Oro-Medonte residents should start bracing for what may be a humdinger of a tax hike next year.
Even though council has yet to crack the book on next year’s budget, township officials are sounding the alarm, warning residents that costs are going up and there’s very little they can do about it.
It’s a common refrain across all three of the townships that border the City of Barrie: Essa, Springwater and Oro-Medonte.
“We need to take caution right now,” Oro-Medonte Deputy Mayor Peter Lavoie told members of township council on Wednesday. “The county approved a budget increase of 3.625 per cent and we’re facing an OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) wage increase of $650,000, approximately a 3.5 per cent tax increase.
“This is before we’ve even considered any of the things we might want to do within the township of our own volition,” he added.
(The county’s budget still requires ratification, which could happen Nov. 26.)
Lavoie also noted the township may be hit with another cost related to its asset management program. He said council will have to wait for guidance from the municipality's finance director to fully understand the implications.
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that township council voted to withdraw from the optional programs offered by the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA) at Wednesday’s meeting.
According to a report prepared by Brent Spagnol, director of development services for the township, during the 2024 budget cycle the NVCA made its presentation and informed the township its Category 1 services, which are mandatory, would cost the township $210,911 in 2024.
The NVCA also pitched its Category 2 and Category 3 services, both of which are optional.
The township said it had no interest in Category 2 services, but it was interested in some Category 3 services. The cost for those services in 2024 was pegged at $24,289.
However, during the budget process, council raised questions about the costs of those Category 3 services and the potential overlapping of services provided by NVCA and the Severn Sound Environmental Association (SSEA).
At that time, council decided to hold the $24,289 fee in township reserves until staff had an opportunity to hold discussions with the NVCA to clarify details on the overlap of services and a rebate of $6,551.63 — in place of a previously understood rebate of about $40,000 for those overlapping services.
According to the report, staff had those discussions, but due to a number of issues, including the age of the expired agreements, could not qualify how that rebate was achieved.
“Did we numerically ever get that pieced out for full understanding?” Oro-Medonte Mayor Randy Greenlaw asked Spagnol.
“Quick answer,” Spagnol said. “Staff were not able to ascertain a dollar amount based on that overlap.”
According to a Sept. 19, 2024 letter to the township from Doug Hevenor, chief administrative officer of the NVCA, regarding “the potential duplication of work” with the SSEA, Hevenor said discussions began in the early 2000s when council requested to expand the NVCA’s jurisdiction.
On May 7, 2003, Hevenor said, the township passed a resolution that “council authorize the expansion by the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority into the remaining 53 per cent of the township effective Sept. 1, 2003.”
On June 13, 2003, Oro-Medonte advised the SSEA and the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority of the NVCA’s expansion.
“Once the motion had been approved by all parties, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was created,” Hevenor said. “The most recent MOU was effective from 2011 until year-end 2013 when Clause 7 was utilized by the township to extend the MOU for the maximum of three additional years.
“Therefore, the most recent MOU expired in December 2016,” Hevenor added.
Hevenor said the NVCA continued to offer the levy reduction while the development of a new MOU took place.
“Unfortunately, due to many factors, a new MOU was not finalized,” he said.
With no MOU in place, no formal commitments made to support Category 3 services and a significant tax hike on the horizon, Oro-Medonte council ultimately decided to forgo those services.
Lavoie suggested the NVCA look to the province for the money.
“I don’t disagree at all with the necessity of the protection of the environment,” he said. “However, if the matter is as important as is being stressed, then I would suggest that the provincial government intervene to extend the mandate of the NVCA to include such matters.
“What you face here, with this council, is an extremely high tax-levy obligation that has been imposed by the provincial government by way of the OPP and by way of the asset management program," Lavoie added. “So if the provincial government places as high a value on those things as it does on the environment, then it’s their opportunity to speak up."
Council voted to opt out of supporting the NVCA’s Category 3 services for the 2024 budget cycle and declined the proposed rebate for Category 3 services.
