With challenges big and small facing Orillia, Mayor Don McIsaac provided an update on city council’s plans and spoke about their accomplishments through its first 100 days in office at the annual Mayor’s Breakfast Wednesday morning.
Hosted by the Orillia District Chamber of Commerce at the Best Western Plus Mariposa Inn, McIsaac delivered an address to dozens of attendees, outlining council’s strategies to address mounting social issues such as food insecurity, homelessness, and the opioid crisis, as well as touching on council’s first budget and numerous projects and events planned for the city.
McIsaac said council has established four priorities for the term, which were set through meetings held ahead of being sworn in on Nov. 15.
They include taking care of the city’s vulnerable, helping people with "things that matter", providing good government, and looking after city infrastructure.
“We set priorities while campaigning … (and) the principles include getting a safe, sustainable community,” McIsaac said. “We wanted to have solutions to our problems. We wanted to have a commitment to improving the quality of life and wellbeing for all, not just some.”
Through those meetings, McIsaac said, council members tasked themselves with tackling a variety of issues, some of which include climate change, the opioid crisis, bringing Uber to Orillia, handling problematic short-term rentals, and truth and reconciliation.
“A couple patterns emerged and I think they're important. Each councillor picked up a bit of an assignment,” McIsaac said. “There are problems within the community and we need to deal with those.”
Some of these issues have already seen action over the past 100 days, McIsaac said, with council successfully bringing Uber to the city in December, followed by the formation of a homelessness roundtable, and Coun. Cipolla spearheading the launch of an Orillia-specific opioid crisis task force.
On the financial front, McIsaac noted council’s budget came with a relatively low tax increase, but he expressed a desire to do better.
“We managed to keep our priorities (and) we're planning to spend $70 million in operating expenses, $33 million in capital, and we wound up with a tax levy of about 2.8 per cent,” he said. “That's probably the lowest … in the county, and given inflation’s at 7 per cent, it’s probably pretty good, but I think in one way it’s a fail. None of us would have liked to increase taxes, but we increased taxes (nearly) 3 per cent.”
McIsaac said he learned a few things through the budget process, highlighting council’s decision to phase in a full-user pay garbage tag system next year, which proved to be unpopular with residents.
“As listeners, we've listened to that, and we'll discuss changes, and we'll get to that going forward. I think people aren't happy with having to pay for garbage tags, and we need to look at and take them into account," said the mayor.
"I've learned an awful lot of things knocking on doors and talking to people, which have been helpful, but most importantly it's been fun,” he said. “It's been a pleasure to do this.”
A number of projects are rolling out in the city, with many established by previous councils, including $33 million in work slated for waterfront improvements, with phases one and two of the project scheduled for completion this summer, and phase three slated for the fall.
“We're hopeful we're on time and under budget with those projects,” McIsaac said. “It's going to be messy, but I ask you to just bear with us as we go through it.”
McIsaac also highlighted the $1.9 million spent to address recurring Legionella issues at Rotary Place, an $800,000 project that will bring pickleball courts to Tudhope Park, and the Ontario 55+ Winter Games coming to the city in 2024.
“We have over 1,000 participants (in the games),” McIsaac said. “The economy will probably pick up a couple million dollars just from having the people here, and it's Orillia’s chance to shine.”
With regard to homelessness, McIsaac said he would like to see more done to keep the warming centre open through the winter, proposing dates from December through March.
“This is a place I don't think we do enough. The warming centre initially was opening (at) -15 degrees Celsius,” he said. “I asked, ‘Why -15? What's magic about that?’ Minus 15 is when flesh freezes. (It’s) not good enough, so we put in some more money.”
McIsaac also made note of the under-construction County of Simcoe project at the former ODCVI site, which will open up 130 affordable housing units to the community in 2024.
Just as the previous term of council faced the pressures of intensification and boundary expansion, McIsaac said he would like to see the city intensify within its boundaries, though he said a boundary expansion will have to take place at some point.
Orillia, he said, is growing.
“By 2051 (we’ll) probably have close to 50,000 people. Obviously, we won't have enough space in Orillia,” he said. “I think right now we can probably do a better job with some of the spaces we've got, and we can do infill and intensification better, but at some point we're going to need to expand and the province is sort of forcing our hand.”
Following his address, McIsaac responded to questions from members of the business community.
Doug Alexander from Premium Brand Holdings estimated 500 jobs will need to be added to the community per year as the city meets the province's growth target.
"At 49,000 (people), you have to have a workforce of 26,000. (The current number) working right now are 13,200, so that's literally doubling the workforce," he said. "What's the plan to create roughly 500 jobs per year?"
"Thank you for 200 employees. It's a wonderful ... great thing for Orillia," McIsaac said, referring to Leadbetter Foods, which is owned by Premium Brand Holdings. "Companies like that and smaller, we need to concentrate on those."
McIsaac also said encouraging Lakehead University and Georgian College graduates to stay in Orillia will play a big part in meeting the city's job need.
"One of the things we need to do to (is) encourage the people who are at Lakehead and Georgian, when they graduate ... let's show them the best Orillia's got to offer, and there are opportunities for people."
