Penetanguishene Mayor Doug Rawson provided his town's perspective on the recent conflict behind the neighbouring council decisions which have affected not only Tiny Township residents but the north Simcoe community as a whole.
Nearly simultaneous meetings were held by Tiny Township and Penetanguishene councils that evening, and while Tiny residents gathered to protest the division between the municipalities at the Tiny council, Rawson was able to read from a prepared statement at his relatively calmer council meeting.
“I've had many members in the community ask us about the current state of affairs and what's been happening with our library,” Rawson stated at the opening of his remarks.
Rawson shared a brief history leading up to the start of the year, reiterating the Penetanguishene library board’s request for community members including those from Tiny who had applied for the positions. He also restated Tiny’s insistence that the member should be instead appointed by Tiny, as had been the handshake agreement for the previous 30 years.
In return, Tiny withheld the payment of roughly $31,000 in outstanding invoices until Penetanguishene council approved a Tiny-appointed member to the board.
A full recount of the details can be read in the MidlandToday article dated February 6 titled, ‘Library books causing donnybrook between Penetang, Tiny councils’.
“We have shared in a meaningful and collaborative relationship with our neighbours for years,” Rawson said, “to provide seamless access to library services to our residents and those visiting from afar, and to our neighbours (Tiny Township) who do not have a library – that have made a conscious decision not to have a library.”
He noted various commitments by Penetanguishene to continue providing services to Tiny residents and council’s achievement in updating the town’s procedural bylaw.
However, Rawson’s clarifications weren’t without human error as he read from the sheet.
He stated: “I want to make the record straight that nowhere in the contract which expired on November 30, 2023, has a direct appointment to the Penetanguishene Public Library Board.
“We have provided representation, and the appointed member is still on that board today even though the contract has expired,” he continued.
Rawson added that a clerical error on Tiny’s part contributed to the friction.
“Tiny Township was invoiced for services for our two municipalities’ agreement,” Rawson explained. “Tiny Township did pay their invoice twice. Shortly after they made the payment for their quarterly invoice, they recognized that was made in error and they reached out to our municipality stating that they did not mean to pay it, and asked for a refund of the invoice made for the services that we provided to their community. The payment was not returned, as the services were delivered.
“Tiny Township has since been invoiced by the Town of Penetanguishene for interest charges for these bill payments they have made for services received on their behalf. They continue to invoice our municipality in excess of $1,500 in interest charges, for payments for services in which they feel they should be refunded,” Rawson noted.
Continuing on, Rawson shared how a meeting in August at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario between the mayors, deputy mayors and CAOs of both Penetanguishene and Tiny took place. The two parties attempted to resolve the matter to the benefit of library users, according to Rawson.
“Mayor (Dave) Evans stopped within the first few minutes of the meeting to discuss the library and the path forward,” Rawson said. “(Evans) said he would save us some time in that this was not directly related to our municipality.”
Tiny council have been focused on addressing their infrastructure gap since a 2022 asset management report was released, with a majority of municipal decisions having that focus as a factor in their budget strategy.
“We asked the Tiny delegation what would happen to the residents and access to the services after November 30th,” Rawson continued. “At this (AMO) meeting, Mayor Evans identified that they did not quite know yet, but they were working on a plan.”
Rawson reiterated Penetanguishene’s commitment to its residents, while noting that Tiny’s conversation remained “that it’s solely about the appointment process where, in turn, they have cancelled relationships and agreements for access to services within our municipality, including the arena and the library, as well as Midland and Springwater.”
Said Rawson: “As a municipality and a council, we owe it to our residents to provide access to these critical services, like the library, cost-effectively; and I believe for too long we have subsidized these services by our taxpayers to provide services to residents of neighbouring municipalities.”
Members of council thanked Rawson for the opening statement.
Deputy Mayor Dan La Rose commended the Penetanguishene library board for “its position to take the high road” by abiding to the contract on the Tiny resident appointment “even though to this point we are still missing the approximate $30,000”, he added.
MidlandToday received minutes from the December meeting of the library board which noted, according to Penetanguishene Public Library CEO Linda Keenan, the library “has received $30,990.84 of the anticipated contract agreement of $62,981.00. (Keenan) advised the library board the Township of Tiny has requested the payment of $30,990.84 be refunded as the Penetanguishene Public Library has not upheld the negotiated contract.
“(Keenan) advised the library board and members of the public the Penetanguishene Public Library has upheld their contractual agreement and continues to do so by providing service to the Tiny Township Residents,” the minutes noted.
Coun. Suzanne Marchand expressed disappointment regarding Tiny and noted that as a result of their refusal to pay, doors to the Penetanguishene Public Library would be closed to everyone on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
In hoping a solution could be found sooner rather than later, Coun. George Vadeboncoeur shared Marchand’s feelings on the matter.
“I’m really disappointed that it's got to this point, through all the efforts over the last many months of yourself and the Deputy Mayor and members of the library board to try to resolve this issue. I know it's not for lack of effort from the Town of Penetanguishene and its representatives.
“It's just really disappointing because, as Coun. Marchand said, in the end it impacts the users, whether the users are from Penetanguishene or from Tiny Township,” Vadeboncoeur added. “I was pleased to see that some of the Tiny Township library users have now taken an interest in this and have started to voice their opinions with respect to what’s going on, and are starting to put pressure where pressure needs to be put on in terms of resolving this.”
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of council meetings are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.
