Despite no official report yet released, one former Bradford West Gwillimbury mayor suggested it could cost the town $100 million to leave the County of Simcoe.
A county committee voted last week to do a financial analysis of the potential effects of BWG leaving to become a separated city, which must be ratified next week, meaning the analysis has not yet gotten final approval.
But at a town public meeting Monday night, Doug White told BWG council that more than one county councillor informed him the price tag for leaving would be $100 million based on county-owned assets in town.
“One of the things that is glaringly missing from this process is the cost (of leaving),” he said. “How will our taxpayers pay $100 million?”
“It’s funny that some councillors have (the number) already,” countered BWG Deputy Mayor James Leduc, “when we’ve been asking for it for a while.”
Trevor Wilcox, general manager of corporate performance for the county, did not confirm the $100 million amount, but he said the county believes “the costs being considered by Bradford West Gwillimbury don’t include a complete list of financial considerations.”
A financial analysis will include a more “thorough review of the costs, implications and the potential tax increase impacts to residents of Bradford West Gwillimbury in a separated city model,” he said.
The report, Wilcox added, will consider all the costs to BWG for taking over county assets, such as roads.
“Previous uploading and downloading of municipal assets, such as landfills in the 1990s, have led to significant cost recovery scenarios and we would expect the same in this situation,” he said.
At Monday’s public meeting, Leduc, Mayor Rob Keffer, and CAO Geoff McKnight answered questions from members of the public about the town potentially separating from the county.
“We would be doing this community a real disservice if we didn’t look at this,” Leduc said, adding this is the best way for the town to make a governance change in the county in the name of efficiency.
During his question to council, White asked Leduc whether the town would still be considering separation if he had won the Simcoe County warden seat last year.
Leduc said governance review was a “key cornerstone” of why he ran for warden — and why, he suggested, he lost the race.
“We’re the largest government in Ontario. Thirty-two people cannot get a good consensus,” he said, adding council is full of partisanship, division, and people “making crazy statements.”
Governance changes would still be discussed if he was elected warden, and BWG is also considering reducing its number of councillors in future, he said.
With a report to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing expected in early summer, Keffer said it “behooves us to delve into (the separated city issue) further.”
“It is the province’s decision. We want the provincial government to give us some indication if this is doable. We want to know that as soon as possible,” he said.
In a presentation Monday night, McKnight outlined estimates that show there could be tax savings if BWG separated.
Between 2011 and 2017, the town’s share of the county’s tax levy increased from 8.9 per cent, to 10.7 per cent, according to consulting firm StrategyCorp’s structural and financial review of BWG’s place within the county.
That number has since increased to 11.8 per cent in 2019, McKnight said.
BWG is the second-highest contributor to the county of all its 16 municipalities (behind Innisfil), he said.
During the presentation, Keffer pointed to the difference in cost of the same county services between BWG and Barrie, which is a separated city.
For an average home assessed at $336,000, Barrie households each pay $312 for county services. In BWG, each household pays $397.96, he said.
For waste management, Barrie residents pay $118 per household, compared to $296 in BWG, he said, noting the town’s Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) assessment does raise the local numbers.
A 2016 MPAC assessment affected BWG more than any other community in the county, read the StrategyCorp review.
Assessment growth spiked in 2016 — from nearly $5 billion to nearly $6 billion in BWG, compared to a jump from $5 billion to $5.5 billion in the county, according to McKnight’s presentation.
“The assessment rate for the municipality has grown at a faster rate than the county as a whole” because of MPAC, McKnight said. “Municipalities that had slower growth (such as in the northern parts of the county) got the benefit of our growth because their portion share (of the tax levy) went down.”
After the StrategyCorp report was released last spring, Keffer said BWG asked the county to do a peer review of its findings, but it declined because it would cost $15,000.
However, Wilcox said the county gave the town a “detailed 10-page report” that outlined “numerous omissions and inaccuracies of their own report. The county’s feedback was ignored.”
BWG becoming a separated city would allow the town to provide residents “greater accountability” and allow council to move forward with projects without having to wait for county approval, McKnight said.
“It would let us determine when County Road 4 could be widened,” for example, he said, adding it would have been nice to have that roadwork done sooner.
“All responsibility would lie with us, and the buck would stop with us,” he said. “Some things simply wouldn’t change. You likely wouldn’t see that much difference on a day-to-day basis. You’d (have) the same school boards, go to the same hospital.”
McKnight said considering separated city status is “not an exercise to be critical of Simcoe County.”
But, he added, there are all kinds of communities in the county — north, south, rural, urban — that have different needs.
“(County council) tries to appease as many as possible, but in doing so, no one can ever be fully satisfied,” he said. “We continue to shoulder more and more of those costs. This gives us an opportunity to look at things differently.”
When asked about the disadvantages of separating, McKnight said the town does not yet have a clear financial picture of such a move, and BWG would no longer have a “vote at the table” for service costs.
Keffer said, in the back of the town’s mind, it is wondering how its neighbouring municipalities will react to BWG potentially separating and whether it will affect their relationships.
Leduc added the town could potentially lose opportunities when looking for financial assistance because it would be applying as a single municipality, not as a large group.
Overall, though, he said, “I don’t see any (disadvantages) at this time.”
“We can kill the red tape. It really can hamper you when you have to go through other levels of government,” he said, noting it took more than three years to get The Elden of Bradford and Holland Gardens retirement residences to be able to open in BWG.
“That’s what the (Doug) Ford government is about — efficiency and (cutting) red tape. We’re the same.”
