REPORT ON COUNCIL
November 24, 2008
Committee of the Whole Meeting: 9.02 a.m. – 1.07 p.m. and 1.39 p.m. – 3.39 p.m.
Regular Evening Meeting: 7.06 p.m. – 7.16 p.m.
All members of Council present
CONFIDENTIAL / CLOSED SESSION: None.
OFFICIAL PLAN REVIEW UPDATE: MHBD Planning Consultants presented a draft Background Report for the Official Plan Review. (An OP Review is required every 5 years and is an important document regarding land use.) Their next steps are to review the new County of Simcoe OPA that was approved on Nov. 25th and then meet with senior staff and council to consider both the mandatory and discretionary changes. Subsequently, a public meeting will be held to present the plan for discussion.
One immediate problem for the consultants to resolve is that the County Plan’s designation of “Rural” includes shoreline properties. As Tiny has a specific definition for “Shoreline” clarification has been sought. There is also correspondence with the County re waste disposal sites.
HEAVY ITEM PICKUP: Thanks to Deputy Mayor Lawrence and officials of other municipalities, the County of Simcoe has reinstated the annual pickup. The schedule will be published in due course.
STRATEGIC PLAN REVIEW: Council completed its discussion of Strategic Plan projects, which began on November21st. Decisions about which projects to undertake will be made during budget meetings.
The wording of the Vision Statement and the Guiding Principles were completed. These must still be approved, but the wording we heard for the Vision was: “The Township of Tiny – an environmentally focused, diverse family of communities providing a healthy lifestyle.”
There are Guiding Principles for each of five areas – Environment, Culture and Heritage, Recreation, Shoreline, and Municipal Administration. The two draft Shoreline Guiding Principles are:
“Improve access to all municipally owned shoreline properties for recreational use and enjoyment while respecting privately owned shoreline properties.
“Preserve and protect the ecology of municipally owned shoreline properties.”
MOBILE RADAR FOR TINY?: A proposal was received from the OPP recommending the purchase of a mobile radar unit for Tiny only. This will be considered during budget discussions. The unit, which is small and pulled behind a cruiser or parked at roadside, measures speeding and traffic volume.
TINY CARES: David Gravelle from the Southern Georgian Bay Physician Recruitment Program presented a report, which noted donations of $10,000 from Tiny Township, plus $21,000 from the annual golf tournament organized by Councilor George Cornell, plus $2,700 raised by the Tiny Cottager Challenge.
PARKING ON THE DECLINE: A Report from Steve Harvey, Tiny’s Chief Municipal Law Enforcement Officer, included the information that sale of non-resident parking permits declined for the second straight year. A maximum of 150 are available. In 2007 only 125 were issued and that number declined to 113 in 2008. The number of parking permits issued to Tiny residents also declined slightly from 2036 in 2007 to 2016 in 2008.
