Simcoe County Warden Tony Guergis can’t understand why Barrie won’t join the county’s growth planning process – especially as it positions itself as the protector of Lake Simcoe.
“If Barrie is really concerned about Lake Simcoe, why aren’t they at the table asking for solutions?” Guergis said in an interview, after hearing about Barrie’s reaction to a county growth consultant’s report.
Monday, county consultant Ray Simpson told Barrie its standoffish approach is fuelling a “community of communities” vision, to spread growth throughout Simcoe County.
Barrie has not actively joined or participated in the county’s growth planning process; it attends the steering committee meetings as observers, and does not attend sub-committees, in which politicians and municipal treasurers and planners examine issues such as finance, healthy lifestyles and economic development.
Guergis added that the health of Kempenfelt Bay is critical for fish, because of the spawning areas.
“A county plan gives us other options (for servicing waste water and for growth),” he said.
“If (Barrie) really cares about Lake Simcoe as we do and as the province does, they should be at the table. They only have one option. We have others.”
Barrie Coun. Mike Ramsay said the “community of communities” vision that has evolved out of the county’s discussions is not only contrary to Ontario’s Places to Grow policy, but that it swallows up prime agricultural land, encourages sprawl and puts Lake Simcoe at risk.
“The community of communities is not environmentally sustainable. It is not responsible, nor will it protect Lake Simcoe,” he said. “The community of communities is a catch phrase, a quip to dampen fears in rural Innisfil there’ll be no growth, that it will be business as usual.
“A community of communities is an environmental nightmare, where you will scatter subdivisions on farmland, where you will see villages grow into small towns that won’t be able to have public transit; will be large enough to create sprawl, but not large enough to support the necessary recreational facilities and create a tax base that can foster the development of any community.”
