“We also provide recreational services to neighbouring municipalities and that costs money to operate,” the councillor says of a third-party review into user fees for North Simcoe residents and non-residents.
It can take time for municipalities to make change, and even longer when their numbers grow, as was the case when Tiny Township debated a proposed user fee study for North Simcoe.
At the recent committee of the whole meeting, a joint document from early July from the municipalities of Midland, Penetanguishine, Springwater Township, Tay Township and Tiny was presented for discussion.
The letter suggests a third-party study be carried out to examine resident and non-resident user fees for all recreational facilities and services within the area.
Mayor Dave Evans said that although the communication was dated early July, shortly after the last Tiny Council meeting, it was “a bit remiss” not to add that further discussions had taken place at Tay Township Council a week earlier and the municipality had chosen to “refuse to take any participation in progressing this request”.
Councillor Stephen Walma commented that he supported Tiny carrying out a study to determine the costs of operating recreational facilities across the region, but did not want to see a reduction in the provision of services to Tiny residents.
“We provide recreational services to neighboring municipalities, and those services also have costs to operate,” Wolma said, urging Tiny representatives at the table to convey that any standards would come from third-party research.
Brunel agreed, calling the issue a very complex one involving “rural and urban service providers, user fees (and) no-user-fee tax bases”, adding that it was best resolved at the table through formal discussions.
“We intend to represent the best interests of the residents of the Town of Tiny, but we need to meet with our neighbors in North Simcoe, we have to,” Brunelle said. “Maybe Tiny backed out (on their own) because we weren’t involved. Whatever is going on, we hope they’ll come back to the negotiating table if we decide to discuss the issue.”
Evans summed up the response letter from Midland and Penetanguishine: “‘We would like to return to the status quo and made the decision some time ago to cease funding for shared services for a number of reasons, and those reasons still apply.'”
“If it’s a question of maintaining the status quo or going back to the way things were before, I don’t see any reason to participate,” Evans said.
He also noted that Tiney supported the two towns through commercial tax revenues that exceeded other expenses, called the action “punitive,” and noted that Midland and Penetanguishine have targeted sports funding for children and their families. But he said he’s “always open to discussion, but from my perspective, there’s no going back to the way things were before.”
Councilwoman Kelly Herowka agreed with Evans. “I don’t want to get to a situation where we charge people to use the trails in the winter and then charge non-residents for recreational programs in the summer, with small fees,” Herowka said. “I think it would be foolish to punish our kids going forward.”
Deputy Mayor Shawn Miskimmins agreed, noting that the annexation of commercial land on Highway 93 by the City of Midland in 1994 was done to offset commercial taxes for the North Simcoe Sport and Recreation Centre.
“I’m not going to comment on how they managed their money after 25, 30 years, but all of a sudden they’re in a bind and they’re using their children to ask us for more money, which quite frankly we’ve been generous with and we didn’t have to,” Misskimmins said.
Miss Skimmins added that Midland’s one-year pilot to provide bus service to Balm Beach was not approved by Tiny Council, referring to previous transit services in York Region and Peel Region where inter-municipal user fees were eliminated.
“Unless something productive comes out of these discussions, we’re not going to discuss user fees. We’re going to discuss other strategies as a municipality to offset the ongoing costs of various recreational facilities in North Simcoe. This is a contentious issue,” Miskimmins said.
Mr Walma steered the conversation back to Mr Evans’ suggestion that the issue be postponed until regional council chiefs meet in early September.
Evans thanked Walma and Brunel for the vote of confidence, concluding that “we are still very much in the formative stages”.
Notably, in recent months, Midland city councillors have stopped calling the facility the North Simcoe Sport and Recreation Centre during meetings and other official events, instead simply calling it the Sport and Recreation Centre when the topic comes up.
The North Simcoe letter regarding fees and charges for all recreational facilities and services can be viewed on the agenda page of the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to watch on the Town’s YouTube channel.