As of Nov. 30, Tiny Township will not be renewing its library service agreements with Penetanguishene, Midland and Springwater Township.
That’s only the latest chapter in this ongoing story, however.
Beginning last year after the new heads of councils looked to their budgets, Penetanguishene Mayor Doug Rawson and staff realized that a member of Tiny Township was appointed to the Penetanguishene Library Board, except there was no official bylaw stating such – it was merely a long-standing agreement of precedent between the two municipalities.
A full retelling can be read in the MidlandToday article ‘Library books causing donnybrook between Penetang, Tiny councils’ from February.
Tiny Township council and staff received a letter last month from Penetanguishene, formally informing them that not only wouldn’t the town be paying the township’s invoice of $31,000 but that they also wouldn’t pay additional or future finance charges to Tiny.
As explained by Tiny CAO Robert Lamb at the meeting: “In effect, they’re asking us to fund their library services without having an official Tiny Township representative on that board of governance and operational oversight with the library board.
“We have asked for the money back, they’ve said no, and they’ve continued to invoice us moving forward. We said we’re not paying it, and that literally brings you up to about (30 minutes before the start of the council meeting),” explained Lamb on the stalemate.
To the Tiny committee of the whole, the staff recommendation was to not renew the library service agreement for Penetanguishene, Midland or Springwater Township in 2024; the motion will come before regular council at an upcoming meeting.
Tiny Mayor Dave Evans spoke at length to the item with a preamble which focused on the infrastructure needs of the township as one of its four central pillars of governance.
“Our infrastructure, as we talked from a budget perspective, has been somewhat lacking in the past,” stated Evans. “We do have a $44 million infrastructure deficit; that’s not arenas and libraries.”
Evans included mention of the arena as he had previously informed Midland Mayor Bill Gordon that Tiny would no longer be subsidizing the Midland Public Library or the town’s North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre, baffling some on Midland council and adding taxation pressures there as well.
In his reasoning, Evans explained that the fast-growing population of 19,000 registered voters were wanting township-owned infrastructure but were trapped paying elsewhere for it.
“We are in a catch-22; if we don’t spend the money now, we are going to have to spend it in the future and it’s going to be even more (costly),” said Evans. “I believe that Tiny taxes should stay in Tiny… If we don’t get out of this cycle of providing funding with other municipalities, we’re never going to be able to build our own infrastructure.”
However, while Evans stated that the matter was prompted by policy and running business and not anything personal, his latter statements took aim directly at his neighbouring municipalities.
“When you start saying that you want to have more money from us, perhaps we should take some of the commercial tax revenue that you’re gaining from purchases from residents of Tiny Township,” Evans challenged.
He added that the municipalities needed to live next to each other like brothers “for the rest of our lives… you never always get together with your brother but you’re always going to sit at the same dinner table.”
Meanwhile, in Penetanguishene the regular meeting of their town council was simultaneously underway.
Rawson addressed the committee of the whole with concerns over a 2024 fees and charges bylaw update report; specifically the non-resident fee portion.
“I anticipate any day now we’re going to get formal notification from our peers in neighbouring municipalities that will no longer be funding certain services in the municipality,” said Rawson, while also alluding to Tiny council a few kilometres away.
“We’re going to need to take care of our community, and we need to make sure that those that don’t pay taxes to our base, that we’re getting compensated for that with a user fee.”
Approval of the update recommendations was carried, to be ratified at an upcoming meeting of Penetanguishene regular council. Additionally, Rawson tacked an item onto the finance and corporate services referral list for staff “to review all existing and potential new non-resident fees for services that are provided by Penetanguishene to other folks outside of this community, which could include new fees for existing services,” according to CAO Jeff Lees.
Midland will be hosting its council meeting this Wednesday, where a proposed notice of motion could see the town starting its exit from a tri-partner agreement of the Huronia Airport Commission, as council members could reiterate how the town makes no direct profits from the airport located in Tiny Township.
