REPORT ON COUNCIL
March 30, 2009
Committee of the Whole Meeting: 9:12 a.m. – 12.08 p.m., 12:42 p.m. – 5:03 p.m.
Regular Evening Meeting: 7:03 p.m.– 7:26 p.m.
All Members of Council present.
CONFIDENTIAL / CLOSED SESSION: 4:23 p.m. – 5:03 p.m.
COUNCIL AND STAFF RAISES: A standard raise of 2.5% cost of living was applied to staff and council remuneration.
WOODLAND BEACH MASTER PLAN APPROVED: Concerns raised by the Woodland Beach Association have resulted in revisions to the Master Plan. Council instructed Staff to “investigate and provide a report regarding a comparable committee to the Bluewater Dunes Restoration Advisory Committee to oversee the stewardship of the Woodland Beach Park.”
GEORGIAN SANDS WATERMAIN UPGRADE: The Building Canada Fund (funded by the Federal and Provincial Governments) will provide two thirds of the project cost and Tiny Township will provide one third, $1,104,721, of the $3,314,137.31 total cost. Tiny’s portion will be funded from the Water Reserve Fund and the Roads Budget for 2010 to 2012. Scheduled roadwork in this area had been deferred until the watermain upgrade is completed. Henk Blom, Manager of Public Works Work expects work to commence in the fall 2009 or more probably spring 2010. Affected residents will be notified by the Township.
GEORGIAN SANDS AND LAFONTAINE WATER SYSTEMS ASSESSED: RJ Burnside and Golder Associates have been retained to continue the Class Environmental Assessment, which is to find ways to resolve the problem of increasing nitrate levels in the potable water supply.
PROVINCE-WIDE PESTICIDE BAN: A very positive move to reduce the level of chemicals turning up in our lakes and rivers, this ban takes effect April 22, 2009 and prohibits the sale and use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes on lawns, gardens, parks and school yards. Over 250 products will be banned for sale. There are exceptions for public health or safety reasons such as fighting West Nile Virus, killing stinging insects like wasps or controlling poison ivy and other plants poisonous to the touch.
BUILDING PERMIT ACTIVITY: Has decreased substantially from $1,992,000 for Jan-Feb 2008 to $1,066,000 for Jan-Feb 2009.
CHAMPLAIN COMMEMORATIVE TRAIL PROJECT: Councillor Andre Claire, a member of the Tiny Township Historical and Heritage Committee, announced that three historic plaques are to be placed along the Tiny Trail with funding provided by the Ontario Ministry of Culture.
Plaque #1 – The Petun – will be placed between the 1st & 3rd Concessions. Text: Throughout the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the closest allies and neighbours of the Huron/Ouendat were the Petun peoples. They were made up of two allied nations, who occupied 9 or 10 villages located immediately below the Blue Mountains, south of Collingwood. This league was believed to have been formed from one eastern neutral nation in the Don or Humber River Valley of what is now Toronto and another group, who originated in the Bay of Quinte region, about 1560-1570. They moved north and west perhaps to take a more prominent role in the fur trade and to distance themselves from their traditional enemies, the 5 nations Iroquois, who at the time were being supplied with Spanish trade goods and European weapons from a Jesuit mission in the Chesapeake Bay area.
Champlain visited with these people beginning in February of 1616. He travelled to many of the villages over the next two months, where he observed them preparing to grow tobacco. So he named them the Petuns – a 17th century French term for tobacco, and the name has stayed with them despite the fact that their own name “Tiononntate” means peoples who dwell below the mountains. Their trade of tobacco gave them an incredible bartering product to trade with the Huron and other nations within the region as it was used during many medicinal, wartime and celebratory ceremonies.
Plaque #2 – Hurons/Ouendats – will be placed between the 4th & 5th Concessions. Text: Along this trail, you are moving into the traditional homeland of the Ouendake, “in the separate lands” and the Huron/Ouendat peoples. At the time of the arrival of the Europeans, the Huron/Ouendat Confederacy consisted of four distinct nations. They were the “Attignaouantans” (Bear), the “Attinginonqulacs” (Cord), “Toboneranrats” (Deer) and “Anendahronan” (Rock). All together they had a population of about 12,000 people divided into 20 villages with an average population per village of 600 people. The Huron/Ouendat were great traders and it is suggested the French were most amazed at the way the natives arranged their hair. The old French Expression “Quelle hure” – meaning “what a hair-do” led to the French naming them the Huron. This was not the first recorded name for their people. Champlain first called them the Ochateguin, the name of their chief. By 1620, it seems the term Huron was universally accepted by the French and to this day, we call the region Huronia which is of course a part of Lake Huron. The Huron/Ouendat were strategically allied with the Petun on the Western Shores of Georgian Bay who were a great tobacco growing nation. The Huron/Ouendat traded tobacco with a variety of tribes along the north shore of the great lakes.
Plaque #3 – Ossossane – will be placed at the 7th Concession. Text: This village was the capital of the entire Huron confederacy. It forms the southern boundary of the Bear Nation. Originally this village was located around the Tiny Marsh but through time subsequent villages moved North to where it was in the time of Champlain. The coastline resembled the seaport of La Rochelle in France and was named La Conception by the Jesuits. The Huron/Ouendat referred to the village as “Ossosone” and later became the location of the first European church ever built in Ontario. Constructed in the spring of 1637, the church was moved in the fall of 1639 to Sainte Marie. The village was abandoned by the Huron/Ouendat in the spring of 1649 following the decisions of their chiefs and elders to relocate to Awendahoe (Christian Island) rather than Manitoulin Island further to the North along Georgian Bay; as preferred by the Jesuits. The village site was re-discovered in 1946 by Frank Ridley who also found the ossuary which was excavated in 1947. Frank Ridley tested the site in 1964-65 and his work and collections are on display at the Huronia Museum in nearby Midland; where you can find an impressive display of the Huron/Ouendat culture.
OPP ANNUAL REPORT: Inspector Richard Philbin, Southern Georgian Bay OPP, noted a slight increase in both the theft of motor vehicles and theft from motor vehicles. Many of these happened to unlocked cars, so please remember to lock your vehicles.
