Council Preview
By John Swartz
Orillia council meets at 2 p.m. August 10 with a lengthy agenda, which of course includes the contentious issue of what to do about the Lakehead land earmarked for a new hospital.
The meeting begins with a couple of deputations. One will be made by John Mayo, Si Lowry and Ted Markle of Mariposa House Hospice. The facility has end of life care, which is free to access, and has served 600 families since it opened in 2021. It currently has 6 beds, one of which was added to the mix only in April this year. They have been engaged in a community fundraising effort to expand to 10 beds, with a construction cost of $4.5 million. It is hoped construction can begin in the spring next year.
They are outlining their fundraising efforts to council and asking for the City to contribute $150K toward the fundraising goal.
Next are Colin Cassin and Katie Church of the Lake Simcoe Water Soldier Working Group, which part of the province’s Invasive Species Centre.
Water Soldier is a foreign aquatic plant, which may have escaped into the wild from someone’s water garden. There is a patch discovered in Cook’s Bay in 2024 and it:
- Forms dense mats of floating vegetation.
- Crowds out native vegetation resulting in decreased plant biodiversity.
- Has the potential to alter surrounding water chemistry, which may harm phytoplankton and other aquatic organisms.
- Dense floating mats of water soldier can hinder recreational activities, such as boating, angling and swimming.
- Sharp serrated leaf edges can cut swimmers and individuals who handle water soldier plants. Caution should be taken whenever handling the plant.
The point of their deputation is to outline what the City can do to help the group continue to monitor and work toward eradicating the plant. They are trying to get $5 million of funding, which appears to be sourced from the province, not municipalities.
After the public forum, which is next, council will have a closed session to deal with 6 items. Two are related and are about the Lakehead land. One is to discuss the motion adopted last Friday at council’s special meeting on this subject.
That motion included:
- That Lakehead University and Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital be requested to provide the Draft Terms on or before August 10, 2026 (which has not been done by time of publication)
- Council agrees to remove the restrictions set out in the Development Agreement
- That the disposition of the subject lands to Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital be authorized and endorsed
- Encumbrances, including the City waive, and release restrictive covenants and right of first refusal, from the lands to be conveyed to Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital
- Require Lakehead University to use all sale proceeds solely for the new academic building to be constructed by Lakehead University at the Orillia Campus
- Provide, if the proposed campus of care has not been built on the subject lands by Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital by December 31, 2046 Lakehead University, shall have a first right of refusal to repurchase the subject lands, onto which the covenant will be restored at that time and, if that right is not exercised or is otherwise forfeited, the City shall have a first right of refusal to repurchase the subject lands.
It should be noted the City bought the land from the Horne estate and gave 85 acres of it to the University in order to build a campus and had a number of provisions for the university to commit to construction of facilities, which to date has not been done. Meanwhile the university opened a campus in Barrie.
The other item regarding Lakehead is university expansion plans and Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital’s redevelopment planning efforts. Both of these items have reports included in the public agenda and both have been already made public (the second is the 400 plus page report council had prior to their August 5 special meeting) and there is no new or additional information included.
The other items include transit capital funding opportunities; a business retention matter; title interest in laneways; and Horne postponement requests for Lots 13-16 .
Small Houses
Councillor Whitney Smith asks for a report regarding the feasibility of the City becoming involved in creating an affordable small home community for independent seniors on City owned land, and specifically on Benner Street land.
The agenda refers to a report from Smith, which is not included, and asks permission in a manner similar to an enquiry motion for staff to prepare a report for council. The Banner Street site used to have a water tower on it, and still has a radio tower installed.
Next is a report from the Orillia food access and sustainability working group for a 2027 budget request of $30K. Council previously adopted the findings of the Orillia and Area Food Strategy, and this is the next step to start implementing the plan.
Don’t Feed The Birds, Or The Cats
Staff have a report following from an enquiry motion regarding prohibiting feeding birds and feral cats. The report recommends repealing current by-laws and replacing them with new provisions.
Staff report there has been an average of 5 complaints made annually.
The new by-law has a tighter definition of what is food, and allows feeding birds only from feeders on private property, (removes wording referring to songbirds – of which many birds are not songbirds, hummingbirds for example, and which effectively excludes feeding seagulls and geese), and allows only people associated with animal welfare groups to feed feral cats.
The new by-law also includes an inspection fee of $200, which is separate from any fine and is essentially a charge for a by-law officer having to investigate a complaint and finding violations which could also carry a fine.
No Fishing
Staff have a report regarding a request to ban fishing from municipal property (which includes road allowances) on Glen Crescent and Dale Drive. There have been complaints which also include parking and littering.
Staff investigated and visited the area 28 times and only observed fishing on 4 occasions. Staff’s conclusion is banning fishing on City property in that area in general is going too far and propose amending by-laws to say no fishing from public bridges in general. They also say the parking and littering issues are already covered by other by-laws.
The Truck Broke
The fire department has a report asking council to approved renting a truck immediately for a 3 month period.
The issue is one of the City’s three pumper trucks has been out of service for the last two months for an engine rebuild. The ladder truck is also out of service and will be for about 6 weeks. So currently the department is operating with only two pumper trucks and is worried if one of those has to be sidelined.
The rental rate is $7,700.00 per month.
Take This Bus And….
Transit staff a comprehensive report which examines converting the City’s transit system to electric busses in ways only a person with a minutia complex can appreciate.
The short version of the recommendation is not to change anything and continue to operate with diesel busses and for replacements of the fleet.
The reason being it’s too expensive to change. The buses are more expensive, and more so to buy buses with enough range to operate effectively and there is a ton of ancillary equipment needed to keep even our small system operating to the level we’ve been accustomed to.
On the expense side, to replace buses on the schedule already set in the 10-year capital plan would cost $17 million more than already forecast. This includes all the equipment needed to keep them running/powered every day. One thing investigated most people would overlook is the cost for maintenance people; they need special equipment to keep from getting charged themselves while working on a bus.
So the bottom line is to receive the report, which means do nothing different. One alternative is to do a trial with one bus and if that checks out, move to a second bus before advancing to replacing the whole fleet of 9 busses. But, with all the extra expense and changing technology, which means betting on one that will last, it is unlikely changing to electric busses will happen in the next ten years.
No Surprises
One thing necessary when rebuilding roads is to know what is underground. The City learned this the hard way several years ago when the Barrie Road rebuild was stalled and became more expensive when things underground were discovered no one knew about.
To that end, Downtown Orillia asked for a study of the condition of known infrastructure under Mississaga Street in advance of approving a reconstruction of downtown streets.
Council had approved working toward a $50 million plan to address all downtown streets and then Mayor McIsaac used new powers to reduce the scope of the project to only Mississaga Street and not do address underground services for $18 million.
One could reasonably conclude rebuilding the roadway and not doing something to upgrade pipes while the ground is open can be a point of major failure if something breaks that could have been fixed or replaced when the opportunity exists, which is the point Downtown Orillia is making.
So staff did what they call a desktop review of services, which means no one left their chair to have a look. Only available records of installation dates history of breakdowns, and known replacement time frame estimates were used.
Staff concluded the difference between expected life of roads and expected life of pipes is such the pipes can be replaced the next time roadwork is done in 25 years. Bear in mind Mississaga Street as we know it was built in the late 70s and is only now being set up for replacement, so the 25 year timeline for next time may be ambitious.
Staff say actually going out and using technology to assess the condition of underground services will cost $165K That is included in a second option council could take. The first is to receive the report. This report was postponed from the July meeting.
Affordable Housing
Staff have a report asking council to approve grants to Hillcrest Lodge for its plan to build 16 rent geared to income units for seniors. Specifically grants would be $10K per unit for construction costs, and up to $168,494 for cover what the City would charge for engineering and planning fees.
Incoming Grant
Staff are reporting to council the City’s cost to upgrade the Fittons Road pumping station have gone down from $7.7 million to $4.5 million thanks to a grant from the province’s health and safety water stream program.
Motions
Councillor Ralph Cipolla’s February enquiry, postponed to July and then postponed to this meeting is back. He wants a report from staff on the feasibility and options to reduce the overall cost of the Downtown Orillia Streetscape project, including, but not limited to, an approach that retaining current streetscape design elements like roadway layout and sidewalk configuration, and instead focus on:
– Repaving the existing roadway;
– Replacing streetlights;
– Reinstalling sidewalks using the same style of brick currently in place;
– Planting new trees;
– Any other cost-saving measures that would result in a significant reduction from the estimated $18,000,000 Capital Project budget.
Council meetings are open to the public or can be watched on the City’s Youtube channel.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia; Images Supplied)
