Revealed Dec 27, 2023 • Final up to date Dec 27, 2023 • 5 minute learn
The inaugural Saugeen Shores Council, sworn into workplace 25 years in the past, included entrance from left: Clerk Molly McDowal,deputy mayor John Van Bastelaar, Mayor Mark Kramer, vice deputy mayor Christine Coulter-Whittaker and CAO Ron Brown. Again: Southampton Ward Coun. Elgin Shular, Saugeen Councillors Mike Smith and Invoice Motley, Port Elgin Coun. Doug Freiburger, Southampton Coun. Thead Seaman and Port Elgin Coun. Dennis Haggerty. Photograph by City of Saugeen Shores
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When it comes to a union, the creation of Saugeen Shores 25 years in the past was a bit of like an organized marriage: the province was matchmaker and the reluctant companions – the City of Port Elgin, the City of Southampton and Saugeen Township – have been apprehensive refusing to amalgamate may imply a worse destiny than Saugeen Shores.
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The union has not solely lasted the check of time, nevertheless it has survived and thrived, resulting in celebrations marking the twenty fifth anniversary
The final Port Elgin mayor and first Saugeen Shores deputy mayor, John Van Bastalaar stated it was evident within the mid-Nineteen Nineties that the Mike Harris authorities at Queen’s Park was making large modifications within the identify of efficiencies, and had compelled restructuring on different municipalities that had balked at provincial plans.
“Prior to amalgamation Bruce County was 30 municipalities with 65,000 people and we had to amalgamate to survive and thrive,” Van Bastelaar stated in a Dec. 22 phone interview, including one county examine performed within the early Nineteen Nineties recommended that for effectivity of measurement, Bruce County may go all the way down to 4, not the present eight, municipalities. He stated the province accepted the eight-municipality mannequin for Bruce County that they recommended, and it was accepted.
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It was the expanded tax base that amalgamation created that allowed them to outlive and develop, Van Bastelaar stated.
“Culture is fine with a municipality but when it comes to your governance – the number of treasurers or CAOs you have – you’re better off with one governance for the whole area,” he stated, including the geographic boundaries of the day have been impeding progress, like enlargement of water providers.
Van Bastalaar admits there have been some “rough” factors pre-and-post-amalgamation and joked his response lately to a waitress who greeted him with ‘Welcome to Southampton’ was to say, ‘It feels good in Saugeen Shores North.’
Though veteran Southampton politician Artwork Knechtel supported amalgamation, he now regrets that he tried to persuade others it will be a superb factor as a result of he thinks he was “duped” by Mike Harris.
“Queen’s Park sold amalgamation to us as a done-deal – there was no debate, or so we were told at the time,” Knechtel stated in a Dec. 23 phone interview, including he later came upon otherwise.
“To my dying day – I was bamboozled by Harris into thinking we had no choice – because we did have a choice. After amalgamation, Harris said it wasn’t ‘forced’ but look at Hanover – it’s standing alone. We were told we wouldn’t get any grants if we didn’t amalgamate and we believed it,” Knechtel stated.
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Shore Report Podcast
All three of Saugeen Shores’ mayors – Mark Kramer, Mike Smith and present mayor Luke Charbonneau – mentioned the challenges and outcomes of amalgamation throughout a latest Saugeen Shores Shore Report podcast.
Former mayor Kramer stated the temper was unsure and uneasy on the time as amalgamation was “forced on us” and making a Saugeen Shores was a problem, beginning with reassessing each service provided by the three governments, from landfills to water to duplicate road names, to create one authorities.
Kramer stated he had a message for that first council: “If we do our jobs correctly and strive to actually create single municipality the manner in which it should, it is probably very likely by the end of the first term (of council) we will have significantly upset most of the people living in Saugeen Shores,” he recounted.
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Having served on Saugeen Township council and retired, Mike Smith got here again and labored on the transition committee.
“It was quasi forced on us for sure. I mean there was the threat there always that the province saying, ‘you need to get bigger…’” Smith stated on the podcast.
Trying again, he remembered a “tremendous amount” of stress as they tried to create one municipality out of three distinct and proud communities and decide the proper individuals to do it proper.
“I think we did remarkable well,” Smith stated, including he admired Kramer for the politically troublesome choices that needed to be made, together with taxes which elevated 14 p.c in Saugeen Township however decreased in Southampton and Port Elgin with amalgamation.
“You can imagine how popular you were going around saying that this was a good idea,” Smith stated, including that Kramer “led the force” to carry all three municipalities collectively.
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Twenty-five years in the past, present mayor Luke Charbonneau stated he was a 17- or- 18-year-old nerd who attended the primary debate of candidates for the primary Saugeen Shores council.
“That difficult work that both Mark and Mike were involved in really set us up to where we rea today – the fasted growing community in our region (and) one of the fastest growing communities in Ontario,” he stated, including that no matter which space the councillors represented – they pulled collectively and made the proper choices for the entire group. “We stand on the shoulders of giants… and is a history we should be really proud of,” Charbonneau stated.
Former first mayor Kramer likened the communities that turned Saugeen Shores to a few legs on a stool – every of them equally essential. He stated the primary leg was the muse offered by agriculture in Saugeen Township that is still an important a part of Saugeen Shores at present. Leg two of the stool was the events-based Port Elgin and the third leg was Southampton, the cultural centre with the entire issues that make life nice.
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“The three of those legs provided a really solid seat to sit on and gave our communities advantages over any other community in being able to offer amenities that nobody could compete with,” Kramer stated within the podcast.
His best pleasure? “…seeing those three unique situations come together to create one dynamic force moving forward, and I don’t see that stopping.”
The City has a yr of amalgamation ceremonies deliberate starting January 5 – the date of the primary Saugeen Shores council assembly in 1999 in the past – with a ceremonial council assembly that includes previous councillors and workers.
The City might be asking residents to counsel objects to be positioned in a time capsule, and in August, will probably be sealed throughout a two-day amalgamation celebration, culminating with a night-time live performance and occasions in each downtown Port Elgin and Southampton.
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