With just one meeting left on the schedule in July, and no meetings scheduled for August, Meaford councillors will soon be taking their annual summer break.
The summer break is a time for council to recharge and refresh, and for municipal staff, many of whom take vacation time in the summer months anyway, to have a few weeks free from preparing the many reports required for council meetings.
Everyone deserves a break of course, and who wants to be sitting in a cramped council chamber on a hot August day anyway?
For me, the August break is always a welcome hiatus from the typical council grind that includes a few meetings per month, each accompanied by agenda packages that are hundreds of pages in length.
So I am very much looking forward to the six-week break from council meetings that will follow the July 21 meeting, though over those six weeks the business of the corporation that is the Municipality of Meaford will continue, and the problems and challenges facing council today will be waiting for them when they return to the council chamber on September 8.
From the challenges of growth to the always present infrastructure needs to the contentious pumped storage proposal that has been weighing on council and the community for more than six years, there is never a shortage of challenges for a local council to tackle.
Every municipality has a long list of challenges to face of course, and just as one issue might be resolved, another issue is almost certainly added to the list.
As I have noted a number of times over the past few years, one of the greatest challenges facing Meaford’s council is the pressing need to expand the municipal wastewater treatment plant. Not a sexy issue, but an important one given all of the pressures that growth brings. With limited remaining capacity, if this community is to grow, as our provincial government has made clear it wants to see happen in all communities, then we need to expand the wastewater treatment plant, anticipated to cost well in excess of $100 million. Where that money will come from is uncertain as there has been no indication thus far that the province will help cover part of that cost.
As council was informed last year, the facility, located on Grant Avenue near Memorial Park, has a reported three-year average of operating at 75.8 percent capacity. With the recent interest from numerous developers that capacity is quickly dwindling, leaving council no choice but to work toward undertaking a major expansion – or to bring a halt to any new development proposals, which some have already suggested should be council’s course of action.
Council has been advised that within the next five years all of the current available capacity could be taken up by new developments that are already on the books. The design and construction phases will take several years, making it all the more crucial that council continues to push forward. Although, as I have suggested in the past, I suspect we might hear increasing calls to throttle new development in order to avoid the costly expansion.
Ultimately the funding for the wastewater treatment plant should come not from existing ratepayers, but rather through development charges. But the debt that will be required to be taken on by this municipality, while ultimately repaid by development charges, could handcuff this municipality when it comes to other infrastructure needs.
As I mentioned earlier, the wastewater treatment plant expansion is one of the greatest challenges facing this, and the next term of council.
While many of our members of council might take the coming August break to relax and refresh, setting those major challenges aside for a brief moment, with a municipal election coming on October 26, 2026, next year’s August break will be anything but relaxing, and will instead be a busy time with campaigning for those current members of council who will seek re-election. So councillors should enjoy the coming break as much as possible as next year’s break will be a busy time indeed.
On top of the laundry list of important issues and challenges facing council when they return from their August break, it won’t be long before council is once again immersed in budget preparations for the coming year.
Budget time is always a stressful time for council, as it is for ratepayers, who in recent years have had to endure significant inflationary pressures across the board, bringing renewed focus to any increases that our local council might be considering.
As you can see, the issues are many, the challenges continue to mount, and so the seven members of council that we voters have elected to represent us around the council horseshoe have much work ahead of them after their summer break.
As mentioned previously, while council might be heading into a break for the month of August, the business of the municipality continues, and all of the issues facing council today will be waiting for them upon their return, with likely a few more added to the pile.
So get some rest, members of council, enjoy some time away from the council chamber, as everybody deserves and needs a break. You are going to need it because the pressures of growth are building (no pun intended), the concerns about the proposed pumped storage facility are going to remain front and centre, roads and bridges will always require more funding, and the next municipal budget is always as challenging as the last.
