Laurie Watt on Municipal Affairs

A tale of two mayors

The mayor got angry, called a recess and, behind closed doors, used profanity as he vented his anger at a councillor who tried to boot him from a boundary negotiating committee. He emerged red-faced, wrath continuing to spill out in unspoken words and body language.

Where did this happen?

It happened in Innisfil last week.
Perhaps it shows the two communities are more alike than either would care to admit.
Innisifil has always prided itself on being a smaller town, more community-minded.
But last Wednesday’s outburst in Innisfil is eerily familiar in Barrie. In April 2007, councillors called in the OPP to investigate Barrie Mayor Dave Aspden’s judgment during boundary discussions after news leaked that he travelled to China with a developer who has major interests in Innisfil. He was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
The story continues …

Police were called in; they are investigating. No one can issue a statement, now that the investigation is underway.

Again, this sounds eerily familiar to another Aspden 2007 incident, when the Barrie mayor refused to answer councillors’ questions related to his intervening in a police administrative matter – thereby breaking the Police Services Act’s code of conduct.
Barrie Police couldn’t investigate. City council joined in the call for the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services (OCCPS) to investigate.

Once OCCPS began its investigation, protocol required the mayor be suspended from his police board duties.

Now, in Innisfil, with Jackson serving on the board of the South Simcoe Police, it appears he broke the code of conduct – which holds him to a higher standard of behaviour. Police have yet to determine whether Jackson could be facing charges of assault.

Alas! This gets even more surreal. Just a few weeks ago, a member of the Barrie Police Services Board was charged with assault and OCCPS was called; Don MacNeil is still technically on the board.

In the Wild West of politics and development, in the neighbouring communities of Barrie and Innisfil, politicians struggle not only to get along with their neighbours, but their own councils.

How will it end?  Perhaps a higher authority – the province – should step in and restore order. Or perhaps next year, voters will realize they got the government they deserved in 2006 – and they should resolve to get involved in the November 2010 elections. That’s when the curtain will finally fall on this act.

Same old Friday funding announcement

Sometimes the news week falls into a routine.
The trouble is, when things become routine, they are more than likely to be overlooked, not valued or appreciated, and possibly, the subject of jokes.

“How can you tell tomorrow is Friday?”
“Aileen Carroll is announcing money.”
We don’t know how much, what for or when – just that there’s an announcement tomorrow and more info will come.

So it was no surprise that when the media advisory, scanty on details appeared, it didn’t get the attention it deserved.

Just like the boy who cried “wolf”, we didn’t pay attention, perhaps when we should have.
The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board got $25.4 million in funding for school expansion as the week was winding down; it’s just too bad it was portrayed so routinely.

Sometimes you just have to be honest and upfront – it’s just that takes the steam out of the announcement.

Crying wolf, crying cash

Sometimes the news week falls into a routine.

The trouble is, when things become routine, they are more than likely to be overlooked, not valued or appreciated, and possibly, the subject of jokes.

“How can you tell tomorrow is Friday?”

“Aileen Carroll is announcing money.”

We don’t know how much, what for or when – just that there’s an announcement tomorrow and more info will come.

So it was no surprise that when the media advisory, scanty on details appeared, it didn’t get the attention it deserved.

Just like the boy who cried “wolf”, we didn’t pay attention, perhaps when we should have.

The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board got $25.4 million in funding for school expansion as the week was winding down; it’s just too bad it was portrayed so routinely.

Sometimes you just have to be honest and upfront, even if it takes the steam out of the announcement.

Boundary legislation is just the beginning

The long-awaited day finally arrived Thursday: it had been expected for months Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson would intervene, with legislation, to solve the ongoing Barrie-Innisfil boundary dispute.

The acts had to play out and the stage was set when Innisfil walked out of provincially-facilitated negotiations in February 2008.

The province had given some hints as to what it would do. MMAH regional director Larry Clay had forewarned Simcoe County the province had concerns with the county’s growth plan, and the province reserved the right to distribute 40,000 “unallocated” people.

Barrie, Innisfil and the county all criticized the province for not releasing the numbers when the schedules for Places to Grow were released a few years ago. But, at the time, Barrie and Innisfil were in provincially-assisted talks; the province, likely and rightly, wanted to give local politicians the opportunity to work it out.

That was not to be.
So the county tried to distribute the numbers. The province raised concerns with those numbers too. It went so far as to lodge a challenge to Innisfil’s official plan at the Ontario Municipal Board (a hearing that has yet to occur).

So really, there should have been few surprised people Thursday.
There should be a lot of relieved people that the antics are hopefully over and we can get on with implementing Ontario’s Places to Grow in our region.

Discussions are not over; in fact, public discussions, as opposed to private political talks, are about to begin.
The legislation is not yet passed.

There will be talks and studies related to the province’s strategic vision for the county, including one on transportation. Getting just a page of mention in the province’s 36-page vision statement, however, is incredibly significant: moving people, attracting and creating jobs, protecting the environment are all important tenets of Places to Grow and transportation is a key implementation strategy. The province could learn from the county, and should perhaps read the county’s transportation study completed last year.

There will not only be local talks, but provincial hearings as part of the legislative process.
The provincial solution is really the starting point, not the end, in creating a better community for our children, no matter where in Simcoe County we reside.