By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
On September 11, Bruce County’s Director of Corporate Services, Edward Henley appeared as a delegation at the Council of the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula’s regular Meeting. Henley came to explain the Development Charges that the County proposed to implement; his presentation was supported by a 276-page report in the Meeting’s Agenda. The Development Charges would, for example, add $7,665 to the cost of a single family dwelling in Bruce County.
Henley began by explaining why the county proposes to collect Development Charges: as more and more households are added, more and more infrastructure will be required. The County must choose whether to fund that infrastructure by raising taxes on existing households, or collecting it directly from those building the new houses. He cited several examples of services MNBP receives from Bruce County and improvements we can expect to see.
MNBP Councillor Smokey Golden was sharply critical of the proposal. She asked Henley if the County pays for ambulance services out of tax revenues, or if it simply receives funding from the province and passes it on. Henley admitted that the province pays the operating costs of the ambulance service but that the county pays for infrastructure upgrades. He also admitted that no infrastructure improvements are proposed for ambulance service in MNBP, but that improvements elsewhere would be funded by the Development Charges.
Councillor Golden told Henley that MNBP is experiencing a housing crisis, with local citizens having to compete for housing with investors from away. Our biggest industry is tourism, she continued, but tourism workers can’t afford housing. How would having the municipality collect Development Charges for Bruce County assist us in fostering the development of new housing? There is a trend of the lowest tier of government being forced to take on more and more responsibility. It costs people a lot of money to build a house here because we don’t have any infrastructure — municipal water and sewers. We’d go bankrupt if we tried to provide those services. “I’m not a fan of this proposal,” she said; “How do you see this benefitting our housing crisis?”
County Development Charges Delayed Until 2024; Sent Back to Committee
The proposed Development Charges came up for discussion again at Council’s Sept 25 Meeting. Councillors were feeling very rushed, being asked to make final comments on a proposal that was still taking shape.
Councillor Golden began the discussion by noting that MNBP will probably have to implement a development charge of its own at some point. But for now, the timing is wrong. Right now, it seems like we are paying a lot of taxes but not getting the benefit of them. We need to be more in control of where our tax dollars are spent; it feels like the further up the ladder the funding goes, the less understanding of what our community needs. “Local government needs to keep as much of the money as possible; this municipality needs a lot of things. We’re still driving water up from Wiarton [because the well keeps running dry at the community centre in Tobermory]; paying development charges to the county doesn’t sit well.”
Mayor Milt McIver, who is MNBP’s representative on County Council told Council that the Development Charge proposal was referred back to staff. Some clarification is needed on exemptions from the Development Charges; the county does not have a definition of affordable housing yet and “most of us want that definition before we pass a bylaw”.
Councillor Golden asked what the time line would be. Mayor McIver replied that implementation would be delayed until at least January of next year.
Discussion ensued on how an exemption for affordable housing might be framed.
CAO Peggy Van Mierlo-West explained that the time frame for comments on the Development Charge proposal has been extended. Councillor Golden appreciated the extension but noted that “it’s hard to comment without knowing what the bylaw intends”. Deputy Mayor Rod Anderson suggested that we could still “make our wishes known — let them know what our priorities are”.
Mayor McIver said that the County was in a bit of a rush to get comments in, but “I would like to see more of the money coming back here”. We’ll see what the proposal looks like when it comes back to us.
Deputy Mayor Anderson agreed with Councillor Golden’s point: “if you’re going to be paying them, you’d like to be getting something back for it”.
$7.8M a Year For One Road?
Councillor Golden said that MNBP needs a clear list of the assets Bruce County maintains in MNBP. Mayor McIver noted that the largest item on the Development Charge list was “Services related to a road”, followed by Long-Term Care and Child Care.
Councillor Golden pointed out that for $7.8 million (which is approximately what MNBP contributes to Bruce County every year) we could take over that county road [and have an awful lot of money left over]. As a small, rural municipality, we know where money needs to be spent — we need water systems and we’re not getting any help. “I’m opposed to development charges that do not stay in our municipality.”
OPP Report to Council
Detachment Commander Paul Richardson attended MNBP Council’s Sept 25 meeting to deliver an OPP Report.
After years as Staff Sergeant at Wiarton detachment, he accepted a promotion elsewhere as Detachment Commander. When he returned to run our detachment, he noted an “exponential increase in tourism traffic”. He explained how a “Major Event” tool allows our detachment to recruit summer officers from around the province.
He explained how the OPP’s “Mobile Crisis Response Team” offers a new approach to mental health crises by integrating mental health clinicians into the team.
He told of the benefits of new in-car cameras with Automatic Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) which record the license numbers of every vehicle they see. This will reduce the need for high-speed chases. Having a clear record of everything that happens will also mitigate a lot of internal and external complaints. Body cameras are coming soon; they will reduce the number of days officers need to spend in court, testifying.
Arena Renovation — Need More Detail re Hiring $1.1 Million Construction Manager
Also on the Agenda for MNBP’s Sept 25 Council Meeting was a report from Facilities Manager Mark Coleman. It recommended hiring “Ball Construction Ltd. to provide Pre-construction and Construction Management Services for the Lion’s Head Community Centre Redevelopment Project in the amount of $1,121,220.00…”
Councillor Todd Dowd commented that he appreciated the Manager’s work in running the Request For Proposals process and preparing the Report. Councillor Dowd noted that when the Agenda is published Thursday afternoon, there is very little time to ask questions about the Reports it contains. For this document, he continued, we need more information on the other two (unsuccessful) bids and just what will a construction manager do for that amount of money? A more thorough report is needed.
Deputy Mayor Anderson agreed. “We have to defend this decision.” Who were the other bidders and what were their prices? The report needs to embellish what the construction manager does and why it’s worth $1.1 million.
Mayor McIver and Councillor Aman Sohrab agreed that more detail was needed. Deputy Mayor Anderson pointed out that when complex issues come back to Council after long delays, we’re losing the thread of “why we said yes and what we said yes to…”
Council deferred the decision to the Oct 10 Meeting. A more comprehensive report will be included in the Agenda for that Meeting.
