Council Preview
By John Swartz
Orillia council meets Monday February 23 at 2 p.m. the meeting begins with a deputation by Jonathan Scott, executive director of Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition who will discuss Orillia’s role in the Lake Simcoe watershed. (Note: this is not the same organization as the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority)
The Lake Simcoe Protection Plan is 15 years old and there 13 recommendations for municipalities to keep the plan working. While some progress has been made, they are still working to reduce phosphorous levels, get municipalities to use less salt for roads and more effectively, and beach closings are still an issue.
Despite the Ontario government forcing Orillia and other municipalities to spend millions ($15 million in Orillia’s case) to install filtering systems to remove relatively small amounts of phosphorous, the runoff from farms continues. At least levels have been maintained instead of rising over the 16 years.
The amount of road salt in the lake has risen from 40 mg/L in 2010 to about 61 mg/L in 2024.
Part of the problem is the province which removed conservation authority powers regarding development, and has used minister’s zoning orders to allow projects municipalities don’t want or were moving slowly because environment issues needed addressing before development can occur.
The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition wants to encourage municipalities to do more, or anything in some cases, with storm water. To Orillia’s credit, the City has been building funds for stormwater treatment (with some filtering measures in place now) in anticipation the province would require municipalities to treat storm water. The province, so far has not done what many anticipated would happen.
Moving On
Following the deputation and public forum council will go into closed session to discuss three items. One is regarding appointments to the Orillia Power Generation Corporation board. Another is labelled ‘compensation offer from the ministry of transportation’. There is no indication what the reference is about. There is also an update from staff about expropriations.
ICU
When council returns to public, staff have a report asking for an amendment to the customer service policy adopted late last year. The amendment is necessary because staff discovered they left out a section dealing with ‘frivolous, vexatious, unreasonable, or repeated requests’.
The kinds of things to be considered under the policy are:
• submitting repeated requests already deemed to be resolved,
• excessive requests for documents or information, or
• submitting numerous requests about the same issue
The policy outlines the steps staff area to take including:
Employees may report them to their supervisor for review.
• The purpose of the review would be to determine the likelihood of resolving the customer’s request.
• If the request cannot be resolved by the City, the supervisor will communicate in writing (mail or email) to the customer with a copy to their member of operational leadership team outlining:
- A resolution to the issue.
- The reason why the issue cannot be resolved.
- An explanation why similar or repeated requests may no longer be reviewed by the City.
• If a concerned citizen is not satisfied with the resolution a complaint can be filed under the City’s Municipal Complaint Policy.
The problem is this leads to a ‘we investigated ourselves and found no problems’ circumstance. Staff decide what is undue and there is little recourse for people who believe they are being stonewalled when trying to get information from the City.
Next, staff have a report regarding the 10-year capital fleet replacement plan which will accomplish two things. On one hand a $250K surplus identified from existing capital projects be returned to the various accounts affected – except for $169K which will be used to buy a new road grader.
One of the reasons roads have ruts this winter is because the grader the City currently has is out for repairs. It needs a new engine, tires, and fuel and electrical system repairs. It was scheduled to be replaced in 2031, but has $180K needed for repairs. The City was using 20 years as the useful life span of the grader, while industry standards are 15 years.
Rental and contracting the work options both run more than $180K. Staff say depending on short-term fixes until repairs are made is not reliable. One could note winter is happening all over and has no storm event schedule and extra equipment availability might be a problem. Even when repaired there is no guarantee more repairs won’t be needed in the next 5 years.
A new grader will cost $650K and staff say could be delivered by August this year. The balance of the purchase price would be realized by bumping snow plow purchase schedule over the next 5 years by one year in each case.
Motions
After council deals with the consent agenda and reports from the last meeting, which normally happen quickly, Councillor Tim Lauer is serving notice he will have a reconsideration motion at the next meeting, March 9, regarding the Seymour Conservatory Greenhouse in Couchiching Beach Park.
Council passed a consent agenda motion in February 2023 which changed the project to replace the greenhouse by reducing the scope of the project. At the last meeting The Sharing Place made a pitch to council to upgrade the replacement project in order to grow food and operate a school for people to learn how to grow their own food. Lauer also states this would reconsider the 2026 capital budget item related to this project.
There are no enquiry or other motions and something rarely seen – there are no by-laws other than the confirming by-law for Monday’s meeting.
Council meetings are open to the public or can be watched on the City’s Youtube channel.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
