Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall should be expecting a call any day now from Springwater Mayor Jennifer Coughlin.
Springwater Township council decided at Wednesday night's meeting to reverse a Nov. 15, 2023 council decision to “terminate discussions" with Barrie regarding the city’s proposal for municipal boundary adjustments and cross-border servicing.
Well, sort of.
Springwater council voted to hold talks with the Barrie officials, but only regarding cross-border servicing.
There will be no talk of boundary adjustments.
Coun. Brad Thompson tabled a reconsideration of the previous resolution from November relating to Barrie's boundary adjustment proposal.
“I am seeking the reconsideration in order to get our mayor, deputy mayor and CAO back to the table,” Thompson said. “Since our Nov. 15 resolution terminating talks, there has been a lot of chatter about this from the City of Barrie and media outlets.
“I don’t think it’s beneficial or productive for our residents and our community to not be in the room when the future of Springwater is being discussed and really feel it prudent we reconsider this,” he added.
Coun. Matt Garwood seconded the motion.
Council voted after clarifying the wording and what portions of the original Nov. 15 decision have been carried out. That includes that the mayor, deputy mayor and chief administrative officer have commenced discussions with officials from Simcoe County and Oro-Medonte Township regarding potential cross-border servicing partnerships, a letter be sent to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing advising it of the township’s termination of discussions with the City of Barrie and a delegation request be submitted to the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association (ROMA) conference, but not approved and was not heard.
In a recorded vote, Thompson, Garwood and Coun. Anita Moore, along with Coughlin, voted in favour of the reconsideration. Deputy Mayor George Cabral, Coun. Phil Fisher and Coun. Danielle Alexander voted against.
With the reconsideration carried, the township’s clerk recommended the motion, now in its entirety, be divided to handle the items that have been dealt with, remove those, vote on those and then keep the remainder of the motion that council would like to debate.
Coughlin then recommended council separate the two issues: cross-border servicing and Barrie’s boundary adjustment request.
“I don’t see how you can separate the two as they are one,” said Thompson. “My perspective of how this occurred is, in the prepared statements, I think Deputy Mayor Cabral alluded to the fact that we started the discussion with the City of Barrie by going forward and asking them for cross-border servicing.
“The city came back to us and said we’d be willing to do it, but this is how we see it. The two topics are so intertwined I don’t see how they can be separated. I would just like you in the room listening and having an ear to the ground,” added Thompson, directing his comment toward Coughlin.
Fisher voted against the reconsideration and said he’s not interested in shifting the municipality’s border and he was under the impression Barrie didn’t want to offer Springwater cross-border servicing.
“I think that was made clear, so I'm a little confused that we would want to go back and have a conversation with them when it’s been communicated to us that they’re not interested,” Fisher said.
Alexander was on the same page as Fisher.
“I do not feel Barrie has ever come to the table to negotiate in good faith,” she said. “They came with an ask, that’s what they wanted. The conversation with Mayor Nuttall about cross-border servicing was that he was not really interested in it. It was a take it or leave it, a little bit of an attitude.
“That’s not a partner in my mind, it’s not what I am prepared to negotiate with because I don’t think he’s interested in negotiating with us. I think his proposal benefits Mayor Nuttall and the City of Barrie and not the residents of Springwater,” Alexander added.
Moore said she supported Thompson's reconsideration motion, but wanted to see the cross-bordering servicing issue separated from the boundary expansion issue.
“We have some incredible projects that could be made so much easier for those applicants if discussion for cross-border serving could take place,” she said.
Cabral said he talked with Thompson earlier in the day and told him that he would not support reconsideration.
Cabral had submitted a notice of motion on last night’s agenda dealing with the same topic. He said his motion would have better prepared council going forward if a reconsideration was to take place.
“You knew full well on looking at the agenda there was something on there that was directly specific to us moving forward with looking at some of those other options,” Cabral said to Thompson. “What we just did was premature. I think we could have waited."
Cabral called Thompson’s motion for reconsideration “an error in judgment,” earning him a point of order and admonishment from the mayor.
“In our code of conduct, we’re not permitted to speak to members in that way,” Coughlin told Cabral.
Thompson said because Springwater is not at the table, council hasn’t been able to share with the public the compensation package the city has put together.
“Mayor Nuttall has been very clear about his plan; he calls it the largest compensation package in the history of the province,” Thompson said. “He’s promising our taxpayers a 10 per cent revenue share of any new taxes created through this proposal plus $8 million in new taxes to us — a 30 per cent increase to our revenues and our bottom line.
“I’d like him to be accountable to those numbers and explain to us how he plans to make that happen," the councillor added. "We have a responsibility to our residents and our taxpayers to at least be at the table and listen.”
Garwood fully supported Thompson’s motion.
“Being at the table does not mean we are agreeing to a boundary adjustment, being at the table does not mean we are agreeing to cross-border servicing,” Garwood said. “It’s just being at the table.”
BarrieToday reached out to Nuttall for his reaction, but he is recovering from surgery and was unable to respond.
Barrie's chief administrative officer, Michael Prowse, responded on the mayor's behalf.
"The city is always open to having discussions on shared interests with our neighbours," Prowse responded via email. "As of now, we have not heard directly from Springwater Township on their desire to resume talks, but we will not be negotiating in the media."
