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12 16 1994 Inaugural !'D CORPORA~:IOR 01' !'D T01INS1IZP OP oao-DDON'lB IHAUGUItAL DftING 1114-1917 COUNCIL !Ul8DAY. DICDBBR C. 1114 . 11100 A.K. - COvtlCZL CHAIIBBR8 council present: Mayor Ian Beard, Deputy Mayor Murray Martin, Councillors Ward 1 Walter Dickie, Ward 2 Donal Bell, Ward 3 Neil Craig, Ward 4 Larry Cotton, Ward 5 Ron Sommers staff Present: Gary Cunnington, Administrator, Darlene Shoebridge, Clerk, Fred Haughton, pub~ic Works Administrator, Paul Eenhoorn, Fire Ch~ef, Ron Kolbe, Chief Building Official, Deborah Broderick, Parks and Recreation Manager. Also Present: Bill Pidlysny, Barry and Susan Leigh, Stephen Sparling, Barbara Dalziel, Beverley Wright, Fa Craig, Isobel Beard, June Beard, Barbara A. Rhodes, Cora Bryan, Robert E. Drury, Al McLean, Jack Hunter, Dr. Tom Garry, Edwin V. Abbott, Janet Keith, Gordon Keith, Betty L. Martin, Ro & Brenda RObinson, Ron Stevens, Stewart Fisher, K. G. Hamilton, A. H.. Wrigley, Chris Wrigley, Joe & Betty Klein Gebbinck, Debbie Mooney, Kat Hummel, Mel Jamieson, Lloyd Fletcher, John Hawke, Lorna Sommers, Edna Dyers, Margaret Ayers, Max Craig, Vincent Vaughan, Graham Sommers, Flossie Sommers, Ronald Alderson, Duncan Moore, Ron Moore, Rodger Husband, Ernie Dryden, Brent Duffy, Tim Crawford, Ross Bradley Velma Bradley, Pat McCracken, Hazel Martin, Sandra Knox, David Knox, Earl Robertson, Henry Neufeld, Loreen Rice-Lucas, Ilene Crawford, Lorraine Matthews, Norris Matthews, Eleanor Dickie, Andria Leigh, Meryl Drake, Annie Cunnington, Wilma Jean Cornish, John Cornish, Pat Emms, Norm Emms, Valerie Hamilton, Robert Swerdon, Tracy McCarron, Linda Lee Richardson, Anne Brousseau, Linda Cameron, Shirley Bell, Joan Fletcher, Gary Charters, Jean Crawford, Peter Wigham, Pat McKay, Ken Brown, Peter Smith Stewart McBoyle, Ron Coutts, Len Hassberger, Robbie Robinson, Lorne Van Sinclair, Norman Dalziel, David Caldwell, Robert Henderson, Ted Beaton, M. Cotton, T. Halfacre, Basil Hogendoorn, Thelma Hogendoorn, Lou Pilson, Gord Hill, Gary Thiess, Jacquie Besse, Dave Burton, Allan Johnson, Leo Longo, Rich Vandezande, AlIa Lees, Rick Jones, Celeste Phillips, Kennith Joyce, Roy Campbell, Pearl Robinson, Jadeen Henderson, Wayne Dusome, Bill Steels, Rick Yule Brian Jennett, Brian Roubos, Bruce Campbell, Jeremy Leigh, Dean Mawdsley, Randy Wuensch, Dan Tinney, Rayburn McIndoo, Dave Melanson, Fred MacGregor, Keith Mathieson, Janice McKinnon, Brian Miller, Lynda Aiken, Joe Casey, J. A. Brydges, Stephen Woodrow, Walter & Phyllis Hutchinson, Doris Riffer, J. Douglas Langman, Edward Hall, Shirley Woodrow, Stuart Woodrow, Ron Watkin, David Carr, Simon Ainley, Jerry Ball, Linda Ball, Helen Bell, Ken & Pat RObbin, vic & Mary Wilson. '~ - 2 - Gary cunnington, CAO called the Inaugural Ceremony t~ order and welcomed all those present. He then turned the meet~ng over to Clerk Darlene Shoebridge who administered the Declaration of Offic and O~th of Allegiance to each member of Council respectively. Mayor Ian Beard called upon Mrs. Loreen Rice-L~cas~ Past Chairman, Oro History Committee who presented the Townsh~p w~th the forme~ Or Township Chain of Office mounted for display and t~ be accompan~7d by portraits of the first and last Reeves. Mrs. R~ce-Lucas prov~de a brief history of the creation of the chain, its significant historic land marks and extended well wishes to the 1994-97 Council as they enter this new era. Reverend Barbara Rhodes of st. George's Anglican Church, Fairvalley delivered a prayer of invocation to the new council elect. Mayor Beard then presented out going Reeve/Mayor Robert Drury with plaque in recognition of his role as Head of Council from 1985-1994 The new Council then delivered their inaugural address/remarks followed by greetings from invited guests, which were recorded as follows: Mayor Beard: Ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests and fellow members of Council I wish to thank everyone for coming here today. This is an histori occasion as the first term of a Council elected since the restructuring. The Council will have the opportunity to bring all areas of the new Township together under one Official Plan, Zoning By-law and Township policies. This Council will set the course of the Township for the next several years in its administration procedures. This Council will be the one to implement the efficiencies of restructuring. We have been given, through restructuring, one of the best, if not the best Township in simcoe County. We have natural assets, second to none, along with good agricultural abilities and recreation facilities. It is this Councils' duty to protect and preserve the best of the Township while allowing for the growth of needs to look to the future with confidence. To the new Council, I will say that the easy part was getting elected. There will be times where we will have to make decisions that will not be popular. There will be times when you will wonder what are you doing here and then some person will remind you that, indeed, you did ask for it. I think that the remark was made to me earlier this morning, if I am not mistaken. To the people of Oro-Medonte, I thank you for the opportunity to serve as your Mayor. I look forward to working with a Council that you had the wisdom to elect and together facing the challenges that we will have during the next three years in Oro-Medonte. Thank you. I will now literally turn the mike over to Deputy Mayor Murray Martin. Deputy Mayor Martin: Thank you very much Mayor Beard. I have waited patiently over the past year to call you Mayor Beard and I believe that the Mayor's office demands respect but you sir, have earned the respect of your office. I won't thank you too fast Ian because over the past years, as we sat in the same room and the same office, I have called you many other names but we will leave that aside for today anyway. To the people that is sitting around this table right now, I hope that we the Council will always remember that we are here because of the trusting people and I ask that none of us, anyone of us ever forget that. - 3 - To my wife who has put up with me over the past two months of this election, my gratitude and I am sure I can read Councillor Don Bell's words in his mind that I should give you thanks for the past 40 years for putting up with me, so I will do that too at the same time Betty. To the people of Oro-Medonte, this last election has gained me an enormous amount of friends and insight, I am much richer for that and I thank you. I look forward to the next year working with the staff and I would like to mention the staff, both the past two year with a lot of uncertainties that have come about. You have worked hard, gone that extra yard a~d,I t~ink that you are the best ~taff that any township or any mun~c~pal~ty around here has and I g~ve yo my thanks, you are great people. I will take the risk of being politically uncorrect at this time by wishing everyone here a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you very much. Mayor Beard: Thank you Murray, no doubt some names will come to mind later on. The Councillor for Ward 2, Don Bell. Councillor Bell: Ward 1. Mayor Beard: I am sorry, they have that written down here wrong. You already have the mike, you can go ahead. Councillor Bell: I don't mind getting it over with. Mr. Mayor, fellow Councillors, special guests, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank those that supported me in the election and those that worked for me to get me into this position. I will certainly do my best for the entire municipality and I only made one promise during the campaign and that was that I would do what I thought was best for this entire municipality so I don't fee that I have any promises to break because that is the only one I made. I can see through the next term of this Council we have some very important things to achieve. I hope the number of people here today is some indication. We had a meeting last Wednesday night an e had more people than this so I am hoping that next week when we have a Council meeting that we will have this many to every meeting. But anyway, we have just come through a strategic Plan, lets give this Township a sense of direction where it is going in the future. The former Council recommends to the new Council that it be accepte and I hope that it is one of the first things that we do achieve is to accept that plan from the strategic Planning Committee and with hat we can go on to get into a new Official Plan. It is going to ake money. It is going to take time but I think with five Official lans and Zoning By-laws now to go by, it is a must that we do have new plan. Iso, our 911 system, I think, is something that has to be started, et our numbering done and hopefully by '96 or '97 everyone will ave that information. not going to say anymore, I just would like to wish you the of season and thank you for coming out. - 5 - I look forward to the next three years of serving the ratepayers of Oro-Medonte and I will do my best. I will be loyal to the Township and to my fellow Councillors and I too want to wish everyone here the best of the season and a Happy New Year. Thank you very much. Mayor Beard: Councillor for Ward 4, Larry Cotton. councillor cotton: Thank you Mayor Beard. Fellow councillors, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is indeed a distinct honour and privilege to be involved in such a historic event, as we are having today. Reflecting back to the very first council that served the southern part of this municipality, the united Townships of Oro and South Orillia as they were called then in January of 1850 the Council was installed in a tavern on the Old Barrie Road called Gailbraiths. Times have changed. Although, perhaps, during the next three years we might wish that we were closer to a tavern. One of the members of that first Council in 1850 was a great, great, great grandfather of mine, a fellow by the name of Daniel Cameron, a highlander from the Rugby area. I know that if he were here today that he would be amazed by the changes, particularly maybe in the Council chambers a compared to what he used at that time. Looking forward to the present and future, we have some very important and exciting challenges and opportunities ahead of us as council and as a citizen group. We have an Official Plan that need to be formulated. Hopefully, we are going to have the same kind of public involvement and participation that we see here today. certainly, the interest appears to be out there. One of our most important tasks, also, will be to implement our new' strategic Plan. One of the findings of that plan was a recommendation for a senior citizen housing complex. That is something that I am very hopeful we will make a reality, starting with this term of office. I would like to express my appreciation and sincere love to my wife Marilyn, who has put up with me for the last two months, during thi election and actually for the last 23 years. Thank you. I would also like to express my appreciation for those people who acted as scrutineer, telephone committee, people who had coffee parties, thank you very much, to them, to all the ratepayers in Ward 4 as well. I would like to recognize and thank my mother and step father, Lorraine and Norris Matthews for coming up from Oshawa toda to be here. This is a special time in my life. Finally, I am looking forward to working with what I think, we have an excellent team of Councillors and we certainly have an excellent staff. I have worked with some of them in the past and I have also been involved in taking courses with some of them. Some of them were students of mine at Georgian college and hopefully they learne a little from the old master. So, I am looking forward to working with them over the next three years and certainly the ratepayers of Oro-Medonte to the best of our abilities. Thank you. Mayor Beard: councillor from Ward 5, Ron Sommers. Ron Sommers: I am not going to use the mike, I can make lots of noise without one. , II - 6 - Mr. Mayor, C.A.O., Madame Clerk, fellow council members and ladies and gentlemen and honoured guests. First, I would like to thank t people that supported me and gave me all the help they did during this election that we have just gone through. I would also like to thank my parents who have had a fair bit of input in my life. The are here today and I would also like to thank my wife and family f their support and making my pamphlets and recycling of the signs that I had. As a member of the oro-Medonte council in Ward 5 there is quite a J few things that I would like to see done. One, ,I would like to se if we can keep the taxes under control by spend~ng very care~ullY and making good use of the dollars that we spend. I would l~ke to promote good, clean industry. I would like to make sure that developments are well planned and promoted so that taxpayers are well informed. I would like to hold some total open forum meetings so that the public can get involved in what is happening in the municipality. As anew member of council, I am going to be learning a lot in the next year as to how the municipality operates and I hope that you a taxpayers will bear with me because Mr. Mayor made a mistake in the first half hour and I will probably be making quite a few in the next short time. But, one thing I can say is that I will not make any decisions unti I have heard all the facts and I promise to do as I said at electio time. I promise to be fair, honest, open, accessible to all Oro- Medonte taxpayers. I would also like to say that I hope I can get along with Township staff. I know the most of them. We have worke together a bit in the past on different committees and things like that and I would have to say thank you for coming and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we will see you a week from tomorrow night at our first Council meeting. Thank you. Mayor Beard: At this time I would like to introduce Mr. Tim Crawford the School Board Trustee for the Public Board. Hr. Tim Crawford: Thank you Mr. Mayor, Councillors, ladies and gentlemen. It is with a great deal of pleasure that I bring greetings from the Simcoe County Board of Education, Linda Goodhue, the new Chair of the Board. We wish you well in the coming year in your deliberations and we certainly hope to work very closely together at certain common projects that are certainly down the road for us. We wish you all the best. Mayor Beard: From the Separate School Board, Mr. Joseph Klein Gebbnick. Hr. Klein Gebbnick: (inaudible) I would like to (inaudible) with the school board to especially when the taxes come up again (inaudible) usually complai about the school taxes, the fact that (inaudible) budget but sometimes it is difficult especially when Simcoe County is a fast growing area and we always run short and I am glad tonight I see th Ministry of provincial government, Mr. McLean I guess we need your support too (inaudible) First I better introduce my wife Betty who is here too. I thank you for the invitation, for this special occasion, it is always a honour for me to be here. I didn't expect to be here this time again for election but three years ago I said this is the last time I was going to run then Betty says you can't stay at home anyways, so again, I thank you all and wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. , II - 7 - Mayor Beard: Thank you. Mr. McLean, M.P.P. would you come forward and say a few words and I don't believe you have taken out the words pecuniary or malversation. Allan McLean: Your Worship, members of Council, special guests~ ladi7s and gentlemen being as you mentioned that Your Worsh~p, I Just happen t have a draft copy here of the Conflict of Interest Disclosure of Information for you. You will have 60 days to fill them out after Thursday night. I want,to than~ you for the ~ind invitation to be here with you today, th~s your ~naugural meet~ng of your new , council. The public has put trust in you to carry out the dut~es a elected officials for the next three years and I am sure you w~ll d that with dignity and pride although, there will be sometimes you will wonder why you are here. To the old council members I say to you, the efforts and the work that you have done over the last two or three ye~rs with regar~s to the restructuring, the problems that there was w~th that, I th~nk that the councils together, I think you did a fine job through this amalgamation process and I commend those members for that. To those that ran and were not successful, I say thank you because the democratic process is there. To those that have lost and not returned, I know what that is like, I went through two of them, one in 1966 and one in 1972 that I was not returned to council and it only takes about a week to ten days to get over that and you will think that you are better off not being here. As I look at that picture at the back, twenty-five years ago in January is when I was sworn in as head of council for Oro Township, now that doesn't seem like that long ago. I want to leave a message with you and that is what Ron Sommers touched on and so did Don Bell was the common sense, listen to the people. I think that will carry you through a lot of rough rides. Communicate with your people as you talk about these meetings. I think that is so important that you communicate with your ratepayer and have those open meetings, somewhere where they can come to and have it on the table what is happening. You know there are things that come up that you wonder where they came from and you have to make decisions and you have look at them and you have to evaluate them and it is not easy. Sometimes when the Ministry makes the decisions and you hear about it afterwards, such as the Planning Act, a couple of things that is happening, now you are going to hav to have a Official Plan in five years, a new one. Every municipality in the Province will have to have a new Official Plan. So all. these planners and consultants here today are all happy. I want to take the opportunity to say that my door is always open. I am pleased to work with you. I have worked with all the councils in the past and I look forward to that. It is a kind of special da for you people here today being sworn in, especially the two new members that haven't sat on Council before, although they have been involved in the community in other ways, so it will not be as tough for you as it would be for some but with the experience that we hav around this council table, I think you will pick it up rather quickly. This is the time of year that we think about others and we think about those less fortunate than us and it is a time of year that there is a great need out there. When I seen the poinsettas on the table at City Council of Orillia last night, it sure brought back t me the concerns that people bring to my office with regards to whether they are professionals or not, there is some tough times ou there. So I say to you, those less fortunate over this holiday season, many would be greatful for the help that we can give them and I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. - 8 - Mayor Beard: From the County, we all recognize this gentleman, Warden Bob Drury. Warden Drury: Reverend, Your Worship, Council members, ladies and gentlemen, as Warden of the County of Simcoe it is a real pleasure and honour for me to be hear today and help you with your inaugural meeting. First of all, I would like to begin with a few things if you will bear with me Your Worship. I have an award that I would like to present to a very dear friend that has done a lot of good in this municipality and I would like to call upon Loreen Rice-Lucas to com forward please. Loreen, this is an award of excellence for your outstanding contribution as the Chairperson of the Oro History Committee. You dedication , negotiating skills and enthusiasm has made a major contribution to the preservation of the whole valuable past and it is signed by myself as Warden and Mayor of the Township. Your Worship, I would like to present yourself and Council members with a county pin. Ian you probably already have one but you have another one there now. May you wear those county pins with as much pride as you will the new Oro-Medonte Township pins we were having designed and brought forward. It is great to be leaving this municipality in the terms that I am leaving it under. Some are not quite as fortunate to leave on a voluntary basis. We have a large municipality now Mr. Mayor with some sixteen thousand people to look after, you and your aldermen. It is going to be a big job, a lot of work as we have been through the last three years through the restructuring process. We have strong reserves. I was in the City of Barrie last night and the Mayor was talking about strong reserves that they have. We also have strong reserves in Oro-Medonte and look after them wisely. I have had an interesting career in politics staring in 1980, thank to M.P.P., Ai McLean. He was the former Reeve of Oro Township and he asked me to become involved on the Planning Board in 1980 and I accepted and I was very pleased to spend two years on the Planning Board and gained a lot of experience there. From that I was able t run for a Council position and was lucky enough that I topped the polls and was elected to Council and from there I was Reeve of this great municipality. Over those number of years, I have attended some 1400 night meeting and that is a lot of time away from your home, gentlemen, you certainly I would like to pay tribute to some of my dearest friends today starting with Darlene Shoebridge. Darlene was here when I applied to the Planning Board back in 1980. She was a very young lady back in those days and she came through the process of Deputy Clerk, to move out of our municipality to Flos Township and was the Clerk in Flos Township and spent a couple of years there. When our former Clerk left, the first lady I went after was Darlene to see if she would come back to Oro Township and she did and we are certainly glad to have her back. She is a super person and one of my dearest friends and I respect Darlene and her family and what they stand for., They have done a tremendous lot of good for this municipality. Henry Sander, who was our Treasurer was with us since 1985. This i his first week as the County Treasurer and he couldn't be here toda but he has certainly done a wonderful job in the Township of Oro by bringing Treasury into the computer age and having everything updated. Henry will do a wonderful job at the County as well. Fred (Haughton), I think you started in 1979 or 1980 and you have done a great job as the Roads Superintendent, now Public Services Administrator. We have had a lot of comments at the Good Roads - 9 - Conventions and I certainly enjoyed those as a rookie. You have taught me a lot as a council member and brought me along. We use have some great meetings back in those days and always went for breakfast once a month and talked about a lot of things with the council members. Fred, these next years are certainly going to be, probably tougher years for you because of the size of the municipality but I know you can handle that with ease. Good luck you in the future. Paul Eenhoorn our Fire Chief, Paul was appointed Fire Chief in 1988 I believe. He has brought our fire department up to, I would say, probably one of the best in the County of Simcoe. Paul is very, very well respected at the Mutual Aid level and ?ounty level and Provincial level and also one of my very dear fr~ends. Paul and I have even been able to spend some time hunting together and I hope in the future we can spend some more time doing that. Ron Kolbe, probably the feistiest little employee we have, our Building Inspector and By-law Enforcement Officer. He has certainl taught me a lot about unions. We sat on the union negotiations together with the staff and we had a good rapport with all the staf and Ron was always there. We attended very, very, very many meetings to put the contract together. It is a good contract and I am proud of it and I feel our employees are proud of it as well. I want to thank Ron for the extra effort he gave from that aspect of it. He is very well respected in the building community. A builde comes in and they want to find out where the building inspector is and they go see Ron and he set things out very clearly and things travel along very smoothly after that. Kris Menzies our Planner was with us for four years and she has now moved on back to the private sector. Kris is a very, very bright planner and brought the municipality a lot of new things. She was in the private sector before and we had never had the opportunity 0 having planners that were in private sector before and that was very enlightening for the municipality. I wish Kris all the best i her future. Last but not least, we have our Administrator. Gary cunnington, wh since restructuring we have got to know each other very well. My relationship doesn't go back as long with Gary as it does with the other staff. Gary, I can tell you that you also have a huge job in front of you. You are handling it very well now and all the excitement of a new Council, you must be really looking forward to that. Gary and I have had the opportunity of spending quite a few days and evenings together and getting to know each other and have become very good friends as well. So good luck to you in the future. All the support staff that we have in the municipality, I have had real pleasure working with you and you do a great job and it is the support staff actually that make the department heads look good, so as long as the department heads look after the support staff everything should go well. You have done a great job. I would like to recognize, I am not going to call any names but, al the consultants and the bank managers that I have had the privilege of working with throughout the past twelve years. The insight that you brought to this municipality and the dedication that you do show, there is always shots going out at consultants and bank managers for what the end results may be but I can tell you that th consultants that this municipality has had and the banks, certainly had the municipality at their very best interests and I am sure it will continue that way. I would also like to thank the people that ran who were unsuccessful. That really is what ensures that democracy works in this great Country of ours and they were also as dedicated as the ones that were elected and without them we wouldn't have had this - 10 - election. It certainly ensures once again that democracy is worki and working well. It is working well in Oro-Medonte and you can see it from the number of people that come to our meetings. I would like to give a special thank you to the Council members of the past council that I sat with. Former Reeve David Caldwell, I not sure if he is here or not but we have had nine years together a good solid working relationship and the election that was ran th' year was certainly a great election. I commend both yourself, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Caldwell for the way that w~s ~an. ,TO the other council members, it has been a pleasure s~tt~ng w~th you throughou the years. I have learned a lot from you. To the new Council members, I would like to say, be patient. You will expect things will happen over night and I can tell you that they won't happen over night. To the Council members that have been here before, please take time to be patient with the new Council members as well because it works both ways and at this level of Council, things happen very quickly. If you move up to the County level, things slow down a wee bit. If you move to the provincial level, they are quite a bit slower. If you have the opportunity to go to the Federal level, you are years and years of getting any decisions back to you. I would just like to read the Mission statement that we developed six years ago, Mr. Mayor once again and to the people in the Township. The Mission of the Township of Oro is committed to leadership and planned growth while being sensitive to the needs an aspirations of the people within our community. Council and staff strive to provide quality services at a reasonable cost. Council's Shared Values, which I think is very, very important for the new Council members and as they come together. strive for a fair compromise for.the benefit of the community as a whole. Openness 0 Council and that they are approachable. Good communications both i and out. Respect for each other and respect for each other's opinion and the right to have different opinions and agree to disagree. Trust, commitment, confidentiality, respect confidentiality of in-camera issues. We developed that six years ago and the Council have lived up to that and it is a great code of ethics to live up to. I would just like to close by saying to you Mr. Mayor that one of the most important committees that we have, it is not an expensive committee to look after and it is our History Committee. They have a small budget and I would ask you and your Council to ensure that their budget is looked after and that they continue to certainly keep the past of Oro alive, Oro-Medonte alive now, and their budget is small but please look after it. Thank you and best of the seaso to everyone. Mayor Beard: Thank you Mayor Drury. Next on the list we have Barrie Mayor, Janice Laking. Mayor Laking: Friends, I thought it was appropriate that Henry Neufeld had a part in todays ceremony and it reminds me of other great friends that I have had in these combined municipalities over the years. I think of Howard Campbell, Wally Key, Ingram Amos, mentors to me in my early days and it was very much appreciated. My McCuaig/Fletcher roots go deep into this Township. I am a taxpayer, I own a small plot of land in the dry hills of Oro. I have no farmland, no wells, no gravel pits and no development plans. Speaking of development plans makes me think of Planners and I would like to say to you, Mr. Member of Parliament that I think what we need in this Province is fewer Planners. The common sense of many decades ago, served us better than our too careful planning, I think, sometimes now. . ' .' \ , - 11 - Mayor Laking: Oro has had a proud history. You have large boots to fill. I promise that I will give you assistance, my municipality will co- cooperate and I wish you well. Kayor Beard: Thank you Mayor Laking. Mayor stevens: Severn Mayor, Ron stevens. Your Worship, fellow members o~ council, honoured guests~ ladies an gentlemen, I bring these greet~ngstodaY,from the Townsh~p ~f Sever which is your northwest neighbour. I th~nk that restructur~ng has left us all somewhat bruised and a little battered but I th~nk at the same time that the electorate has told us all how they want it to go. I think the electorate of Oro-Medonte has done that in electing you gentlemen to this council. I think they have done wel in what they have decided and I think that although we have learned a lot of lessons from restructuring, I think we have a lot of positive things as well. I think your electorate want you to pick up on those positive things and go forward in a likewise manner. S I say to you, the next three years will be very critical for this municipality, like it is for mine, but I know that we are going forward in a very exciting way and I hope that you will follow suit Thank you very much. Mayor Beard: Thanks -Ron. springwater Mayor, Helen Coutts. Mayor coutts: Thank you Mayor Beard and Deputy Mayor Martin and Council members. It is my pleasure to be here today to bring greetings from your neighbour to the west. You are certainly our neighbour with the longest, longest, common boundary line as we start at the edge of Barrie and wind out the Old penetang Road right up to the edge of Waverley. We intend to work together. Your Mayor and I have alread had that discussion about how important that is for neighbours to work together and I strongly believe in that. We share one other common thing that most of you are aware of. One of our employees lives in your municipality and now sits on the Township Council and, I would be remiss if I didn't say congratulations to Larry cotton. ' That person will work out later how to deal with conflicts that may arise when you have an interest on both sides of the fence. I thin very few of you were at the springwater inaugural meeting last night. I found a piece of advice and if I can remember it, I would like to share it with you and it is that the imaginary bridges that you build are usually over rivers that are not there. Just think about that line. Mayor Beard: Thanks Helen, that gives us something to think about. From Ramara, Dr. Tom Garry. Mayor Garry: Thank you Your Worship, members of Council. I want to congratulate each and everyone of you for the offices you hold as Mayor and Deputy Mayor. I had the pleasure of meeting your Deputy Mayor yesterday. He was at our inaugural meeting in Ramara. We don't have a common border Your Worship, but we still have to work together around the separated City of Orillia. From the Township 0 Ramara, I bring you greetings and wish you well in your endeavours of holding office in this great Township, this historic Township of Oro-Medonte. , , . - 12 - Mayor Garry: ted for you and over the yea~s tha The electors have spoken, haV~ vo there since 1976. At one t~me, I I have sat in office, I have ee~ t listening to the people and was defeated and I was defeated ~Is~~n to minorities of one, to that taught me a lesson that,y~u to what they tell you. When you groups of hundreds and you l~~,e~en to all of their concerns, you go from door to door an~ly~ubl~S you bring them to your council, bring them to the CounC1 a e, , and lease listen to them Your Worship and members of co~nc~~fice ~o you with trust and because they have entrusted t~~~ Os are to be beyond reproach and integrity. Abo~e all~ youlrt~at~~~ery member of the public and the that I am sure ~s a s~gna audience today would certainly expect of you. , members of council, greetings of the seaso I wish you Your Worsh~p, and a Happy New Year. Mayor Beard: Thanks Tom. Hunter. We have our neighbours to the north, Tay Mayor, Jack Mayor Hunter: Thank you Your Worship, members of Council, honoured guests, ,ladies and gentlemen. It is a distinct plea~u~e t~ be here today w~th you on behalf of the residents of the mun~c~pal~ty of Tay. ,I~ ha~P7ns t be a coming together of all or part of 5 different mun~c~pa11t~es, so we understand too what restructuring is all about. To the new Council, I would simply like to say, I wish you wisdom and definitely conscience as you deliberate and I wish you success in everyone of your decisions. Ian and Murray, I look forward to working with both of you at Count Council. I enjoyed my time with you there before and I know that yo are anxious to get at that. Lastly, I understand that you will as new Council be looking at the draft strategic Plan and expecting to of course, approve the strategic Plan. I would hope that you place the most importance in putting it into action. All the best to each of you and to all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Mayor Beard: Thank you, Jack. From Innisfil we have Mayor stewart Fisher. I I might mention that this is the first Warden that I ever served undei and he served that office very well and taught me how it should be served under. i I I i Mayor Fisher: Thank you very much. I guess first of all, to those standing at back, and if you have a program, I am probably a welcome sight. To Your Worship and the members of Council, I want to bring greetin and congratulations from our Town and I recall some of the remarks that you made a while ago that you had hoped to earn respect to get to the position that you have. I want to assure you that from my viewp~int, from what I know of you and what I see of you, you certa~nly have and I am sure that applies to the rest of your Council. I think it is obvious from the program too that many of the other Mayors from the County feel the same way because I don't know where I have seen 6 other Mayors, a member of Parliament and the Warden coming out to offer congratulations to a Council. You certainly must be in high respect by those other neighbours of ours. I would like to say that I am a neighbour also because just across the water, that is where we are. ~ ..[ .. ''\. ~ - 13 - Mayor Fisher: S nder's name mentioned. I I heard Fred Hau~hton's namel:n~h:~n~~eyawere trained in Innisfil ~~~~r:a~~mi~gr~:~~~ y~Uwl~~Pleave that with you an~ I,have o~e observation Your Worship, there are no ladies. Th~s ~s amaz~n~. I have just finished a council term of three years where I had f~~e ladies in a nine person council. This next term, I a~so ~ave, ~ve ladies and I am going to tell you now that you are g01ng 0 m1Ss, them. They do have input and sometimes, I ~uess w~at you,~re g01ng to have to do is go home and talk to your w~fe a l~ttl7 b~more than what you may have done before. At any rate, we w~sh you well and with the Christmas season upon us, I hope that as we enter the season that we think of those who are less fortunate than we, not only think of them but do something for them. Thank you very much. Mayor Beard: Thank you stewart. At this point I will go quickly through the lis of invited guests and ask them to stand and acknowledge and save your applause until the end please. We have: Brent Duffy, BDO Ward-Mallett our auditors. stewart McBoyle, manager of TD Bank. Ron Moore Ministry of Revenue, Assessment Office. Rodger Husband, Ministry ~f Revenue, Assessment Office. And~ Armstrong, ,O.P.P. Detachment commander. Leo Longo, Aird & Berl~s. Peter Sm~th from Reid & Associates. Ron Robinson from R. G. Robinson and Associates these are our Township Engineers. Rick Jones, Planning Consultants and he is the guy that worked on your Official Plan or pardon me, the strategic Plan and did a very good job on it. We have the senior statesman from the former council, Mr. Norm Dalziel, he was here, I saw him and probably outside there and I believe also we have our former Reeve, David Caldwell I believe is out there too, I know I seen him this morning and whether he is still here or not I don't know. Alastair Crawford from the former Council. Dave Knox from the Recreation Advisory committee, Jacquie Besse from the Committee of Adjustment. Roy Campbell from the Committee of Adjustment. vic Wilson, Committee of Adjustment. Ken Robbins from the Committee of Adjustment. Susan Leigh, Peter Wigham and Allan Wrigley from the Strategic Plan Advisory Committee and their work was very much appreciated. Loreen Lucas, who you met before, from the History Committee. Walter Hutchinson, Jadeen Henderson, Henry Neufeld and Earl Robertson from the History Committee. We also hav Councillor from the former Township of Orillia, Gary Thiess. These are all people who have worked with us and will be working with us. I must say at this time under closing remarks that I am looking forward to working with those people that you heard speak earlier, the Mayors of Simcoe County and we believe in working with our neighbours and we all get along rather well. I would also at this time, I would like to introduce my wife June who ,is sitting up here in the front and my mother who is sitting bes~de her. These are the people that keep me in line, personally. SO,I w~uld like to say that our first Committee meeting is tomorrow wh~ch ~s open, as they all will be. Our first Council meeting will be next Wednesday night. Come prepared and at this time we will have lunch served in here and we will open the doors have the door back an~ we will have sandwiches and cookies and all' those other neat th~ngs. On behalf of the Council, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and we will see most of you at the next Council meeting. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.