Mayor's Message - January 15, 2018

Hola, from Mexico!

Hard to believe half of January slipped by already and it is time for my first County update of 2018. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. Jan and I are returning this Tuesday from a vacation in sunny Mexico and I look forward to officially kicking off what is sure to be a busy year ahead.

Many residents have experienced waste collection impacts over the last 2-3 weeks. We apologize for the inconvenience and would like everyone to know that we are doing everything we can to catch up from weather impacts, cold temperatures and increased holiday waste volumes. Our contracted collection provider has ensured that their staff are putting in max hours, working late and even a Sunday shift over the holiday, they called in trucks from other regions and even used the services of another company to assist. It’s also important to that that the drivers’ safety is paramount and this is always factored in. In addition, trucking and license restrictions/regulations mean that drivers can only be on the road for so many hours – our contractor is legally obligated in this regard. With severe weather and waste volumes, it’s been a perfect storm as just an extra 10 seconds at each household can lead to an extra 2.5 hours at the end of the day. The good news is that things are looking up. We had vehicles out on the road yesterday, and we will be out in full force this week barring any further weather challenges. If you were missed, please note that you will have extra limits on your next scheduled collection day. We are also encouraging you to sign up for waste alerts at www.simcoe.ca/wastereminder. Thank you for your patience, and I would l as well like to express a sincere thank you to our collection crews who have been working as hard as they can in brutal winter conditions to collect our waste materials.

The following is my monthly summary of the past four weeks and a look at all the activity ahead of us for the next month at the County:

For this month’s did you know (DYK), I’m reviewing a few of our key priorities for the year ahead as we continue to expand our services and meet the growing needs of our residents and communities.

DYK …

Budget: Our budget is set at $510 million which amounts to an approximate 1% increase on County portion of your taxes which equates to an impact of approximately $3.06 per $100,000 of property assessment.

Regional Transit Launch: We have invested $5 million to start up a regional transit system which includes the purchase of buses, required infrastructure, staffing and system needs. The first route will be from Penetanguishene/Midland to Barrie and as part of a phased approach we will also be assuming some existing links (Collingwood-Wasaga Beach and Penetanguishene-Midland). Future routes include:

Barrie to Orillia

Collingwood to Barrie

Alliston to Bradford route

Midland to Orillia

This is a four year roll out that will see us connect our residents and communities to key service hubs across the region. Whether it’s to assist seniors in accessing health services, helping residents get to work, students to school or families to community amenities I’m excited about launching a regional transit program that will assist our residents, help the environment and connect our communities.

Affordable Housing and Poverty: We are taking a meaningful bite out of our 2,685 unit target. As of the end of 2017, we were close to 800 new units since 2014. We have approximately 300 new units planned to be built in the next few years including major builds in Collingwood and Wasaga Beach and smaller more strategic builds in Barrie (Barrs Motel) and Orillia. We have also invested $635,000 towards our secondary suites program which will assist rural development of affordable units in 2018. Putting a sustainable house over every one of our resident’s heads is extremely important and remains one of our top priorities. We are also addressing areas of poverty and food insecurity as 29% of households that fall into the bottom 20% of income earnings reported experiencing food insecurity. To address this we have invested $40,000 to bring in a consultant to help us build a local strategy to combat hunger in our communities.

Economic Development: We are working on a global level to attract investment in Simcoe County and create jobs. Our efforts also focus on investing in training and promoting our employment sectors, this includes planning for another Skilled Trades Expo among many other initiatives. We will also be reaching out to our agricultural partners and businesses to gather their input and build a local strategy to support our thriving agricultural sector. Job creation is of utmost importance (14,000 jobs created over the last 5 years) but many of our businesses still struggle to attract labour as we find job fairs having more jobs than people. We are taking the learnings from our conversations and events such as the Manufacturers forum to find ways and means to assist the labour market. Finally we hope to hear from Amazon later this year after we made an international splash with our “North of Ordinary” pitch last fall.

Paramedic Services: We just opened our new Station in Orillia and have invested $23 million for the new Emergency Services Campus in Barrie which will have an impact on services to the entire region; we plan to complete the new Collingwood Paramedic Services Station by end of this year; Paramedics continue to play a significant role in managing the growing regional opioid issue and are expanding beyond traditional services as they build on our paramedicine home visit program.

Solid Waste Management: We are introducing a new curbside textile collection program running June 11-22 and an electronics collection program September 17-28. These are innovative new services and build on our successful programs including our battery collection week which will runs the first week in November. We continue work on the Environmental Resource Recovery Centre and will roll out a number of educational and awareness programs that continue to drive residents to use their green bins and reduce garbage.

Strategies to respond to growth: We have a number of strategies approved to respond to our regional growth, which is expected to go from 480,000 people in 2016 to 800,000 by 2041. We are working on 60km of roads this year, with 18% of population now over the age of 65 we look forward to introducing our Positive Aging Strategy in early 2017 which will help our municipalities and businesses support our aging population; we are taking on a larger role in planning and supporting our municipalities as they manage growth and balance this with sound planning policies and environmental considerations. We will continue to invest in our Forestry program and look forward to rolling out the Museum Tract project and habitat restoration initiative.

These are just a few of the projects and initiatives that we have on the go for 2018. It’s truly shaping up to be a busy year as we get set to close out this term of Council in the fall. To view our full budget overview which lists all our initiatives and expenditures, please visit www.simcoe.ca

County News:

S&P Credit Rating

We continue to receive strong external confirmation of our prudent fiscal management and sound financial outlook as S&P has given us high grades once again. For the third year in a row S&P has affirmed a AA rating along with a stable outlook for the County of Simcoe based on our healthy liquidity, minimal debt burden, and sound budgetary results. S&P Global Ratings also stated that a solid and stable economy and prudent financial management continue to underpin the rating with the expectation that solid budgetary performance and minimal debt are likely to continue. S&P Global Ratings provides high-quality market intelligence in the form of credit ratings, research, and thought leadership.

Toy Drive Totals

Over the holidays we announced that our Paramedics wrapped up our 15th annual Toy Drive, collecting 5,832 toys, 4,436 lbs of food, and $19,026 in cash and gift cards. 2017 was one of the most successful drives ever. I can’t say enough about the outstanding efforts of our Paramedics who volunteer their time to make the Toy Drive possible each year. Thank you to everyone who donated and contributed to this amazing cause. With this year’s totals, the Toy Drive has collected 72,832 toys, 24,436 lbs of food, and approximately $145,026 in monetary and gift card donations for families across Simcoe County over the last 15 years.

Funding for Cycling Programs

We just recently received a funding allocation from the Province for our Ontario Municipal Commuter Cycling Program (OMCCP). The OMCCP funds up to 80% eligible project costs, with the County to contribute the remaining 20%. The Province recently announced that the County would be eligible for $1,602,601 in funding towards the eligible commuter cycling projects, which include a number of significant cycling lane improvements and new projects over the coming years. As you may have seen through recent news stories, these projects have been sent through to our Committee of the Whole and will be reviewed again at Council on January 23. These funds support regional projects and as our County is quickly becoming a hot bed for cycling tourism and we look forward to growing this attraction and creating more opportunities for all our residents with these investments.

Museum Skate Trail

The Simcoe County Museum launched a 1km skate trail in early January that takes guests through the historic museum grounds. Hours of Operation are Tuesdays 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays 1 to 4 p.m., and Weekends 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It looks like great family fun. Check out the video at https://youtu.be/vHit6aT4m54.

Cheque Presentation at Stevenson Memorial Hospital

We will continue our tours of our area hospitals to complete our funding commitments from previous years. We will be at Stevenson Memorial on January 25 as we complete our allocation to vital projects at the hospital.

Completed Meetings and Events:
We took a break from our normal busy schedule of events and meetings during the holidays. A formal list of meetings are presented to Council as part of the Warden’s Communications - available at http://www.simcoe.ca/dpt/clk/amr.

Media Interviews:

I completed a few media interviews over the past month including an overview of our budget and the year to come with Simcoe Review and 104 The Dock. I also spoke with Metroland media about the SWIFT initiative.

UPCOMING EVENTS

THE OUR HEALTH SERIES CONTINUES -

When does a fun activity shift to a habit needing help? Addiction is the challenging and thought provoking topic for the 11th program of the “Our Health” series at the MCC. Join our discussion on January 30, 2018, 7:30 PM, (doors open at 7 PM) , when three panelists take “a look at the reality of addictions”. Jack Vandenberg, the manager for addiction services in Simcoe County, has played a major role in education, assessment and withdrawal management for over 40 years. Tina Brand-Lawson is a compassionate and caring frontline addiction counsellor in Midland. Andrew Hurst, a recovering addict and alcoholic, has experienced firsthand the devastating effects of addiction. He has been clean and sober for three years. Dr. Keith Rose will moderate the discussion and questions from the audience. Our seven sponsors have made free admission possible. Register now at https://midlandculturalcentre.ticketfly.com

Community Futures –

The next four marketing Monday sessions are set to go. This is a free series of sessions designed to help you market and manage your business. I have attached their flyer for your perusal.

HOSPICE HURONIA FUND RAISER -

My week to be,

Tuesday

A tour for the group interested in creating a hub at the PGH site occurs.

Our Trails committee meets at the arena.

Wednesday

I bring our congratulations to RVH as they open their new Cardiac Intervention Unit. This a true life saver as getting cardiac care within 45 minutes of a heart attack significantly improves the chances of a full recovery, for folks in our area we used to have to travel to New Market, now we are within the critical 45 minute care window.

Thursday

Our Emergency Management committee meets.

A grab an update session with CEO Jeff and Anita

We deliver cheques to the local schools for their breakfast programs. The monies we’re raised at our annual Staff Christmas Party.

And I review the County agenda for an upcoming meeting.

Friday

I attend an affordable housing meeting

I Chair the Western Wardens meeting.

That is it for today, do enjoy your day

Mayor Gerry

Gerry Marshall

Warden County of Simcoe,

Mayor Town of Penetanguishene,

County (705) 726-9300 Ext. 1260

Town (705)-549-7453

This e-mail is sent to citizens of Penetanguishene for their information on my mayors personal thoughts, upcoming meetings and activities in Town. The views expressed in the Mayor's Message do not necessarily represent the views of Council. Agendas and minutes for Council and Committee meetings can be found in the Digital Library on the Town's website at www.penetanguishene.ca. If you wish to be removed from the mailing list, please send an e-mail requesting removal to gjmarshall@bell.net and I will be happy to do so.