Northeast Town seeks Island support
MANITOULIN—The Manitoulin Planning Board (MPB) is reaching out to Island municipalities looking for a formal response from each council on whether they support or oppose the Northeast Town’s proposal to leave the MPB and establish its own planning authority. The planning board’s request prompted the Northeast Town to send a letter to the Island municipalities asking for support in their proposal to leave the board.
“During the MPB meeting on February 23, 2016, Matt Alexander, planner municipal service officer, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, was in attendance and spoke to the board and answered questions regarding the proposal for a separate Northeast Town Official Plan and the request from the Northeast Town to be granted its own planning authority,” state the minutes from the February 23 MPB meeting. “He advised that the MMAH (Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing) is working towards preparing a recommendation to the minister in response to this request. During the discussion Mr. Alexander also advised that the planning board should now provide a formal response and that the municipalities could be encouraged to adopt a resolution of their individual support or opposition to this proposal and forward them to MMAH individually or provide them to the planning board to be included with their submission.”
Northeast Town Mayor Al MacNevin explained to The Expositor that after receiving notification from the MPB that they were seeking formal responses from each of the municipalities on the Northeast Town’s proposal, he drafted a letter to the Island councils requesting a resolution of support for the Northeast Town’s request to leave the MPB.
“Our decision (to leave the MPB) is based on common sense and fiscal responsibility,” wrote Mayor MacNevin in his letter to the municipal councils of Manitoulin. “We have the capacity and resources to provide our planning services in-house by councillors that are elected and accountable to the individuals impacted by those planning decisions. We also determined that the average application processed by the MPB costs us over $4,000 and that we can provide the service in-house for less than $1,500 per application. It is for these reasons that we made a decision to request that the ministry (MMAH) grant us the ability to process our planning applications.”
“This decision does not reflect a negative attitude towards our neighbouring municipalities,” continued Mayor MacNevin. “We value the relationships and benefits we derive from sharing information at the Manitoulin Municipal Association, bulk purchasing through the Roads Superintendents Association and sharing services such as the chief building official that services Tehkummah, Assiginack and the Northeast Town.”
“I am confident that in the interests of fairness you would not want to take advantage of our taxpayers or hold our municipality hostage to a system that no longer meets our needs and the needs of our taxpayers,” concluded Mayor MacNevin’s letter. “I encourage you to support our decision to no longer participate in the MPB and request that you send a resolution to MMAH indicating your support.”
“We have been working at this for two years,” Mayor MacNevin told The Expositor. “From our perspective the MPB doesn’t benefit us. We’ve asked to modify the structure in the past, and that didn’t work and now we would like to leave and handle our own planning.”
The Expositor spoke with several Island mayors, inquiring as to how they were choosing to respond to the Northeast Town’s request to leave the MPB. While many have yet to discuss the issue at their council table as of press time Monday, none were in favour of the Northeast Town leaving the board.
“We passed the Northeast Town’s letter out at the last council meeting for the councillors to review, but I think all of us would be sad to see the MPB broken up,” said Billings Mayor Aus Hunt. “I’m not sure what will happen, but I don’t think we would be happy if it breaks up.”
Assiginack Mayor Paul Moffatt said his council has yet to discuss it either, but that in past discussions council hadn’t been in favour of the Northeast Town leaving the board.
“Most of us would prefer that the MPB stays together,” said Mayor Moffatt. “There’s strength in numbers.”
Gordon/Barrie Island Reeve Lee Hayden said that his council has discussed the request from the MPB and is in the process of preparing a response to send to the MMAH.
“Our council is very much in support of keeping the planning board together,” said Reeve Hayden. “The MPB has worked well for many years and it would be lacking if we lose one of the major partners.”
Central Manitoulin Mayor Richard Stephens, Gore Bay Mayor Ron Lane and Tehummah Reeve Eric Russell said that their councils had yet to discuss the planning board’s request or Mayor MacNevin’s letter.
