Springwater council rebuffs City of Barrie's land-deal presentation
The singing of O Canada prior to the start of Springwater Township's council meeting last night was the only moment of unity in a gathering marked by divisive and accusatory comments.
Following the
presentation
'Proposed Principles for Boundary Adjustment Agreement, City of Barrie and Township of Springwater' by Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall, a number of Springwater councillors questioned the timing and motivation behind the meeting.
Springwater Deputy Mayor George Cabral was first up.
After providing a timeline of the discussions and decisions that brought them to this meeting, including the commitment from the four parties involved — Barrie, Springwater and Oro-Medonte townships, and the County of Simcoe — to work with a provincial facilitator to arrive at a final conclusion, Cabral wanted to know why there was such a rush to get this deal done, without the participation of representatives from either Oro-Medonte or the county.
During his presentation, Nuttall said he was hoping the parties could get a deal done by Jan. 1, 2026, so they could finalize implementation details and ensure a smooth transition.
'Why the rush? Why change course?' Cabral asked.
'Because strong mayor powers has made it possible,' he said, answering his own question. 'Council was being prudent, thoughtful, careful and directing staff to gather critical information, research and report back in June to make data-driven decisions.'
Then, on May 7, Cabral continued, Coughlin utilized the strong mayor powers bestowed upon her one week earlier by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
'Mayor Couglin, with strong mayor powers in hand, passed a strong mayor bylaw with more than one-third support so that Mayor Coughlin alone could unilaterally discuss boundary adjustment with the City of Barrie, and two days later, there was a proposal in hand,' the deputy mayor said.
'This proposal is arranged by Mayor Coughlin and Mayor Nuttall with the benefit of the data Springwater council had agreed to receive from staff as well as the results from the stage three study,' Cabral added.
Cabral said there are two themes to support: Barrie's take is the city has a shortage of employment land, while Springwater's take is the need for cross-border servicing.
'Springwater council has been provided sufficient information through reports and from our own dedicated and knowledgeable staff that water and wastewater cross-border servicing is not required and Springwater can go it alone and doesn't need or want cross-border servicing from the City of Barrie,' he said.
Cabral questioned Coughlin's transparency.
'Did you inform the county of what your intentions were when you made this decision to basically, in my opinion, open up a Pandora's box before Pandora's box should have been opened?' he asked.
'Yes, I have been in constant communication with the county,' Coughlin responded. 'But as you'll recall, when we do wear dual hats, I wear my Springwater hat first, and the decision to get to the table and have discussions with the City of Barrie was made in the best interest of the Township of Springwater.
'When the decision was made, I did meet with the warden (Basil Clarke) and the CAO (Mark Aiken),' she added.
Coughlin said Springwater is still part of the provincial facilitation process. She said the facilitation process didn't give the participants an avenue to speak to residents to keep them informed.
'The commitment I made was that I would go get a proposal and bring it back to council so that we would have numerous public meetings,' she said. 'We would have public consultation. This is not doing a deal without the county being involved.
'This is the first step in a transparent process,' Coughlin added.
Cabral countered that this shouldn't be a step at all.
'This process should have happened after all of our data was in,' he said. 'We're waiting for information from our staff.
'To suggest that this is just reaching out to Barrie to get a proposal, I don't buy that for a minute,' Cabral added.
Coun. Danielle Alexander said she wouldn't move forward with the proposal until the timeline for completion was adjusted and pushed until after next year's municipal election.
'If we are going to move forward with this, it is important that this becomes an election issue so that people get to vote on and know what they're voting for,' she said, adding a boundary adjustment was never a mandate she received from residents.
Coun. Anita Moore said there was no need to adjust boundaries. She said Barrie and Springwater are part of the same sub-region as defined by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp.
'Working together, as in a regional approach, along with the County of Simcoe, is the way to move forward, and I have stated all along that I would like to see us move forward in a regional way,' she said.
Coun. Phil Fisher suggested Coughlin was being less than forthright.
'I will say, and I hate to say this, I feel that Mayor Coughlin, you've acted in bad faith,' he said.
During Wednesday night's meeting, Fisher said Oro-Medonte Mayor Randy Greenlaw told him she attended a number of meetings that were not authorized.
BarrieToday reached out to Greenlaw for confirmation, but didn't hear back from him prior to publication of this article.
'This was not born of cross-border servicing,' Fisher said. 'This was being discussed well in advance and it wasn't being discussed with us and it wasn't being discussed with our public.
'This isn't a deal between two municipalities. It isn't a deal between two councils. It's a deal between two mayors,' he added.
After hearing Nuttall's presentation on the Barrie boundary proposal, in a recorded vote, Springwater council voted 5-2 against receiving for information.
They also opted to compile all reports, studies and information related to Barrie's boundary expansion plans — from both public and closed sessions — and deliver it to Quinto Annibale, a lawyer at Loopstra Nixon LLP, for a legal opinion on how next to proceed.
Despite the presentatiton not being received, Coughlin said township staff will undertake a technical analysis of the proposal and will report back to council.
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