Oro-Medonte Mayor Randy Greenlaw uses a bit of humour to deal with the serious business of two interlopers — one to the north and the other to the south — that want chunks of the land he was elected to steward.
“I wish I was this popular in high school,” he said with a laugh at the start of an interview in his office at the township’s administration centre on Line 7, just off Highway 11, about halfway between Barrie and Orillia.
“I guess it goes to show that everyone wants what Oro-Medonte has.”
When Greenlaw was elected mayor of Oro-Medonte in 2022, he says he knew there were some serious issues that were going to demand immediate attention — Zone 1 water in Horseshoe Valley, short-term rentals, and cannabis cultivation among them.
Orillia’s boundary expansion was not one of them. It was on the table, but Greenlaw, who was a councillor the term before being elected mayor, knew it was in the early stages.
“Orillia has gone through a thorough, lengthy municipal comprehensive review process that has taken five years, and we’ve been a part of it,” he said. “They started off looking at three municipalities — Ramara, Severn and Oro-Medonte — and laid out a map and identified where they were looking.
“Since that initial map, they’ve dialed it back quite substantially and they’ve narrowed it down to two municipalities instead of three,” the mayor added.
Greenlaw said he expects the final decision may be made by the end of this year and may only impact one municipality.
“The ball is in (Orillia’s) court,” he said. “They’ll have to look at their mapping and decide where they’ll get (the land).”
Overall, Greenlaw said, the experience has been invaluable and he’s learned a great deal from being at the table.
“That’s the best part of this job,” he said. “You’re guaranteed there’s going to be a learning curve, because every situation is different.”
The boundary expansion proposal with Orillia was controlled, reasoned and well thought out, he said.
Greenlaw didn’t use those same adjectives to describe the township’s relationship with the City of Barrie and its boundary expansion plan.
He said Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall’s Nov. 6, 2023, presentation to the standing committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy — where he provided the committee with an update on Barrie’s housing targets and highlighted why the city requires additional employment land — caught township council and residents off guard.
“I think the way it was done, it shocked a lot of people,” Greenlaw said. “It put everyone back on their heels and they dug in.”
Greenlaw, who won the mayor’s seat in large part due to his election promises of transparency, accountability and integrity, is adamant that any further discussions should take place in a public forum.
He says he’s concerned that residents have been shut out since the province appointed a land facilitator to oversee the discussions between Barrie, Oro-Medonte, Springwater Township and the County of Simcoe.
“Our request would be that all facilitations going forward be done in a public venue so the public are aware they’re part of the process, they see how it’s evolving, where it’s going, and we focus on the actual need,” Greenlaw said.
To that end, the Oro-Medonte mayor posted an open letter to residents on the township’s website on Feb. 3 regarding Barrie’s boundary expansion request. He said he posted the letter at township council’s request.
“They heard rumblings that residents weren’t being updated,” Greenlaw explained. “We needed to give an articulation out to bring clarity to our electorate and let them know where we’re at and what our position is moving forward.
“We’re trying to bring transparency to the forefront,” he added.
Greenlaw said the township wants to be a part of building the solution, but it’s not interested in paying for someone’s else due diligence.
“My stance hasn’t changed from Day 1,” he said. “We shouldn’t be paying anything until they (Barrie) have incurred the cost of a full municipal comprehensive review, which the City of Orillia has done.”
According to Melissa Gowanlock, manager of communications for the City of Orillia, the municipality has spent about $540,000 on its boundary expansion plan — $136,000 for a land-needs assessment, $191,000 on technical land evaluation, and $211,000 on updating the city’s Official Plan.
Any decision to move the process along will have to wait until the end of the current provincial election.
According to an email from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s media relations department, the Ontario government has entered “caretaker mode until the completion of the next general election” on Feb. 27.