Troubles at the Top of Springwater Council

 Mayor Allen - 90 day pay suspension for Code of Conduct Violation

It was a long drawn out debate and discussion at the Oct 21 Regular Council Meeting when the Integrity Commissioner submitted its report on a Code of Conduct complaint filed by Councillors Cabral, Moore and Hanna related to criminal charges of Impaired and Dangerous Driving laid against the Mayor triggered by incidents following the 2019 Warden’s Golf Tournament at Vespra Hills Golf and Country Club on Wilson Drive. As Reported in the media, the Mayor plead guilty this past Summer to reduced charges under the Highway Traffic Act of “driving without due care or attention or without consideration for other persons using the highway”. The agreed statement of facts in Court read as follows: “On June 26th, 2019 Don ALLEN attended a golf tournament at the Vespra Hills Golf Course located on Wilson Drive in Springwater Township. He was observed after the tournament by staff having difficulties with his balance. This was due to a combination of a number of medical conditions Mr. Allen suffers from, including Multiple Sclerosis, a double knee replacement, fatigue from the heat and duration of the tournament in combination with 2 alcoholic beverages Mr. Allen had consumed at dinner at the course. Around 9:54 p.m. Mr. Allen entered his car, a Toyota Prius and drove off the property with only his daytime running lights on and turned onto Wilson Road, The combination of Mr. Allen’s fatigue, pre-existing medical condition, the 2 alcoholic drinks consumed at dinner and driving after sunset with only his daytime running lights on amounted to his driving on Wilson Road without due care and attention for other users of the roadway.” The Court noted in sentencing, stated: “I think the joint submission in this case is fitting and appropriate, and certainly meets the needs of the purpose of sentencing which is to promote a sense of responsibility in offenders, and to those who are acknowledging the harm done - and that is certainly the case here - but also to denounce the unlawful conduct and harm done to victims, and to deter yourself and others from committing offence.” He was given a $1,000 fine, a four-month licence suspension and a one-year ban on driving while there's alcohol in his system. What surprises me is the Mayor’s lack of contrition to his fellow Council members and his constituents. He instead tabled a motion to post a prepared statement that seems to contradict the information in the Integrity Commissioner’s report making him some sort of victim. That will be discussed at the next meeting. A simple apology by the Mayor for his bad behaviour may have avoided the action tabled by Councillor Ritchie to suspend the Mayor’s pay for 90 days. I am also perplexed at the two letters of support for the Mayor that were submitted which effectively chastised other members of Council for doing their sworn duty. Let’s be clear, Mayor Allen himself created this issue with his bad behaviour and he needs to accept responsibility or it will develop a life of its own. I suggest you watch the October 21 6:30 p.m. Regular Meeting on Youtube for the complete story.

 

Barrie Physician Recruitment – Well Done!

I just want to say how impressed I have been with the successes of the Barrie Physician Recruitment Program headed by Dr. Stu Murdock. With his leadership over the last 4 or 5 years there has been the renewed focus on bringing family physicians to the area with two new doctors working out of the Springwater Health Centre at Carson and Bayfield. Springwater contributes only about $8,000 a year and during my term we established a program to donate the funds from the annual Mayor’s Golf Tournament. Apparently, when asked, the fund is dry as there was no tournament this year (not sure why they didn’t stage a virtual tournament as other municipalities have done and raised funds). I know we had quite a surplus at the end of my term as Mayor and not sure where that money has gone. Since the program now works so well, because of the leadership of Dr. Murdoch, I now support this funding being an annual budget item rather than from fund raising activities. I do want to make it clear that in the past I did not think it should be a budgeted item as I was not confident at the time of where the funds were being deployed. Things do change for the better.

 

Building Inspectors – Outsourcing

With the upswing in new residential developments, especially the mega developments in Midhurst unleashed by this Council, the Springwater building department is overwhelmed with work. I just want to say I think we have one of the best Chief Building Officials around and feel comfortable when he comes to the table and asks for something. My experience with him was one of efficiency and effectiveness which today seems to be lacking in many department heads. The request and plan is to outsource the extra work to an agency, as bringing on full time employees has its challenges. In addition you will find the work load typically ebbs and flows. Councillor Moore provided a suggestion of looking into more student graduates and internships to help with the transition. Ottawa has had some success with this. I know the Township has also shared resources with neighbouring municipalities such as Wasaga Beach and Innisfil in times of need, but I expect they are also experiencing staffing pressures as their communities attract new residents from the GTA.

 

I do encourage you to watch some Council Meetings as you will be voting in two years for a new Council, and I think we might need some new faces. Again, please remember these are my thoughts and I am not asking you to agree. I respect your freedom of expression and encourage you to SPEAK UP, before that freedom is taken from us!!

 

Bill French is a seasoned business leader with over 40 years experience and served in senior positions of International Enterprises. Bill served as Mayor of Springwater and a County of Simcoe Councillor from 2014 to 2018 and has taught business at the college level for over 15 years.

Backyard Chickens – Service Delivery Review - Springwater Township

 

Springwater Council Updates - Backyard Chickens – Service Delivery Review

Backyard Chickens: Many local municipalities allow the raising of backyard chickens, but in my view, Springwater, being 90% farmland with some very large livestock operations, is different and needs to be much more vigilant as Agriculture is driving our economy and nothing should jeopardize that business. Two expert opinions in opposition were voiced by the Simcoe County Federation of Agriculture and the Springwater’s Agricultural Advisory Committee opposing the move and provided very solid reasons, which for some reason were simply ignored. Councillor Hanna seemed to be the only one that opposes the move and I hope Councillors Ritchie, Moore and Chapman-Maw, who represent many farm operations in their wards, have something to say when the bylaw comes forward. The position of Council appears to be that this is only a pilot project for three years. First of all, most pilot projects are one year as after three years, there is no turning back. I also think that the bylaw wording adding a backyard chicken as a “Domestic Animal” needs rethought. We typically don’t eat or consume anything from our pets! Chickens are livestock according to OMAFRA and if the Township wants to allow these backyard chickens, the Township should simply add an exemption in the bylaw, not change the definition. Just because you go to the Zoo and stand in front of the Zebra cage, it does not make you a Zebra. I think it is a bad idea allowing these backyard operations and I would hope the bylaw will stipulate at least 1 km setbacks from any existing agricultural livestock operation.

Service Delivery Review: The Township engaged a firm to do a Service Delivery Review of the Township. The funding comes from Modernization Funds at the provincial level. Some will argue it is not our tax money, so why worry about the close to $60,000 spent on it. For those that think that way, I must remind them there is still only one taxpayer. For the most part I think specialists in certain areas are vital to having a smooth and effective organization when there is lack of expertise in certain areas and you cannot justify a staff specialist. I have no issue with outside advice on Engineering, Legal services, or new technologies such as IT since there are so many areas of expertise. In my 40 years of business I never found a single outside organization or agency that could actually address a broad range of services as this review attempted to do, and in my estimation, failed miserably. I think Council should have identified areas that they felt needed improvement and hired different small firms or individual consultants to address those needs. I believe the delivery report should have also stayed focused on the operational side of Springwater and stayed away from the political side. Two things jumped out of the review that are far beyond the scope of a normal delivery review and are by no means operational concerns. The first one is geographic tensions. Let’s be honest, since Flos and Vespra joined and formed Springwater over 25 years ago, there have been minor tensions. Some tensions are based on pride, some on the loss of autonomy. That to me is healthy and until everyone from that generation dies off (which includes me) that will always be in the background. Look at Barrie. Until only recent years there was always those that were Barrie and those that were Allandale patriots, but 120 years after Allandale was annexed by Barrie and some 60 years after the City was formed, the lines are starting to blur and tensions have subsided. Maybe Springwater could put that concern about tension on their 2121 Strategic Plan. The best way to overcome that type of friction is community engagement and we started that in the last term by having multiple Townhalls in the different areas of Springwater and they were well attended. As Mayor at the time, many people told me they appreciated knowing what was going on as a township, so communication and information is key, not some feel good notion. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or waste time and resources to change for the sake of change as appears to be the desire of our Deputy Mayor. A second area of the review which has no place in a service delivery review was Council relationships. I for one hope our Councillors are not always singing from the same song sheet. We elect Councillors to bring different perspectives to the table and I think they all do their job and I only question some of the initiatives of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor (self professed next Mayor!). To be frank they seem to be the one’s disconnected from the concept of serving the people first. Even though having various views on matters, which they present articulately, the ward Councillors in general seem to get it and are filling the leadership void. Some group therapy session and sensitivity workshop to have them sit around a campfire singing Kumbaya is not in the cards and would be a waste of time and money. I think the Consultant’s Report is remarkably light and lacks substance or real facts about Springwater. There is not one new idea that was brought forward and some of the assumptions shows that the firm just simply doesn’t understand rural Ontario and the uniqueness and pride of rural and small settlement area living. At least with the pressure from Councillors Hanna, Moore, Cabral and Ritchie, who all expressed concern about the lack of details, the Report is deferred until after budget consideration and my hope is that it gets lost or misplaced. Based on my interaction at the Administrative Centre for 4 years, I would suggest there are enough smarts and experience with the current Management Team and they can address 7 of the 9 principles that are relative to making the Township better by forming small working groups and bringing in specialists when needed, not developing some sort of Omnibus plan. My years in business has also taught me that in-house solutions, with the help of some needed experts, are always superior to some third party template based vague plan. Third party experts and consultants should be the catalyst to in-house solutions, but typically they are not the problem solvers.

Again, please remember these are my thoughts and I am not asking you to agree. I respect your freedom of expression and encourage you to SPEAK UP, before that freedom is taken from us!!

Midhurst Secondary Plan and another 30,000 people-Good or Bad Planning?

 

Midhurst Secondary Plan – Good or Bad Planning? You decide.

I realized my brief mention of the Midhurst Secondary Plan (MSP) in recent articles is not something everyone is familiar with these days as we have seen probably a 25 to 30% population change in Springwater over the last 5 or 6 years. With that in mind, I would like to provide some history and background.

Over 20 years ago the Province, recognizing that unbridled urban sprawl was unsustainable and asked all municipalities to look to the future and plan where they would like to see urban type developments occur. The control mechanism became what is known as the Provincial Policy Statement and the guiding policy , Places to Grow, was introduced around 2005 and 2006. Springwater from its 9 settlement areas, identified Elmvale, Hillsdale and Midhurst as obvious places to grow, as there were some core infrastructures and services already in place. For some reason Elmvale and Hillsdale developed settlement areas that, depending on density, would accommodate growth of about 2 to 3 times their size over the next 40 or 50 years. No one seems to be able to say why but Midhurst added about 2,000 acres from the Old Second in the East to Wilson Drive in the West for future development and depending on density would allow a 10 fold increase in population. The Midhurst area in my opinion became a target for land speculators and developers as they had exhausted the lands around the GTA and moved north. If you are a conspiracy buff you might want to check who was on Council at the time around in the late 90’s and which lands became part of this new Midhurst expanded settlement area.

It is worthy to note that the Ontario Places to Grow Policies, because of the “wild west” approach to residential development in Simcoe County at the time, developed growth forecasts to control growth.  Springwater, in 2006, was projected to grow to about 25,000 people or about 6,500 more people by 2031 or a 25 year time frame. Simcoe County sprawl was so bad and eating up so much good agricultural land the Province even added a special section to the Places to Grow called the Simcoe Sub Area. The Province recognized the same major loss of good farmland had occurred in the Southern York Region area and they wanted to stop that in Simcoe County before it was too late. The land developers saw an opportunity with the wide expanse of land deemed to be in the settlement expansion around Midhurst. That was the origin and start of the Mega Developments of the Midhurst Secondary Plan.

In 2008 the Springwater Council of the day approved the Secondary Plan and the future developments planned for that area. Ironically the County of Simcoe objected to the Plan as it was not consistent with neither the Provincial Places to Grow Policies nor the growth forecasts. In 2011 for some reason the County approved the MSP and it was then appealed to the OMB by the Province as it did not meet the Policies they had put in place. But then along comes Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Bob Chiarelli, who invoked the Midhurst Special Rule in 2012 and modified in 2013 which permitted the development of the first phase of up to 300 hectares (about 750 acres) and about 5,000 homes which opened the flood gates. In 2014 the OMB approved the development plans with 150 conditions to be met including a Long Term Financial Plan which was to assure the long term sustainability of such a huge development and minimize the direct impact on the existing taxpayer. There was an extensive Environmental Assessment process for the development as it was one of the first large development that did not have access to a large body of water for either the intake of fresh water or the discharge of effluent from its wastewater treatment facility. The MSP will supply its fresh water from deep wells and the wastewater effluent will discharge into Willow Creek a slow running stream that empties into the Minesing Wetlands and then Georgian Bay. Of the course the last and most important was a development agreement that protects Springwater from every possible negative impact that such a mega development might create.

This is where I will digress and express strong disagreement with the Mayor’s response to my questions at the last two Council Meetings. He stated that this Council is following the same due diligence as was the Council I led from 2014 to 2018. Our Mayor, then Deputy Mayor was appointed to the Financial Advisory Committee, which enhanced the Long Term Financial Study as the original scope was somewhat shallow in nature. When the report was received by the committee and studied by them in 2016, they recommended adoption by Council which we did. However, it was clear and understood that this was a preliminary study as the cost estimates could not be confirmed until after the EA studies were done. Just as a comparison the MSP projected infrastructure costs for Transportation, Water and Wastewater was $119 million in 2009 but when the EA was submitted in 2018, it had grown to about $330 million. I believe the number that was used in the preliminary study was about $150 million, so how could that be considered meeting the requirements of the OMB conditions as it was based on incorrect information? I do question the recent advancement approvals prior to a valid Long Term Financial Plan and more Importantly a bullet proof Development Agreement which are still not complete. You must decide, “Is that really practicing due diligence”? The development of the 700 home Stone Manor Woods development had all the boxes checked before it proceeded in 2015 as a comparison.

Do I believe that the MSP can ever be stopped? The simple answer is no, but it should also not be fast tracked as the consequences are far too severe. As I stated when campaigning in 2014, Springwater Council could not stop or modify the development, as the Council of 2008 had approved it and it would be acting in bad faith if a current Council reversed that decision and would be subject to a law suit. However, I did promise to raise the growth concern and issues with Minister Ted McMeekin at the time and both the now Mayor, who was Deputy at the time,  and I met with Minister McMeekin and his key staff asking them to re-evaluate the MSP because of some major concerns and conflicts with their Growth Plan and left it in his hands. But I am sure the pressures from outside the legislation made sleeping dogs lie and a polite letter from Minister McMeekin suggested they would not interfere with the process that was in play. With that in mind we simply ensured that all the I’s were dotted and T’s crossed as we proceeded. So contrary to the Mayor’s prepared response at the meetings where I posed questions,  I am not convinced the same diligence is being followed and there is now a rush to get shovels in the ground, so there is not even a question about the MSP at the next Municipal Election.

Remember Springwater has had the most controlled and ideal growth of any local rural municipality to date. It has averaged anywhere from 100 to about 300 or about 2 to 3% growth in new homes a year for about a decade which makes managing the growth and servicing quite manageable. The largest development to date, as noted above, has been in the Stone Manor developments in Centre Vespra with about 700 homes and about 2,000 new residents being built over what will be about a 7 year time frame and it has been able to be assimilated well. There is quite a difference between that development and the first wave of up to 3,850 homes or about 12,000 people in the MSP over a similar time frame.

For those that have asked, I doubt I will be back to fight the battle on your behalf, but everyone in Springwater, regardless of where you live, needs to be vigilant and hold this Council’s feet to the fire or you will be paying the price for many decades if growth is not managed properly from the top. If you don’t believe me, just check out the negative financial impacts of rapid urban sprawl development in York Region and closer to home Bradford West Gwillimbury and Innisfil.

I know some find my thoughts abrasive and confrontational and I am sorry about that. Please remember these are my thoughts and I am not asking you to agree. I respect your freedom of expression and encourage you to SPEAK UP, before that freedom is taken from us!!