Residents of Sundridge, Strong and Joly will have a better understanding later this fall on what could be the impact of amalgamating the three municipalities.
Although an exact date has not been set, November is when the three municipal councils want to hold a public meeting with residents of all three communities to give an update on the amalgamation process.
Strong Mayor Tim Bryson is the lead on the merger and says before that public meeting the restructuring committee will create a fact sheet that outlines the impact and outcome of amalgamation.
Bryson says the fact sheet will include the answer to one question council members are asked regularly, which is if Joly and Strong residents have to pay for Sundridge’s sewers.
Sundridge has a sewer system, Joly doesn’t and neither does Strong except for a handful of homes.
Bryson says Joly and Strong residents won’t pay for the sewers in Sundridge.
“We want people to know that ahead of the November public meeting,” Bryson said.
“It’s going to be a big concern if we don’t check it off beforehand.”
Bryson says amalgamation doesn’t move forward unless there is a buy-in from the public and that’s what the November meeting will be about, as well as a second public meeting sometime after January.
So far, the three municipalities have spent about $11,000 on a consultant to put together the information for the November meeting which will be overseen by a facilitator.
That includes creating a website focusing on amalgamation and doing surveys before the fall meeting.
Bryson said some of the research to date produced a surprising result, and that is, there isn’t much difference in the taxes paid by residents of all three municipalities.
The restructuring committee created a mock budget for an amalgamated municipality and that mock budget shows Strong would face a 10 per cent tax increase.
Bryson said the reason for that is “Strong is further behind with its infrastructure.”
He added Strong also has the weakest reserves while Joly’s reserves are the strongest and Sundridge is in the middle.
Bryson said assuming amalgamation comes about, tax increases or decreases would be phased in over a period of years.
Bryson said another notion the restructuring committee wants to dispel is layoffs among municipal staff under an amalgamation picture.
In fact, Bryson said the committee designed an organizational structure which calls for six additional employees.
“This wouldn’t happen right away,” he said.
“We would keep the current staff although there would be a juggling of positions and we would add employees as the (new) municipality is poised to grow.”
Bryson says growth is a reasonable expectation as more people from southern Ontario are looking beyond Simcoe County and Muskoka when relocating.
“They are moving further north and we need to be ready for that population growth and development,” he said.
Bryson said this is where amalgamation can be a boon for the three municipalities.
The three municipalities already share the cost of several services.
But Bryson says remaining separate and continuing to share services for the foreseeable future while “dealing with the pressures of growth” may prove difficult for the municipalities to pull off.
“We have to look more than one or two years ahead,” he said.
Amalgamation will produce redundant positions like clerks, and Bryson says rather than layoff municipal employees the goal is to create “a division and specialization of labour.”
“Our clerks wear so many hats but if we amalgamated, we could have someone dedicated to grant writing, someone else in human resources and another person doing municipal planning,” he said.
He also says with that anticipated growth the area will need more parks and recreational facilities.
Bryson adds the specialization of services would increase efficiencies and productivity.
“We strongly feel there will be better service, it will be more consistent and stable,” he said.
At the moment the most significant obstacle the three municipalities face is the transition costs.
In addition to the consultant’s fee for about $11,000 to start the restructuring work, Bryson says a financial analysis still needs to be done and the bill for that will run around $30,000 and then there will be another consultant contract that needs to be undertaken.
“The financial analysis is to ensure it is unbiased and that there is no perception of bias,” Bryson said.
“So, the public will be able to trust the information they’ll get.”
To date, the split for all the work has been Strong picking up half the cost, Sundridge absorbing 40 per cent and Joly the remaining 10 per cent.
The restructuring committee has sent a letter to Paul Calandra, the minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, asking for financial support to ease the local cost of pursuing amalgamation.
“It’s to the benefit of the province and to a lesser degree the Feds if we amalgamate because they will have two less municipalities to deal with,” said Bryson when explaining why the Ontario government should help with the restructuring costs.
“Also, we believe if this works for us, it could pave the way for Burk’s Falls, Armour and Ryerson and then South River and Machar to do the same thing.”
Bryson says the local costs to date to investigate restructuring is only the start.
“The actual cost of transitioning to one municipality is the big cost we face,” Bryson said.
“We don’t know what it’s going to cost to have one official plan, merge the bylaws and come under one corporation.”
Bryson said Calandra is expected to tour northern Ontario during October and the hope is he will attend a local restructuring meeting.
Bryson said the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has been watching the local restructuring process and he adds the local committee has accomplished a great deal in the short time it’s been in existence.
The municipalities each have one mayor and four councillors for a total of 15 elected officials.
However, the restructuring committee has created a mock ward system with four councillors in total and one mayor-at-large.
One ward encompasses Sundridge, the second ward takes in the area on the east side of Lake Bernard, followed by residents on the west side of Lake Bernard and the fourth section goes right around Lake Bernard.
Bryson says eliminating 10 elected positions saves about $100,000 a year and the restructuring committee has discussed increasing the salaries of council members a little since they would face more work, but not triple the work.
Bryson says since the three municipalities share many existing services, it results in numerous committee meetings and tri-council meetings where issues are discussed, voted upon and then voted again at each town council’s individual meetings.
He says amalgamation would reduce these meetings easily by 400 to 500 per cent again creating efficiencies.
In the weeks leading up to the public November meeting, Bryson will be talking to several amalgamated municipalities including Huron Shores, Temiskaming Shores and perhaps South Algonquin to see how amalgamation worked out for them.
He’s already discussed amalgamation with Magnetawan and Powassan.
Regarding Powassan, Bryson notes it encountered an identity problem that won’t be an issue with Sundridge, Strong and Joly.
When Powassan and Trout Creek were merging and the discussion turned to what that new municipality should be called, the name Powassan was chosen.
But in making that decision, Trout Creek residents felt they lost a little because although Trout Creek still exists as a community, the name Municipality of Powassan is missing any reference to Trout Creek, but the Powassan name is not lost.
Bryson says the local restructuring committee won’t have this concern.
“When people in our area are asked where they’re from, they say Sundridge even if they live in Strong or Joly,” Bryson said.
“They don’t say they’re from Joly or Strong because most people don’t know where those communities are. So, there won’t be an identity crisis."
Bryson says he’s only one vote but assuming amalgamation goes ahead, he believes the name of the merged communities will become the Municipality of Sundridge.
Bryson says the restructuring committee is so far ahead with its work that it’s possible the next municipal election scheduled for October 2026, could be held under the restructured format with one mayor and four councillors working under a ward system.
But Bryson emphasized this is highly dependent on the provincial government coming through with transitional funding and the committee not running into any hiccups along the way.
And he again emphasized that none of this happens without a buy-in from the public.
As for the public, residents of all three communities are divided on whether the municipalities should merge.
One strike against amalgamation is the fear that taxes will go up.
Another concern is how will any current municipal debts be factored into a single corporation.
However, others believe there is a benefit to amalgamation because it means reducing the three town councils to one, and with 10 fewer elected politicians that means less in wages to pay out.
For other residents merging the municipalities means similar events each community now holds separately can occur as a single event.
Residents were also unsure about the upcoming November public meeting, with some saying they would likely attend, others didn’t know if they would be there while others were not aware of the meeting.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
