REPORT ON COUNCIL
January 15, 2007
Committee of the Whole Meeting: 1:00 p.m. – 6:33 p.m.
Regular Evening Meeting: 7:00 p.m. – 7:58 p.m.
All members of Council present (Mayor Peggy Breckenridge, Deputy Mayor George Lawrence, and Councillors André Claire, George Cornell and Nigel Warren)
CONFIDENTIAL / CLOSED SESSION: 1:04 p.m. – 2:42 p.m. and 5:50 p.m. – 6:33 p.m.
PRESENTATION BY HURONIA HOSPITALS FOUNDATION: Doris Sheriff, of the Huronia Hospitals Foundation “Our Best Care” capital fundraising campaign, asked Tiny Township to contribute $22,588 each year, for five years. (The Tiny Cottager Challenge Cup competition raised $32,000 last summer, part of a total of $207,000 raised in Tiny Township for this campaign last year.) She pointed to a history of municipal support for hospital capital needs, and said that the requested municipal contribution (like that suggested for Midland, Penetanguishene, and Tay) is based on a levy of $2.50 per resident per year for five years.
NORTH SIMCOE GEESE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Terry Breckenridge, who, along with Rodger Yeatman, represents Tiny Township on the North Simcoe Geese Monitoring Committee, observed that there appear to be excessive numbers of geese in a number of areas of Tiny Township, including the stretch from the 8th to the 14th Concessions on the western shore, Thunder Beach, and Clearwater Beach. He asked that Council
– adopt the NSGMC’s report
– assign a staff member to co-ordinate geese management activities
– appoint a member of Council to the problem
– request a banding program
– put $5000 into the budget for geese management
– mount a public education program about the importance of a No Feed policy and of habitat modification in problem areas on the shore,
– prohibit the feeding of geese and exempt trained dogs from the Leash By-Law through changes to the township’s by-laws, and
– allow Sunday hunting.
9 A.M. START FOR COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE: After several topics had to be cut from the agenda for lack of time, Council decided that, at least for a while as new members come to terms with the complexities of their roles, Committee of the Whole should begin, not at 1 p.m., but at 9 a.m.
COUNCIL REPRESENTATION ON COMMITTEES:
Huronia Airport Commission – Councillors Cornell and Warren
Southern Georgian B ay Physician Recruitment Steering Committee – Mayor Peggy Breckenridge
Audit Committee – discontinued
Tiny Trails Committee – discontinued
GARBAGE AND RECYCLING FEES: Last year, the Township collected $244,597 in excess of the County levy, the result of an unexpected reduction in the County levy in 2006 and a refund of $73,390 from 2005. Council decided to keep the monies in reserve for the ongoing battle regarding Site 41.
The Treasurer recommended (and Council agreed) that the garbage/recycling fees be reduced this year to reflect the actual levy by the County, though doubt was expressed as to whether there would be a reduction in the fee given that recyclables are now being collected weekly rather than biweekly.
COUNTY’S BUDGET UP BY 4.75%: Our two representatives to County Council sit on different committees, Mayor Breckenridge on the Performance Management Committee and Deputy Mayor Lawrence on the Corporate Services Committee. Mayor Breckenridge reported that the proposed overall increase in the County’s budget for this year is 4.75%. Some 67.45% of the County’s budget supports social services, and the balance is absorbed by roads, garbage etc.
ROAD ALLOWANCE ENCROACHMENTS AT FARLAIN LAKE: Janet Wicks, the owner of Lot 19, R.P. 913, placed numerous items on the Township road allowance adjacent to her property, including a driveway, retaining walls and landscaping, which made the road allowance appear to be part of her property. Several years ago she proposed that she purchase the road allowance, only to be met with vigorous opposition from neighbours at the public meeting on the matter.
After much discussion, an agreement has been reached: allowing the retention of the armour stone retaining wall (after a handicap accessibility ramp is installed and with the provision that it then become the responsibility of the Township) stipulating that all timber retaining walls be removed and that the area be graded with topsoil and seeded, trees planted, and stakes installed and that surveys and easements be prepared at the expense of Ms Wicks.
LAND ACCRETION POLICY: The previous Council had asked the surveyor Ron Stewart of Marshall Macklin Monaghan to prepare a policy to guide staff and Council in making decisions about accreted land issues. He prepared two proposals, neither of which met with Council approval. The current Council accepted the recommendation of a staff report that the various legal and survey opinions that the Township had already received concerning accreted land be drawn together in the hope that these would provide sufficient guidance.
