A familiar face returned to the council chamber here on March 27, but this time former mayor John Green was on the delegation side and sitting in the audience.
Green, currently a county councillor representing Mapleton, brought council a wide variety of News – but he admitted he was uncertain about some financial implications. That is because the provincial budget was set to be released a few hours after his address to council.
Green was acting warden in the absence of Chris White, who Green said was in Toronto that day to “get the bad News” first hand.
Green noted Mapleton has not yet finished its budget and he explained that for this year, the county held its tax increase to under two per cent in order to allow struggling lower tier municipalities to raise their rates without a huge overall increases in total taxes. He said the low increase was a first for the county in many years, and might not happen again.
Green said the move “allows you to increase your rates five or six per cent or maybe more and still have an [overall] increase of three per cent.”
Green noted the county is building a new OPP station in Teviotdale, and it is finishing major renovations to the Harriston library.
In that latter category, he noted Fergus is the last Carnegie library to be renovated. Mapleton did not have a Carnegie library (such libraries were built at the turn of the 20th century though donations by American multi-millionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie) so Drayton got a state of the art library.
“It’s very expensive to preserve libraries,” Green said.
There is another major county project coming. The county garage on County Road 7 is being replaced. Green said there have been some difficulties but the project should start soon.
“I suspect we’ll be turning sod in the next few months,” Green said.
He said the warden, along with Centre Wellington Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj, has been working to preserve the partnership the province had with the OLG and horse organizations. The provincial government threatened to break that deal, suddenly calling the horsemen’s groups’ share of slots revenue a “subsidy” and indicating it would be stopped.
Green said the county is lobbying for the protection of the horse industry because it represents 60,000 jobs in Ontario and if the OLG money is discontinued “a lot who are employed will be no longer employed.”
Green said he has heard the move might be “a stop-gap for a few years.” The province is awash in a sea of debt and deficits, and needs cash to start controlling them.
Some good News in the Don Drummond report to the province on how to reduce its deficit is the province is likely to continue to upload social service costs. There were two big uptakes from the county in 2009 and 2010 and “We hope that continues.”
Green said the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) “could be threatened.” He called the OMPF “very important for Wellington County” and said if the province cancels it, “That could bankrupt some municipalities” and put taxes “up over $1 million.”
(White announced at county council two days later the OMPF has been reduced overall by $25 million a year but it has not been eliminated. The fund was created when the province downloaded services and recognized municipalities were being asked to pay far more than they were giving up to the province.)
Green also noted Mapleton’s concerns that the way forests and farmlands are taxed is costing municipalities money, but he disagrees with how much. He noted a recent News article quoted finance director Mike Givens as suggesting the cost is about $700,000 annually, but Green thinks it is likely closer to $1.2 million.
He conceded when it comes to getting the province to change the system, “It’s very difficult to break that.”
Green said the Western Warden’s Association is lobbying for change and, “We still continue to put it on the table.”
Green cited a list of county roads in Mapleton that will get work this year.
He said, too, the county might want the use of the Moorefield hall for emergency management uses. He said he had volunteered the hall as a possible location when the issue arose at a county emergency management meeting, but “it’s your decision, of course.”
Mayor Bruce Whale asked Green about uploads and dealings with the province.
Green said with the Drummond report and the effect of the budget coming in a few hours, he is unsure. One problem with the Drummond report is “There is no word on how [cuts recommended in the report] will affect society.”
He added between the provincial budget coming that day and the federal budget two days later, “There could be devastation.”
Green’s questions
Council had no questions for Green, but he had some for council.
Actually, it was some advice. He said there had been reports of council considering closing and selling road allowances in rural areas.
He said, “I caution you” that many rural people see roads as all they get for their taxes and they will not take kindly to losing some of those.
But, he said, if council decides it wants to close “one or two, I can give you a list.”
He added, “if you close one, you’re setting a precedent,” and called that “a bad idea.”
Councillor Mike Downey asked if Green was referring to open road allowances or closed allowances. Green said he was talking about open roads.
Whale told him, “We appreciate your comments,” and added council has made “no decisions at this point.”
