight-page feature, The Battle Over Lake Simcoe.

The piece tells the story of the Big Bay Point Resort – from a hazy day Toronto perspective, of course.

Written for those who undoubtedly will have a drink in their hand as they sit on the dock or the deck, the piece is a slightly cheeky look at the characters that have wagered millions on the lakefront point in Innisfil.

“Earl Rumm is a trim 54-year-old developer who drives a flashy black SUV and likes fast boats, ” the story begins.

Now that’s something Torontonians can relate to. Chances are they drove their gas-guzzlers up Highway 400 and are enjoying their lakeside living, with a fast boat not far away.

Aside from truly capturing the Toronto mentality, the article, however, misses some significant key points.

Flipping through the piece, author Paul Wilson writes it as a David-Goliath story, with Rumm being Goliath, the domineering, rich guy who determinedly pursues a vision. A few pages later, he introduces Don Avery, president of the Innisfil District Association; a brief history lesson encapsulates the struggling group’s resurgence as opposition to the plan for a resort emerged and grew.

But it’s not a David-Goliath story. It’s a Goliath-Goliath story.

Rumm spent his summers on Big Bay Point; his family was part of the wealthy circle that runs the exclusive Shanty Bay Golf and Country Club.

It wasn’t until well after Rumm and his visionary partner Mario Giampetri (whom Taylor describes as a sidekick) began talking about their resort idea that another well-heeled Big Bay Point GCC member, Murray Brasseur, raised the idea of expanding the club – and perhaps buying some of the old marina lands that were up for sale for an additional nine holes.

Brasseur is no lightweight; the chairperson and CEO of the Middlefield investment group, he has made millions on real estate.

There were talks in which Rumm and Brasseur tried to work together, but alas, they failed. Then the games started. Money, lawyers and influence were the playing cards.

The context of the game, however, is equally misunderstood.

As the Toronto market moves north, especially in search of affordable housing within commuting distance, south Simcoe County became a destination.

What was once a community of cottages is now a year-round residential area. The cottages on 50-foot lots are still dependent on wells and septic tanks; they are occupied year-round. Big Bay Point is as densely populated as any neighbourhood in Alcona, Barrie, Midland or Collingwood.

Behind the eight ball in maintaining its infrastructure while facing rapid growth, Innisfil looked for an affordable way to improve Big Bay Point, which had become an urban area on rural services. And, as the area of asphalt grew because residents paved their driveways to ease their snowblowing efforts in the wintertime, the need for a storm-water management grew.

Plumes of brown water carrying garbage from the ditches and streets flow into Lake Simcoe, along with the pesticides and fertilizers from the increasingly manicured lawns.
Innisfil needed to approve a project that would provide cash – lots of it – so that the water, sewage and storm sewer services could be installed.

The resort was an answer to a prayer. It would bring in millions so services could be upgraded; it would bring jobs and literally put Innisfil on the tourism map. There seemed to be so many blessings.

The Ontario Municipal Board, the final planning authority, seems to be on the side of Rumm, regardless of whether he likes fast cars and fast boats.

It’s just too bad Toronto Life missed the real story as it gave us a sugary drink that goes down easy on the dock and which quickly comes out the other end. 

How Barrie missed the boat

Having survived barely 10 days without a municipal meeting, I jumped at the chance to attend a special Simcoe County council meeting this week; the burning topic for the spectacular summer-day meeting was the Official Plan update.

Enjoying my break from the antics of Barrie city council, I eagerly paid attention to the talks on a revised greenlands policy and the updated Official Plan.

As any regular reader of this blog knows, OPs are significant documents: the public often makes the mistake of ignoring them until someone proposes a use they don’t like literally next door; then, from its lofty position, the municipality will say, “too late; you should have been paying attention when we were updating our Official Plan.”

Official Plans set out the vision of what our communities can be – and the policies on how to get there. They are a critical road map in planning our future, although as reading, they can be cumbersome and dry.

Looking up into the public gallery were key people from two major developers: Geranium and Metrus. Both have major plans for Simcoe County. There could have been others, on the other side of the gallery – where I couldn’t spot them from the low-lying media table. The amount of vested interests there had to be valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

A few politicians stood up for the developers. There were questions about golf courses and one-stop development shops, to streamline the process and put a lid on costs.

It was a sedate discussion, bordering on the hopelessly boring, until Collingwood Mayor Chris Carrier stood up and asked a question about how discussions are going with the province on the county’s growth plan.

And the spirit of disappointment I’ve had regarding Barrie returned to haunt me.

The county received a letter asking for justification and details on its rationale for its plan to create two economic enterprise zones along Highway 400: one at Innisfil Beach Road, the other at County Road 88 (Bradford West Gwillimbury). The province also asked the county to justify population increases in relatively rural areas – like Clearview, Wasaga Beach, Innisfil, BWG – rather than in more-settled areas like Collingwood and Midland.

Once again, it became all too clear Barrie missed a strategic opportunity. One of those developers in the gallery was one that called Barrie irrelevant earlier this year.

He was, and is, right.

Barrie has indeed made itself irrelevant – despite the fact the province has designated it as Central Ontario’s urban growth centre.

Barrie could have been an opinion leader. It could have worked with people like Carrier, who have been questioning the county’s thinking on managing growth.

Unfortunately, Barrie let Carrier down. It let Midland’s Mayor Jim Downer down. It left its partner in the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport, Oro-Medonte, standing at the side of an under-appreciated runway.

Inasmuch as I tried to escape Barrie and the questionable decisions it makes during these five weeks of city-council recess, I am again forced to wonder about the difference the city could have made had it acted maturely, taken on a regional leadership role and gotten involved in the county’s growth management process.

The only hope for Barrie now is in the backrooms on Queen’s Park, that the senior bureaucrats in key ministries are listening to them, as they discuss refining the county’s growth plan, which is a key element in its Official Plan.

Maybe Barrie should have gotten involved in creating an Official Plan, so it couldn’t – as it so often tells its citizens – too late; you should have gotten involved as we created our Official Plan, rather than waiting to complain about what’s going on next door.

Time to kick back

Recess.

The word holds out such promise.

Of perhaps a poolside lounge for most of us; but for those who follow the happenings at City Hall, it means five weeks of no political game-playing.

Barrie council takes every July off, to give councillors and the mayor an opportunity to vacation with their families; of course, the politicos also take two weeks at Christmas and another in March.

It’s always a relief to reach the end of June, and in particular, the adjournment of the second council meeting, which this year, occurred in the middle of what was (for many) a four-day weekend.

Councillors earned their pay throughout the spring, as they grappled with budget and other issues that pile up in City Hall – such as development charges, zoning changes, proposed developments and this year, the possibility of a large performing arts centre.

Councillors dragged out the political saga until almost the curtain had to drop at its 11 p.m. deadline; councillors adjourned their meeting at 10:41 p.m. June 30, despite a rather thin agenda.

The last few meetings have been full of play acting and political drama, along with some showmanship and cheap tricks.

What’s scary, however, is the summer recess won’t likely cure what ails Barrie city council.

Lacking a leader (a coach-like position usually held by the mayor), council has never really worked together well. The only thing councillors agree on is the belief the mayor has not performed well; councillors had to even drop that one, once the OPP failed to find grounds to charge the mayor with corruption – despite his trip to China with a developer in April 2007. They, of course, continue to say he doesn’t earn his $86,000 salary (one-third tax-free), as he does little more than chair council meetings and occasionally smile for the camera at ribbon-cuttings.

It was surprising council managed to agree on a list of strategic priorities in February 2007; posted on the walls of the council chambers, the list is designed to help councillors make constructive, rather than purely political, decisions.

Council did create a new budget process this year; it set about creating a budget as a program and service investment plan, rather than as a document that only accountants and the city’s finance staff would find interesting. It was a positive start, a step in increasing the transparency and relevance of City Hall.

Unfortunately, politics got on the way of other strategic, financial decisions – such as development charges.

Almost everyone got a break from their development charge, even the large retail developers, who won’t bring higher-paying jobs to the city. Understandably, industrial jobs and office jobs are needed, and those companies should be given some incentive; but retail? The only incentive retail needs is a possibility of a profit.

Council’s dysfunction became particularly clear as councillors debated a staff recommendation to include a $100,000 feasibilty study for an 1,800-seat theatre this week.

Politics making strange bedfellows united theatre supporters with those who can’t honestly see how the city can afford to set out on a path to build a large theatre (at an estimated $70 million) while its bill for roads, sewers, a sewage treatment plant upgrade, and a drinking-water plant approaches $500 million.

Add to that a new police headquarters, a south-end library, a new fire and emergency services headquarters and possibly a new recreation centre for the city’s southeast, and the bill skyrockets even more. A theatre?

The timing of the theatre debate will mean politics will ultimately kill the large theatre. If the $100,000 study survives the 2009 budget deliberations, the study will be complete in late 2009/early 2010.

And guess what? 2010 is an election year.

Yes, indeed. Now that holds out promise. The political games have already begun, but they will pale in comparison to what 2010 will bring.

Attempting to appear fiscally responsible and in the midst of one of the most aggressive capital works programs the city has ever seen, candidates for Barrie council won’t be talking about bringing classical music to Barrie in a fine, large theatre.

No, siree. They already are and will still be singing a much less sophisticated tune.

“Nibblin’ on sponge cake.
Watchin’ the sun bake
All of those tourists covered with oil…”

The King is dead; the prince is next?

This week, school ended. For some, an era ended.

King Edward Public School in old Allandale closed its doors for the last time. The land will now be offered up to the other school boards that serve the county (Catholic, French public and French Catholic), then to other local governments.

The next school likely to close will be Prince of Wales, not far from what is becoming Barrie’s waterfront condo strip; nearby are 2 and 6 Toronto as well as two Nautica towers just being built. Across Bradford Street from the old school is the site for another high-rise development, a development that is not likely to bring in kids but mostly well-off retirees looking for a waterfront lifestyle.

In this context, a public school board Accommodation Review Committee will examine how to best serve kids in the city’s central area. Schools included are Andrew Hunter (up in Letitia Heights), Hillcrest (just blocks from downtown), Portage View (up on Anne Street North), Prince of Wales and Warnica (southeast Painswick).

Years as an education reporter have taught me there usually is a goal, usually unstated, to close one of the schools. This is quite likely the case, as the Simcoe board is a board experiencing declining enrolment.

Closing a school – especially one that’s expensive to upgrade to meet not only health and safety codes but to link the kids into today’s modern, connected world – in an area where enrolment is in particular decline is usually the end recommendation. The fact that a superintendent co-chairs the committee reinforces the board’s power and agenda; if the process were to truly be public-led, school board staff (including superintendents and principals) would be resource people only, not voting members, let alone a co-chair.

So it’s safe to predict the next to go will be Prince of Wales.

Few kids who attend that school are walkers; the school is home to the board’s extended French program; quite likely, that’s why Warnica was included in the grouping, as it too has an extended French program. The demographics in the neighbourhood surrounding POW is shifting, and the kids who could walk could easily attend Hillcrest, with acres of green space, a pond study area, primary and junior playgrounds, a baseball diamond, a soccer field and more; the building itself has also been upgraded in the past few years, with a new gym, library and HVAC system.

Contrast that with the asphalt-covered small area at POW; contrast the upgraded Hillcrest building with the aging, contaminated building that is POW.

Yes, seeing the end of an era is a sad thing. Memories do sustain us, but what also can sustain us, if we let it, is our community.

We need to recognize how we are changing and how we can best live and play together. Ward 2 Coun. Jeff Lehman’s core neighbourhoods strategy committee could play a key role in working with the public school board to create the best places for kids to live, to learn and to play.

It takes a village to raise a child; let’s not forget that, and work together over the next year to define what kinds of neighbourhoods – with playgrounds, with schools and with rinks and recreation – for our families.

Lehman has a point on neighbourhoods

A year ago, I read in a Toronto real estate section, “Barrie is the Beaches North”.

Actually, the Toronto newspaper got it wrong. It’s the core neighbourhoods of the city that are the Beaches North.

And I can say so, because I live in one, as opposed to a cookie-cutter subdivision a 10-minute drive from Kempenfelt Bay.

Walking down to the end of my driveway, I can see the lake.

And if Ward 2 Coun. Jeff Lehman has his way, these established neighbourhoods will one day carry their own names and identities, just like the Beaches.

Barrie has left people out of its downtown revitalization plans, he says, as the city focused more on fixing and realigning roads and encouraging development.

“Part of the problem with downtown revitalization is the focus on the eight-block historical core. A strong core needs strong neighbourhoods,” he said.

So the economist – who grew up in a family-run planning firm and who walked through the downtown area to Barrie Central – has a plan to create a Core Neighbhourhoods Strategy.

Lehman has given me a label; I’m a Queen’s Park resident – that trendy mixed neighbourhood that includes century homes as well as ones built throughout the decades since. The neighbourhood is home to the YMCA, Victoria Village, Youth Haven and Elizabeth Fry. Yes, we are the urban heart of Barrie.

On the menu in our neighbourhood is Middle Eastern food, Thai, Italian, Jamaican, German and even some modern gourmet.

We can walk to grocery stores, a couple of pharmacies, and have a few unique, independent old-style corner stores.

We can walk to the cinema and to waterfront parks. By the end of the year, a new small theatre will be just a short walkway. Our strip of Dunlop Street will one day be the city’s entertainment district.

Our neighbourhood has a street of artistic and creative professionals, including architect Ted Handy – someone who is truly a visionary when it comes to culture and building a creative community. Handy would like to see Georgian College’s School of Design and Visual Arts move in with us.

Yet our roads are used as shortcuts by speeding cars, by motorists looking to skip around downtown and get to Highway 400. Forget throwing a ball on the front lawn, let alone a game of road hockey.

When special events occur, even more cars jam our streets, and when there’s noise on the waterfront, we hear it. Mind you, we can see the Canada Day fireworks from our deck.

Downtown Barrie is an incredible place to live.

If I were to move to get away from the speeding cars that zip down my street as an alternative to Bayfield Street, I would stay in one of six areas Lehman wants to see reinvigourated and appreciated.

“All great neighbourhoods in Canada have names. These are strong communities but they don’t have an identity yet. Blair and Brock are just the park names. I’d like people to come up with names. I’d like to have citizens groups driving the progress. We want to put people at the centre of planning. I want to know what people’s vision for their neighbourhood is, and what needs to be changed.”

Uptown is the area north of the library, east of Bayfield Street. It includes streets like Drury Lane and Owen Street.

On the west side of Bayfield is Queen’s Park, home, named in honour of the spacious park that includes armouries, a skateboard park, a baseball diamond and even the Barrie Tennis Club.

Next to us is Dunlop West, then Brock (stretching down the Innisfil Street area), Blair (the Caroline Street area) and old Allandale.

He sees involving people like me in kitchen-table discussions about what we’d like our neighbourhood to be in 20 years.

And this is critical; this is truly what building a complete community – as per Ontario’s Places to Grow – is all about. Lehman’s idea is to use a provincial economic-development and planning strategy to improve my family’s everyday life.

And he wants me and my neighbours to get involved.

After all, it’s about building something better for our kids. And thinking about their needs today should be the starting point.

The only challenge is to figure out where we’ll meet – where to go to eat as we talk about the issues; will it be Pad Thai, borscht or souvlaki.

Sometimes, small is better than big

In one quick move this week, Barrie council gave major retail developers a major break on their development charges.

The move is expected to save companies such as Osmington, Mady, North American and Smart Centres $12 million next year.

By contrast just a few months ago, councillors were wringing their hands, scratching their heads and searching their hearts as they trimmed a variety of programs from the 2008 operating budget.

An array of initiatives didn’t survive their knives: a $70,000 electronics recycling program, $225,000 to create a long-term waste-management plan, a $13,000 increase to help sustain the Arboretum, $130,000 to upgrade Magic of Winter light displays, and even $10,000 to create a public art policy.

These relatively small expenditures are exactly what the city should be investing in – especially as this council’s strategic priorities hold up the environment and culture as keys to the city’s future. These are exactly the kinds of items that give value and provide quality of life for residents; they bring not only sustainability but sparkle to the community.

Council’s strategic priorities also include increasing fiscal responsibility to ensure taxpayers receive best value for their taxes and expanding business for Barrie. Instead, with this week’s move to cut retail development charges by about $5/square foot, councillors gave the developers millions more to enjoy, while next year, passing the bill onto residential taxpayers.

It’s rather shocking that those who supported giving the retail giants a break have forgotten the harsh reality – that any discounts they give must be paid for by taxpayers.

This same group also fails to understand how to use development charges as an economic tool: discounting industrial rates would bring higher-paying jobs or at least help retain businesses struggling in a downturn. Manufacturing in Ontario is under pressure and council was wise to offer an incentive.

But retail needing help?

For the record, those who feel retail needs assistance are Lynn Strachan, Jerry Moore, Andrew Prince, Alex Nuttall, Dave Aspden and Mike Ramsay. Together, a bare-majority vote set the stage for next spring.

Next spring, there will undoubtedly be gnashing of teeth as councillors grind the numbers and see the real impact of giving large retail corporations a break as they build yet another strip mall.

Next spring, taxpayers won’t have money to spare to spend. There will be no ringing of cash registers, only wringing of pocketbooks as local taxpayers pay up to support the retail giants.