By John Francis
Our municipal council hired a facilitator to conduct a strategic planning exercise for staff and council. I thought it was important so I attended in person.
They accomplished a lot in terms of establishing what their highest priorities are and what goals they all have in common.
But a lot of very thoughtful opinions and insights were expressed along the way. Here are some of my favourites.
At one point in the program, facilitator Peter Politis asked each participant what they would NOT like to see in the coming term of Council.
Mayor Milt McIver, with 40 years of experience, offered a very clear-eyed view of the pitfalls the municipality must avoid.
First, he said we need to avoid rejecting the arena/community centre renovation or getting bogged down in detail. “We have discussed this for many many many years,” and have $3.5 million in funding lined up. “That infrastructure needs improvement.”
The second thing the Mayor would hate to see had the same flavour: he would hate to see a lack of action on a water system for Tobermory. Deputy Mayor Rod Anderson jumped in to support this notion but pointed out that when this was discussed at one of the all-candidates meetings, it was apparent that there will be push-back from some property owners who do not have immediate need for town water. That will be tough to get past — we’ve got to sell the idea properly.
The Mayor’s third fear is that the municipality will be unable to retain professional staff. He speaks very highly of current staff but sees many potential pitfalls, from lack of affordable housing to lack of support from Council.
His fourth concern was succinct: “No more studies until we deal with the ones on the table now”.
The final item on his list of things to avoid: zero tax increase. You can’t maintain services — let alone improve them — without increasing taxes.
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When the discussion came around to the housing issue, Councillor Aman Sohrab sketched the situation: we need higher density housing and we can’t have that without water and sewers.
Facilitator Politis wondered if the municipality could take a direct hand in providing housing.
Councillor Smokey Golden responded that MNBP is a small municipality and “I haven’t seen the appetite for us to be a landlord”. She felt that the municipality’s role should be to attract and help developers.
Politis prodded Council again — why couldn’t the municipality speculate, build housing itself to stimulate its own economy? “That’s how all those developers got rich. Think outside the box.” You’ve got to spend money to make money, he continued. A farmer buys two cows and builds that into a flock, then sells the flock and retires. But you’ll never get there if you don’t buy two cows.
CAO Peggy Van Mierlo-West pointed out that other municipalities have endowed boards for housing. Several people pointed out that the county is involved in various aspects of public housing but most of it is elsewhere.
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When it came to a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), the discussion was lively.
Mayor McIver gave a quick summary of MNBP’s strengths: experienced staff, low taxation, transparent decisionmaking (”we are online, we have our press here”), responsible governance. The CAO built on that: “We are efficient in our process”.
Moments later, the same thing came up as a weakness. The municipality’s “efficient process” means there is very little redundancy in staffing, very little opportunity for cross-training. “If one or two of us were absent,” the CAO noted, “there isn’t the cross-training to permit smooth running.” Fortunately this has never happened. Yet.
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Councillor Todd Dowd is a very practical, concrete thinker with a passion for public safety. He offered a number of small but important suggestions. For example:
• We need 911 address signs on farm fields and woodlots. Otherwise, when farmers or forest workers get in trouble, there’s no easy way for emergency services to find them.
• On-street parking in Tobermory is dangerous. We need more parking lots.
• We need stoplights at Ferndale and Hay Bay Road in Tobermory. Keep pushing for this because both intersections are dangerous.
• Cell and internet service also have implications for safety. We need to push for improvements.
• We need a second road to Tobermory in case Highway 6 is blocked.
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Our new Council is a very thoughtful group — I think we are very fortunate. I am going to enjoy watching them over the next four years.
