The City of Orillia is on the hook to help pay the salaries of County of Simcoe council members, and at least one city councillor isn’t happy about it.
On the agenda during this week’s city council meeting was a letter from county clerk John Daly regarding the municipal services management agreement between the county and city.
The matter went to mediation when the two couldn’t find common ground on the agreement, particularly with regard to Orillia’s contribution of $68,000 annually to help cover the salaries of the warden and county councillors.
A mediation settlement was approved May 25. It will see the city pay $50,000 rather than $68,000, and the city will receive an $18,000 annual “credit” from the county, retroactive to the start of the agreement in January 2018.
“In accordance with the council approved motion the county will provide an annual credit in recognition for the contribution of the city’s representatives to governance of the shared services,” Daly wrote.
The wording “seems innocuous” and makes it sound like a positive, Coun. Tim Lauer said, but he saw it differently.
Orillia taxpayers will now be paying a portion of county council members’ salaries, he said, noting $50,000 “is not spare change.”
“It is not an insignificant amount to a municipality of our size,” he said, adding it could pay for a seasonal bylaw officer or support the city’s grants budget.
“I object to this strenuously,” he said. “We are being asked to pay for the democratic process of another jurisdiction.”
He said county council recently had the opportunity to reduce its size when its governance committee recommended going from 32 to 21 members.
“But, in the end, they decided to stay big,” he said.
He could find only one other instance in Ontario of a service agreement that included a fee to go toward county council salaries.
“It is unprecedented, basically,” he said.
“Why we would accept it, I wouldn’t understand.”
Until this week’s city council meeting, little was known about the dispute between the city and county because most discussions had happened in closed session.
Coun. Ted Emond is one of the city’s representatives at the county. He said he agreed with Lauer “intellectually,” but he cautioned against making waves at this point.
In the coming years, the city will be negotiating with the county about funding for a new hospital in town and the possibility of Orillia expanding its boundaries to meet provincial growth targets, and ”to create an irritant with the county over something of this nature is likely not a good idea,” Emond said.
“That was the reason I, personally, voted to proceed with the arrangement.”
The county provides a variety of services to the separated cities of Orillia and Barrie, including paramedics, affordable housing and long-term care. Orillia pays about $6.5 million per year for those services.
Mayor Steve Clarke said he wasn’t pleased with the $50,000 going toward council members’ salaries, but, like Emond, he pointed out the importance of working with the county.
“Am I particularly enamoured with this? No, but we have a very productive, positive relationship with the county,” he said.
The municipal services management agreement will be up for renegotiation in 2023, and Clarke expects the $50,000 fee will again be a topic of discussion.
Lauer said he will eventually bring a motion before city council that, if passed, would have the city ask the province to amend the Municipal Act to prohibit that kind of charge from the county.
