Anyone attending the city council meeting here on Tuesday night can be forgiven thinking he had wandered into the wrong building.
There were a number of county employees and councillors on the city council agenda for the evening. The meeting was held to hear comment on the city’s budget, and there were 31 delegations listed on the city website.
County Treasurer Craig Dyer and Chief Administrative Officer Scott Wilson were to ask city council why it is refusing to pay its share of the costs for the Wellington Terrace Seniors home in Aboyne.
Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj has noted that the city owes the county over $2-million for its share of those costs.
Ross-Zuj said county councillor and county social services chairman Gord Tosh was to comment on a social services budget, but he was not listed among the delegations.
The county and the city have had some strife recently over that committee, which has members from both municipalities.
The county and city recently spent several weeks arguing before an arbitrator over the way the costs of that committee are allocated.
Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj said in an interview that she expects a decision on that hearing sometime before Christmas. If Guelph wins, it will cost the county several million dollars more than it currently pays.
Erin Mayor Rod Finnie was listed as number 12 on the delegation list, and county councillor Lou Maieron was number 14. After that, Erin councillor Ken Chapman was to speak.
Maieron said in an interview on Tuesday afternoon his presentation will be about the poor ambulance times Erin receives, and his plan to look elsewhere if Guelph refuses to improve that service.
Maieron said there have been several recommendations to improve Erin’s service, and every time it gets close, Guelph council, which oversees ambulance services, turns it down during budget talks.
“I think they’re playing games,” he concluded.
If so, Maieron plans to up the stakes by withdrawing his community from the ambulance service entirely. He said he has found a patron who would donate an ambulance, it could be housed in the town’s new medical centre, and he would offer neighbouring Orangeville and Georgetown help with ambulance service by paying Erin’s share of $200,000 to each of them. The province also pays a matching amount, and Erin would have 24 hour service without it costing a cent more than it does now.
He added the provincial government is unlikely to object because waiting times would be reduced at no extra cost.
His message to council will be “You can’t continue to expect we’re going to give you $400,000 and not get service.”
