There was a tremendous turnout of voters last night for the Councillors All Candidates meeting. There were over 300 people there. That is a real tribute to the concern our voters have for our community.
Because of the number of candidates, voters and the time constraints, some questions did not get answered fully. I would like to expand on several of the critical questions that came up.
Health care – One of the voters – and one of the candidates – said he did not have a doctor. We are all aware of how important health care is for everyone. What was not mentioned was that Meaford is in partnership with The Blue Mountains in the North East Grey Health Clinics. We have been raising money and awareness (not enough of either apparently!) for the past several years. At this stage a clinic is being built in The Blue Mountains, beside Tigs and the Cidery on Hwy 26. Its doctors service both Meaford and TBM. Within several years another clinic will be built in Meaford. There is an excellent team that has been working on both these clinics.
Police area rating – This occurred at amalgamation when the Provincial Government said that no community would lose services or have them cost more than before amalgamation. At that time the police of rural areas by the OPP was capped at $90 per household and the difference was subsidized by the Province. The province removed the subsidy at amalgamation but the capping cost freeze meant that the urban area had to pick up the extra cost. The percentages, based on costs before amalgamation, worked out to 70% for the urban area and 15% for each of the rural areas. There was no by-law. At several times previous councils have looked at this rating and it has not been changed – yet. The actual costs of the service need to be worked out for urban vs rural. Whether it is equal service needs to be calculated on more than “how often you see a police car”. The new council will address this again.
Tax incentives for businesses – It was suggested that we could encourage businesses and industry to come to Meaford by giving them tax breaks. That would be nice but not possible! The Municipal Act does not allow for this – it is called “bonusing”. What we can do is provide incentives to have the business fit in to the area. That is done through a Community Improvement Plan. Meaford has that in place and just needs to find the money to make it work.
I hope this helps answer some of the questions more fully.
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