Tiny Township Council Update

Tiny Township Council Update

Meetings of Council

How it Works The regular scheduled meetings of Tiny Township Council are held at 7:00 pm on the second and last Wednesdays of each month. At the same hour on the third Wednesday of each month, Council meets as Planning Board.

Council meets as a Committee of the Whole, before the regular Council meeting – usually at 2:00 pm, but the time can change (please check with the township offices). The Committee of the Whole meetings are open to the public. Throughout the day, Council goes in and out of “in camera” (closed) sessions.

Items of substance are usually discussed at the daytime Committee of the Whole meetings. As well, deputations are welcomed at that time.

At the regular evening meeting of Council, motions and by-laws are read into the record; then each is voted upon by Council. Discussion of any item on the agenda at an evening meeting of Tiny Council is so rare as to be almost non-existent. It seems that decisions reached at another time are rubber stamped at the evening meeting. There is sparse attendance unless a matter of concern elicits particular ratepayer support.

Fire Department – Taylor Spearheads Review The Fall/Winter 1993 issue of The Tiny Cottager reported on Tiny’s outdated fire vehicles, firehalls and personal safety equipment.

Councillor Doug Taylor spearheaded Council’s review of the municipality’s fire fighting capabilities. In the spring of 1993, he was instrumental in introducing a motion and encouraging Council support of that motion to request the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshall to conduct, at no cost to the municipality, a review of the municipality’s firefighting capabilities. The motion passed by a 4-1 vote. Councillor Fern Maurice opposed the motion because he didn’t want to consider anything that might cost money. Councillor Peter Stubbins supported the motion but stated he was voting for it only because it did not cost money to seek a review.

The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshall submitted its Report to Council making many recommendations. Council hired a parttime fire chief, Ray Millar, who heads the largest Township department with some 75 dedicated volunteers serving as Tiny’s firemen.

Vehicles. Following that report, Council made decisions to purchase two fire trucks, one financed from the 1993 budget and one from the 1994 budget. They will be delivered this summer.

Buildings. Council should next address its attention to the firehalls. The new fire chief suggests the firehalls (other than Woodland) are in need of upgrading or replacement. Some buildings are so small they are little more than a tight fitting garage. One firehall is a bare walls building without running water; consequently there is no septic system and no toilets. Without water and other facilities, it is not possible for the firemen to “wash down” (decontaminate themselves) when they return from a fire response.

Equipment. In 1992, Council spent $50,072 for Woodland firehall construction, a new tanker10 Scot air packs and a pager. In 1993, spending included $37,796 for pagers, and $5,968 to install water service at the Woodland fire hall. Additional safety equipment is still needed in 1994 the Council spent $27,000 of $51,000 budgeted fund for personal safety equipment.

(Led by the then Reeve Anthony Lancia, the former Council began to upgrade the fire department and, in 1991, spent approximately $85,000 for (i) construction materials to rebuild the Woodland Beach firehall using labour donated by the volunteer firefighters, and (ii) purchase of personal safety equipment.)

If Councillor Douglas Taylor had not persisted in instigating the review of Tiny’s fire fighting capabilities, and in urging Council to support his initiatives to upgrade our fire department, it would have been impossible for Tiny Township to continue to have an effective fire department. The volume of necessary purchases speaks for itself.

Infrastructure The Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Works Capital Projects will reimburse Tiny $750,000 if Tiny spends $1,125,000 on approved infrastructure projects. Thus the final cost to the taxpayers would be approximately $375,000.

In February, Council asked Township departments to submit their “wish” list of projects they would like Council to consider under the infrastructure program. The Parks and Recreation Department outlined projects amounting to $1,058,000; they would like a new Perkinsfield Community Centre, plus installation of lighting for baseball diamonds and tennis courts in Perkinsfield and they would like to expand the arena in Lafontaine. The roads department suggested road projects totalling $1,500,000. The water department requested $800,000. The fire department requested $450,000 to build three new firehalls.

Tiny has millions of dollars of assessment to protect, including your cottage and mine. If you think the fire department should be a priority for the infrastructure capital works projects, call Doug Taylor and let him know your views at 705-549-8388 or fax 549-6939.

Balm Beach Water Sewage Study

The Township’s consultants, Ainley and Associates of Barrie, and representatives of the Simcoe County Health Unit appeared before Council in February 1994 to address the subject of the Balm Beach Sanitary Survey. In 1993, the Health Unit tested some 20% of the properties’ water supply and sewage systems in concessions 8 (Ossossane), 9 and 10 (Balm). Council has requested the Simcoe County Health Unit to undertake more testing this summer.

Con 1920, Blair Hampton Estates

The last undeveloped area of Tiny’s western shore has moved another step in the long complicated development process. Council has received a Report from the developer relating to the provincial “Growth and Settlement” policy. Council has consented to allow the developer’s Report to proceed to the Minister of Municipal Affairs for comment.

Site 41 Hearings

Hearings are ongoing concerning the location of the garbage disposal facility at Site 41 near Wyevale. The hearings started some time ago, have adjourned and will continue again this summer.

Municipal Election 1994 At the April 13, 1994 meeting of Council, Al Taylor, requested that Council provide four (4) advance poll days, the same as there had been at the last election in 1991. He said 2/3s of Tiny’s voters/taxpayers are in the shoreline areas of Tiny and they pay 80% of the municipality’s assessment. Looking at statistics from the 1991 election, he stated: “. . . the situation demands the same four (4) advance polling days held in the 1991 municipal election must be repeated in the 1994 municipal election.” Council will soon vote on this matter.

Inventory of Land At the April 13, 1994 meeting of Council, Al Taylor, President of FoTTSA addressed a letter to Council which stated: “All Tiny Township residents should know what lands the Township owns. The Federation formally requests a list of all properties on the shoreline, or contiguous to the shore, owned by the Corporation of the Township of Tiny.”

Members of Council said they didn’t know what the Township owns, some said the Township should know and that an inventory would be useful. Councillor Doug Taylor was the only one to say that he was embarrassed to admit the municipality doesn’t have an inventory of its land ownership.

Zoning By-law A new comprehensive zoning by-law concerning land use zoning is now being prepared to replace By-Law 30-77, the municipality’s 30 year old zoning by-law. This should be ready for this Council’s consideration.

Official Plan The proposed new Official Plan for the Township, the Township’s major planning document, requested by this Council, will not be ready for Council before the fall election.

Law Enforcement Municipal By-Law Officers monitor municipal bylaws concerning parking, noise, dogs, fires, litter. Council has again hired 7 seasonal By-Law Officers to assist the 2 permanent By-Law Officers.

Recreation Master Plan The former Council, in 1989, originally commissioned the Parks and Recreation Master Plan to look at all forms of recreation in Tiny and to pay particular attention to the longstanding problems of shoreline use. Its mandate was to study Township-owned land.

The study was stopped by the Council of the day, headed by the then Reeve Anthony Lancia, as the further implications of two major issues, restructuring and the shoreline lawsuit, became clear.

Mayor Ross Hastings, Deputy Mayor Peter Stubbins and Councillors Fern Maurice and Gail Barrie, shortly after they were elected, voted to spend our tax dollars to reactivate the study. Subsequent events have proved that this decision was unwise.

Restructuring has taken place and Tiny now has less tax dollars than it did. As a result of the court decision (AG v RBA), the Township of Tiny’s recreational planning studies, which assumed provincial ownership of the beaches, will now have to be reexamined because the studies can have no application to private property.

What will Council do with the Parks and Recreation Master Plan?