28-05-2025
‘Is it a fulsome proposal?' Oro-Medonte responds to Barrie's proposal after ongoing boundary talks
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall made headlines earlier this month when it was announced that a shared principles agreement had been struck with Springwater over ongoing boundary talks.
On Wednesday, a proposal was put forward to the other partner in the discussions, Oro-Medonte. Council chambers were packed with residents widely in opposition to any potential agreement that could have been found.
Barrie's proposal, according to the letter, addressed to council reflected an agreement that was in line with the City of St. Thomas and Central Elgin, in which the city would pay about 1.27 million dollars to the township annually over the course of five years.
In exchange for the money, Barrie is looking for roughly 850 acres of land to develop and would approve about 935 units of servicing capacity over 10 years.
Nuttall saying, 'Our focus is to get jobs and housing in places that they aren't currently in, you know, my real push has been the focus on, on jobs to ensure that if you live in the City of Barrie, you don't have to work in Toronto'
Randy Greenlaw, Oro-Medonte Mayor stated, 'Is it a fulsome proposal? Not to the fullest degree we want, the financials aren't there, a bunch of elements or key pillars within, what the proposal should have, were lacking but that's fine, the process will flush this stuff out over time.'
These conversations are not rejecting negotiations outright. Instead, the township will be sending its own principles back to Barrie, a lot of which the mayor says will be done through the province's facilitator.
But the idea here is that an agreement can be found in the long term without the Ford government's intervention.
