Council Preview
By John Swartz
Orillia council begins the business of 2025 Monday January 13 at 2 p.m. There are no presentations of deputations, so except for the formality of opening the meeting and having the public forum, they will quickly go to a closed session.
There are three items on the closed agenda, a staffing matter, a request from Orillia Power Generation Corp. for equity financing related to a growth opportunity, and a property sale offer.
Back in public, there are 7 reports to deal with. Of most interest is a report by councillors Ralph Cipolla, Jeff Czetwerzuk, Luke Leatherdale and Whitney Smith proposing the City eventually operate a medical clinic, starting by creating a working group to investigate creating a clinic as an end result.
Such a clinic would hire doctors as City employees with a goal to ease the doctor shortage in the community. Also in the motion to create the working group is a request to earmark $500k for such a clinic with 50% to come from each of the hospital reserve and the tax rate stabilization reserve.
They state, according to the Orillia and Lake Country physician recruitment committee 20% of the area’s population are retiring soon and this will create a need for 12 more doctors.
They are using an existing example from the City of Colwood, B.C. as a model, saying doctors would be paid by the city and covered under municipal employment benefits and the province would in turn reimburse the City. The report also states, “The Minister of Health has indicated her support for this concept to Mayor McIsaac.”
Next, Mayor Don McIsaac and councillor Tim Lauer have a report asking council to waive rental fees for Rotary Place to the Simcoe County Elementary Athletic Council so a wrestling tournament can be held.
The issue is a provision in the policy manual preventing council from making grants to school boards. This is similar to an almost annual request from the council for a grants dating back to 2019 when the council asked to waive a $1,240 fee. The waiver for 2025 amounts to $1,500.
Communication Upgrade
The accessibility advisory committee is informing council another schedule (G) has been added to the accessibility plan previously distributed to council.
The additional schedule relates to communications from the City to the public. One bullet point asks to have videos produced by the City to have closed captioning. The City produces a number of videos (usually found on their Youtube channel) besides council meetings.
The report does not state whether captioning would be added while council meetings are in progress (expensive), or after the fact (past council meetings can be found on the same Youtube channel). Other bullet points relate to improving usability of documents by the disabled on the City’s website.
Oops
The first casualty under the new system of combining several former committees into larger working groups of broader scope is on the agenda. The Downtown Orillia board is asking council to dissolve the Downtown BIA parking working group from the larger transportation and parking working group.
Their argument is the parking group had one area of focus, parking, while the new format also includes transit, active transportation, and trails, which the parking group says are competing priorities.
They say the transportation group “is too large to effectively serve the parking needs of the BIA. There are currently 12 members with only one BIA representative.”
They offer an alternative, “rather than dissolving the Working Group, this group be assigned City-wide parking matters, and to expand the Working Group to seven members as follows: 1 Council member, 1 DOBIA Rep, 3 BIA members, 2 citizen members,” which is two more members than formerly on the committee.
In another vehicle related item staff have a report for a request by council to designate Borland Street from West Street North to Laclie Street, and Peter Street from Jarvis Street to Benner Street as community safety zones.
That means a 40 kph speed limit and higher fines, if staff were to agree those areas need to qualify for designation according to the Ontario traffic manual and transportation association of Canada guidelines. Neither area qualifies so staff are not recommending implementation.
Still with traffic, staff have another report responding to a council request for ll way stops at Brant Street and Matchedash Streets, and Tecumseth Street and Lightfoot Drive. Both had temporary all way stops this past summer because of construction on Laclie Street.
Staff say both locations fail the Ontario Traffic Manual conditions for having all way stops and are not recommending they be installed.
Finally, council will be asked to supply three policing priorities for the 2025 Local Action Plan for the Orillia OPP.
The agenda package included 19 letters and a majority asked for a higher priority for policing downtown, particularly a visible presence – foot patrols..
Enquiries
Councillor Fallis has three motions. One is for staff to report on the feasibility of implementing a no parking zone between 104 and 114 Atlantis Drive.
Another has Councillor Janet-Lynne Durnford joining to ask for a report of an overview of the results from the housing needs assessment, including key elements of the poverty reduction action plan.
Last, with Lauer joining, asks staff to report on the feasibility of amending chapter 22 of the municipal code to allow for the submission of online petitions.
Council meetings are open to the public, or can be watched on the City’s Youtube channel.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
