When council returns from their August summer break on September 8, they will be missing one member, Steve Bartley, who has departed council after serving 11 years.
Bartley was first elected to council in 2014, and was re-elected in 2018 and in 2022.
While Bartley had decided not to seek election to a fourth term next year, he had intended on finishing the current term. However he and his wife have been planning a downsizing, and they couldn’t find a suitable home in the Municipality of Meaford, so they are heading to Chatsworth.
Over breakfast at a local restaurant last week, Bartley shared his thoughts about his time on council as well as his concerns for the municipality in the years to come.
“My wife has been wanting for five years to downsize from our 160-acre farm to a house where we don’t have that much to do,” he explained. “We looked in the Municipality of Meaford for something. For four months we’ve been looking and couldn’t find anything we could agree on.”
Bartley said that many of his and his wife’s friends live in the Chatsworth area, which helped to guide them toward that municipality, where they found a home to suit their downsizing goals.
Asked for his thoughts on the 11 years he has served on council, Bartley is clear that he has enjoyed it.
“It has been a highlight of my life, truthfully,” Bartley shared. “It has been an absolute pleasure serving the Municipality of Meaford. I have heard that it is a thankless job, but I disagree. I have been thanked so many times for the time that I have put into this job. Has it all been good? No, but I have been thanked many, many times.”
Bartley is proud of the 11 years that he has served on Meaford’s council, and he is particularly proud of the heightened focus on infrastructure in recent years, as well as the improved financial condition of the municipality.
“Not long ago this municipality was almost bankrupt, the province was going to take it over, but right now this municipality is in great shape,” Bartley said. “We went from zero in reserves (in 2009) to $30 million in reserves (today). Now some people might think that is too much, but the rule of thumb is that you’ve got to have one year’s of operating (costs) in reserves, we’ve got a little more than that. We’re about average compared to the other eight municipalities in the county.”
He noted that the Municipality of Meaford is no longer one of the most expensive in the county when it comes to property taxes.
“Ten years ago we were the second most expensive for (property) taxes in the county, right now we’re fourth, we might be fifth,” said Bartley. “If you read the BMA report (Ontario municipal comparative study conducted by BMA Management Consulting Inc.), 600 pages, all of Grey County is on the low side in Ontario, and we’re on the low side of the low side.”
He also noted that municipal operations have changed over the past three decades, largely thanks to provincial downloading.
“I’m a taxpayer too,” Bartley reminded. “But, since the 1990s the province has downloaded all the expenses onto municipalities, and that’s why taxes have increased so much.”
Bartley noted that property taxes in his soon to be new home community are higher than in Meaford.
Asked about the biggest successes during his time on council, Bartley had one word – infrastructure. Infrastructure has been one of the primary focuses for Bartley over his 11 years on council, and in that area he said Meaford has made great strides.
“Let’s start with the library. We did that library the cheapest way we could. The province says you have to provide library services. We could have sent everybody to Owen Sound at a cost much higher than this library costs us. This library will be paid for shortly, it’s a beautiful building.”
Bartley also highlighted the amount of bridge work that has been undertaken by the municipality in recent years.
“The bridges that we are doing, we are doing two bridges per year now, while other municipalities are shutting bridges down,” Bartley said, noting that successive terms of council have adhered to an infrastructure funding plan that has built significant infrastructure funding into the base budget over the past decade. “Take Meaford right now, they are investing more in infrastructure every year than any other municipality in the county, and yet the taxes are now less expensive compared to the other eight (municipalities).”
Asked what he thought were the biggest challenges facing the municipality as he departs, Bartley warned of the dangers of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard).
“What bothers me about the municipality moving forward is that there is a severe amount of ‘NIMBYism’ in this municipality,” Bartey cautioned. “And it happens in all aspects of the municipality, whether it be a project, or a development, people don’t want something in their backyard. Take the pumped storage issue, it’s the biggest thing to happen, or maybe happen in the municipality.”
Bartley said that he is ‘one hundred percent for’ the pumped storage proposal.
“This province is going to have a shortfall of energy, and you hear so many fallacies come out of Save Georgian Bay on this pumped storage,” Bartley suggested.
He is not convinced that a pumped storage facility would have any negative impacts on Georgian Bay, though he concedes that the many years of construction could be frustrating for residents.
“It’s a hydro storage project, it makes sense in every way,” Bartley contended. “I strongly believe that with the precautions they (TC Energy) have taken, it’s not going to affect fish habitat, it’s not going to affect Georgian Bay.”
Bartley said that he hopes that single issue candidates don’t fill the seats in the council chamber for the next term of council.
“It will be really sad if NIMBYism takes over the council chamber after the next election,” Bartley warned. “Because this (the pumped storage proposal) could be the saving grace for this municipality. I can’t get into details on the negotiation on the community benefit agreement, but it could be big, it can be very big. And it would be really sad if NIMBYism shuts this down, it would be a sad day for the municipality.”
Budgets have been another focus for Councillor Bartley over the past 11 years. At municipal budget time each year, he spent significant time scouring not only the draft and final budgets in this municipality, but all other municipalities in the county.
“I spend 200 hours in November and December on budgets, and I compare our tax increases to the other ones,” Bartley explained. “If you want people to move here, you’ve got to be competitive. What I have seen is that every other municipality is told to spend more money on infrastructure through their consulting firms, and they haven’t, and they have fallen behind. They are falling behind every year. I watched a municipality cut four pages of infrastructure work they were going to do that year in order to not have a big tax increase that year, and yet they have one of the cheapest property taxes in Ontario; they have to spend more.”
Bartley offered praise for his fellow councillors, and expressed thanks to municipal staff.
“The council we have is a good council,” Bartley said. “Our treasurer is phenomenal, our staff is phenomenal. We have a good staff, and I would like to thank them for making my 11 years so easy.”
While he has many good things to say about the municipality as he departs council and moves to a new community, it wasn’t always that way. Prior to his being elected for the first time in 2014, Bartley was part of a local group in Sydenham that was seeking separation from the municipality.
“I have said this before. What got me on council was, in 2013 I was with a group called Sydenham Separatists. Meaford was not in a good position, and we didn’t want to be part of it, and we were looking into how we could separate. But it became very clear that the provincial government was not going to allow it, so my wife and I looked at each other, ‘what can I do to make things better?’” Bartley recalled.
One of the first things he wanted to do back in those days was to shut down Meaford Hall, considering it a waste of money. In the years since, however, his opinion of the Hall has changed.
“I learned that there is a cost to culture,” said Bartley. “I quickly learned that it is more than a building, and it is a phenomenal building. I don’t have the figures right now, but in 2019, the entertainment paid for itself. Once the Hall is paid for, which is in the next two years, you can make money on that building.”
As for Bartley’s future plans now that he is no longer part of Meaford’s council, the first priority will be moving to a new home, along with a significant renovation. Bartley is also an outdoorsman, so he will have more time for fishing and hunting.
“My wife enjoys fishing as much as I do, so we’re going to be doing that more,” he said.
What will he miss most? Bartley’s answer is simple – the people, whom Bartley said he has enjoyed meeting and serving over his time on council.
Mayor Ross Kentner praised Bartley for his 11 years on council.
“I have enjoyed working with every member of council and each one brings so much to the table. The best part of this job has been the degree of unanimity among us. We don’t always agree on everything but I can certainly say every member is here to represent all residents and ratepayers’ best interests, and to the best of their ability. Each is well qualified by virtue of their personal and public experience,” Kentner offered, when asked to comment on Bartley’s departure from council. “Councillor Steve Bartley stands out, however, as someone with a wealth of private business experience and financial acumen. He is fair to a fault. By that I mean he reserves forming an opinion on anything until he has looked at it from every angle. And the bottom line is always, Whose ox may be gored here? Once he is certain no damage will be done, he assesses the relative merits and comes to a conclusion.”
Mayor Kentner also noted Bartley’s reputation for delving into the annual municipal budgets.
“He is a walking encyclopedia on the budgets of all nine first tier municipalities in Grey County. How we are going to vote on the 2026 budget with our usual confidence I have no idea! But I’m sure that getting Steve’s phone number into our address books is going to be important for each one of us,” said Kentner. “Beyond that, Steve volunteers for so many of our community organizations. They will find him just as difficult to replace as we will. If there is a silver lining it is that we are one short year away from the next round of municipal elections. I believe people grow complacent with the four-year term of office. The need to fill Steve Bartley’s place at the council table should get people thinking about the other seats as well.”
After council returns to their regular meeting schedule on September 8, they will review the options for filling Bartley’s council seat for the remainder of the term, which include appointing a new member or holding a by-election. With just a year to go before the next municipal election, an appointment is more likely than holding a by-election.
The next municipal election will be held on October 26, 2026.
