It’s a busy time for Jodi Ball of J. Consulting Group of Oakville.
Ball is the consultant tasked with summarizing and analyzing the feedback from residents of Strong, Sundridge and Joly on whether the three Almaguin Highlands communities should merge into one municipality.
About 185 residents from all three municipalities met at Almaguin Highlands Secondary School on Jan. 25 for a public engagement session on amalgamation.
The goal was to explore the benefits and challenges of amalgamation and residents were asked to post questions about what concerns they may or may not have over the potential merger of the three communities.
Ball is now going over those responses and is compiling the questions and concerns for the joint restructuring committee.
Many of the residents at the meeting aren’t sure where they stand on the issue.
Wanda Hill, of Strong Township, says she was at the meeting "to gather more information.”
“My mind isn’t made up yet,” Hill said. “Will Strong’s taxes go up? What will be the benefits of Strong amalgamating with Sundridge and Joly?"
Midori Preston, of the Village of Sundridge, was another resident at the public engagement session. She feels at this point she isn’t sure if she’s for or against amalgamation because there are many unanswered questions.
The engagement session included a question wall where the public wrote their questions about amalgamation, including what the impact on taxes would be.
Other questions asked how the three municipal offices would be repurposed under amalgamation, if the present municipal employees have job security and, one person wanted to know, how a merger of three municipalities would benefit young people.
There was also a note that other municipalities that have amalgamated are now regretting the move and the question was how would the amalgamation of Strong, Sundridge and Joly be any different?
An attendee also wanted to know why the residents themselves can’t vote directly on whether to amalgamate or not. The reason, said Strong Mayor Tim Bryson is that “the Municipal Act doesn’t allow for referendums on amalgamation.”
“It’s out of our hands,” Bryson added.
The public was also asked to fill out a survey on-site or online. That deadline was yesterday.
Written on one survey card at the engagement session was “I’m hearing a lot of annoyed comments in the hallway. (There was) no chance to talk about this (and) it’s not what the attendees expected.”
In response, Bryson explained the reason for the chosen format was simply because the restructuring committee doesn’t have all the answers at this time.
“We need to know what the questions and concerns are first because we don’t have all the information now,” Bryson said.
Bryson says once Ball has compiled the information for the restructuring committee, the committee should then have a good handle on what resources it can use to answer the public’s questions and concerns.
The restructuring committee has a budget of $41,500 and the lion’s share will be spent on an expert study to analyze the financial impacts of a merger and what it would cost to merge three municipalities.
The results of this study will be presented to the public to review before the next public engagement session sometime in the spring.
Bryson says then at the next public engagement meeting, the committee will hear the views of the residents and those views may provide direction on where the restructuring committee goes with the possible merger.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.