Category Archives: Seguin Township

No, Parry Sound is Not Bankrupt

28 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by in Budget/Financial, Parry Sound, Seguin Township

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A couple of weeks ago friends of ours in Seguin Township told us that a Seguin candidate had dropped by their home and in the course of the discussion said, or implied, that Parry Sound taxes were as high as they were was because the Town of Parry Sound was bankrupt. These are knowledgeable folks who were surprised by the statement and mentioned it to us for confirmation, or not.

I ended up speaking with the Seguin candidate about what our friends had heard. The candidate said that was not what they had said. I simply advised the candidate that this was the message that was received, probably because of what was, or how it was, communicated. The candidate did say, perhaps in their own defense, that a recent KPMG report stated Parry Sound carried a higher debt load than the neighbouring municipalities. To that I would reply – guilty as reported, but that is far from being bankrupt, or drowning in debt. It’s like criticizing a neighbour for having a larger mortgage for their more expensive property than you have for yours. If the debt is less than the value, and the mortgage payments are manageable, there is no problem. You may not prefer that level of debt, but then you are you, not them.

What also isn’t regularly mentioned is reserves and assets. The Town of Parry Sound maintains reserves that are higher than average in terms of both dollars and percentage of tax revenues.

A saying we have in our house is that you don’t need to put other people down to make yourself look better. The Town of Parry Sound and Sequin Township have quite different business models that are built to meet the needs of their residents. Comparing the two isn’t fair, and Parry Sound’s debt is actually a benefit for Seguin residents by providing the infrastructure that can support big box stores, an area hospital, and even places of worship and social services that would be less tenable if they had to depend on well and septic systems. As a Parry Sound champion, I understand the benefits that we bring to our municipal neighbours. I am not so sure what benefits our municipal neighbours provide for Parry Sound residents. I know I can’t park my car in many municipalities to go kayaking without worrying about a ticket. Some may argue that our municipal neighbours spend their dollars and support Parry Sound businesses. If you look closely you will find that many, if not most, of these Parry Sound businesses are owned by folks who live not in Parry Sound, but in the surrounding municipalities.

In the end it all works pretty well. There is no need to throw stones at each other’s business model.

For those of you wanting to better understand the Town of Parry Sound financial situation, hopefully Parry Sound Council candidates who have never attended a budget meeting, here are a couple of documents that should be helpful.

2018 Town of Parry Sound Budget Presentation (2018-12-12)

2017 Town of Parry Sound financial Statements (Draft)

(Note: original post edited to clear up the ‘they’ references.)

 

Wasauksing Swing Bridge Update

25 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by in Boating/Recreation, Parry Sound, Seguin Township

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The letter pasted below was passed on to me a couple of days ago. It may be of interest to some of you. It is not a confidential document as it was sent to a large number of recipients in the area who have expressed an interest in the issue. To protect their privacy I have ‘whited out’ their addresses.

It seems that if you have an interest or opinion in the matter you are invited to provide comments to the referenced Transport Canada office. (Click on the letter below to see a larger version.)

Here is a link to the report referenced in the letter.

The Mall Strikes Back

01 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Parry Sound, Reflections, Seguin Township, Town Council

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Well, well, it seems that people are starting to pay attention to things being discussed at Parry Sound Council meetings. A little late, but perhaps not too late. The Royal Banks planned relocation is an issue raised on this site a couple of weeks ago. That’s why you subscribe to parrysounds.com isn’t it, to find out what’s before Council before a decision is made and you are aren’t left with scrambling to get decisions reversed? (I’m thinking about you, Fluddites.)

Well the Parry Sound Mall owners finally seem to have realized that one of its tenants, the Royal Bank, is asking for a special exemption from the Town’s Official Plan restricting banks to the downtown core, to allow it to move up the Walmart plaza. The nub of the Mall owners’ concerns is contained in a letter to the North Star that is a pleasure to read. It’s an argument that I would have been proud to have penned (actually keyboarded).

I’m neither in the real estate or banking business so I don’t have a position on this decision, but I do have an interest in consistency and transparency. Allowing the bank, which was permitted to operate outside of the downtown for unusual reasons, to relocate would seem to be at odds with the Town’s Official Plan. Why have a plan if you intend to consistently allow exceptions and exemptions? If rules can be broken, then there effectively are no rules. Businesses depend on knowing what the rules are, and that they will be consistently enforced. They don’t want to invest in a Town where they effectively get punished by following the rules while others don’t.

If Council allows the Royal Bank to move then I think it should in good conscience amend the Official plan to permit banks, bars and booze retailers to locate to any part of Parry Sound, not just the downtown. That would eliminate any need for an Economic Development Officer. It would be a free-for all. And if I were sitting in the Seguin town office I would be seriously thinking about how the municipality could put in just enough services to entice businesses to locate along the Oastler Park Drive corridor just across the Parry Sound Town line. With Seguin property taxes about one-third that of Parry Sound’s, it would be an easy sell for retail expansion.

Life offers many slippery slopes and the Royal Bank relocation seems to be sitting on top of one that may be much steeper than Parry Sound Council and Staff realize.

Who needs reality TV when you can watch small town politics with a front row seat? I’m looking forward to the next installment of Parry Sound Council. It will be live next Tuesday at the Town Hall, with reruns later in the week on Cogeco (if they show up).

 

 

REDAC Regional Market Plan Reflections

10 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by in Parry Sound, Reflections, Seguin Township

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A few thoughts after reviewing the REDAC Regional Marketing Plan issued June 2016.

Positives:

  1. The report was not too shy in identifying some of the issues and challenges facing the region in terms of increasing economic development.
  2. There was a clear understanding that it is one thing to prepare a plan, and another to fund and effectively implement the plan.
  3. The plan appropriately identified the need for monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of any marketing programs.

Oversights:

Several meaningful issues were overlooked in the report. Was it a case of simply not recognizing the issues, or was it a case of ‘sweeping it under the carpet’. My sense of some important points that were overlooked:

  1. Services
  2. Tax differentials
  3. Housing value
  4. Railways

Services:

The services available to homeowners and businesses varies considerably throughout the area studied in the REDAC report (Parry Sound, McDougall, Seguin, and Carling). These include:

  • Municipal water
  • Municipal sewer
  • Natural gas

There was mention of the need for better internet connectivity. For the most part it’s not that big an issue except at the residential level. Wireless service is actually quite good, and for businesses it is not an unreasonable expense if it impacts business and profitability. They aren’t streaming video at work. Businesses out in the backwoods of the region really can’t expect ‘fibre’ type service, and if they really needed it they would not be located where they are. Homeowners who want to stream video at home have an issue as wireless can be expensive. Better, actually mostly cheaper, internet services are a nice to have that would help attract people and businesses to the area.

Real businesses that employ people and serve customers on site, not the retired consultant type shop, need water and sewer service. Yes, a well and septic bed can do the job, but it raises an unreasonable burden of effort for businesses that have other things to think about. Think about the new high school to be built in the area. Will they locate somewhere that depends on wells and sewers? Perhaps, but given their preferences they would rather not be doing weekly water tests to make sure the kids aren’t drinking contaminated water following that big rain. And how big a septic bed is needed for a high school of 1,000 students? Right, just about the size of a football or soccer field.

A bigger issue is the availability of natural gas. Electricity is expensive, especially for uses like heating. Natural gas is remarkably inexpensive, but it requires an infrastructure that is only available in Parry Sound and a relatively select number of addresses in the other municipalities. Propane is an option, but it’s not nearly as cheap or convenient as natural gas. I suspect a large number of people who installed electric baseboards when electricity was cheap regret not putting in more insulation, or installing a furnace and ducting that could be used with propane, a heat pump, or natural gas when it arrived along their road.

Tax Differentials:

The tax rates on property in the five municipalities vary about three-fold, with Seguin at the low end and Parry Sound at the top. Taxes reflect a balance of what services municipal residents and business want to receive and how much they are willing to pay for them. The lower taxes in the surrounding regions do not arise from happenstance, they reflect the interests of the taxpayers.

Municipalities like the Town of Parry Sound are stretched in terms of the taxes they can collect and the services they are expected to deliver. Adding new taxable residents and businesses is a priority as much of the infrastructure is already established and any increased revenues from new residents and businesses would be ‘profitable’, and help support necessary infrastructure upgrades for all. Economic development that leads to increased property values is very much in the interests of Parry Sound. The only real revenue the Town has is from the taxation of property and government grants.

The other municipalities do not have the same needs for more development and greater tax revenues. This is reflected in their lower tax rates. Economic development is something that is nice to talk about, because it reflects positively on councils. But do they really want it? Is it possible that more development will lead to a requirement for new services that might mean higher tax rates? Nobody likes to raise property taxes, especially if your municipality depends on being the low tax provider.

I think the residents of these municipalities would rather not promote development. Many of them like it the way it is. Seasonal residents are complaining about the development of certain lakes and are calling for a moratorium on new cottages. And I’m not sure that people really like the idea of losing the small town, or cottage area, feeling that comes with more development. If permanent and seasonal residents can enjoy low taxes and the services of a town like Parry Sound next door or Bracebridge a little further away, why do they need more ‘economic development’? There is no benefit, only the potential for change and higher taxes.

The tax differential between municipalities drives much more than was ever suggested in the REDAC report.

Substandard Housing Value:

This mostly applies to the Town of Parry Sound. Housing in Parry Sound is by Toronto standards cheap;  but it is a poor value. There are any number of reasons for this, none of which are easily fixed by politicians. In more affluent regions many of these houses would be leveled and replaced with the types of housing that young families need and can afford. The development of well-designed condo facilities offers some hope for better value housing in Parry Sound, but this type of housing will not appeal to those with families who want a backyard. They can get that type of housing in the Barrie, Orillia and Owen Sound areas, where there are also the jobs to support the associated cost of this housing. Chicken and egg, or egg and chicken?

The Railways:

Again mostly a Parry Sound issue. Canadian National and Canadian Pacific together run about twenty or more heavy freight trains through Parry Sound every day and represent a serious deterrent to business investment and residential development. Not surprisingly, the most substantial recent residential development, Silver Birch, is located far from the railway tracks. Bt it comes at a price, Highway 400 with it’s noisy weekend summer traffic. One development in Parry Sound close to the tracks, and subject to crossings that see trains going both ways, has struggled despite offering attractive ‘Southern Ontario’ single family homes. The issue is not just the risk of a Lac Megantic type event, or even the occasional road blockages, it’s the day-in, day-out, sound of air horns blasting at six crossings and the squeal of the wheels as they round the many curves, day and night. Why build a business in Parry Sound if you can build in Seguin or McDougall?  Oh, there’s the issue of services and infrastructure. Why not just go to communities like Orillia, Barrie and the ‘suburban’ areas of Muskoka, where you are not subject to trains in the same manner and you have access to more customers (retail and service), cheaper transport costs (manufacturing), and a larger employment pool?

 

Parry Sound Bay and Beyond can become an attractive destination for both people and businesses. The trouble is that there are too many other Southern Ontario municipalities that are already much more attractive. Once these destinations reach their limit to host businesses and new homes people will begin to look at Parry Sound Bay and Beyond. That is unless we can get our act together, work together, and create the infrastructure to compete. But area municipalities, with the exception of Parry Sound have more than enough money to continue operating as they have for the last twenty years, for another twenty years, without attracting any new residents or businesses. These municipalities have little motivation to do anything new. They just need to pretend to be interested lest permanent residents and businesses think they don’t play nicely with others.

Provincial and Federal civil servants are quite happy to facilitate and fund discussions of economic development in the West Parry Sound area. It their job to do it. And they are well paid jobs. By gosh they will do their best to get it done, regardless of the odds. It reminds me of the continuous negotiations in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians facilitated by the United States. The US State Department is tasked with getting a real agreement between these two parties and they try their best. It’s their job, even though there is no prospect of any type of agreement. At this point Israel has everything it needs in the region. It has the wealth, military strength and political influence to ensure nothing is taken from them. It is not in their interest to negotiate. Any appearance of willingness to negotiate is strictly a function of making nice with the President of the United States who gets it in their mind every now and then that they want to gain statesman status by brokering a grand peace agreement.

Final Thoughts

I started out this review of the REDAC Regional Marketing Plan expecting to be critical of Whitestone, McKellar and The Archipelago for not participating in the REDAC economic development process. Looking at things a little more closely I have come to realize that they are perhaps the only honest brokers in the region, willing to admit that not only do they not need regional cooperation, they are actually better off without it. I will give a pass also to the Town of Parry Sound. I believe they do support regional economic development because they desperately need the increased tax base to manage tax rates and support additional infrastructure necessary for the larger community.

Even Parry Sound tax rates are on the low end for Northern Ontario as was presented in a survey of Northern Ontario municipalities. I visited Elliot Lake in August and was impressed by the upkeep of the town and the facilities it offers. But it benefits from a population base about twice that of Parry Sound, a much larger geographic area (715 sq. km, versus 13 sq. km), and a tax rate 40% higher.

Regional economic development is something to keep Municipal, Provincial and Federal employees busy, and employed. If Ontario and Canada really want to see additional economic development in the area they need to provide incentives to McDougall and Seguin to hand over enough land to Parry Sound to allow for real economic development, by a municipality that is interested in economic development, and with established infrastructure. Incentives to McDougall and Seguin might include support for policing expenses, and/or broadband infrastructure, and/or an area athletic complex. But that would be a bribe I suppose. Given America’s experience with the billions they have pumped into the Middle East, I expect it wouldn’t work too well here. Take the money and run.

Aside: reading yesterday’s Beacon Star I saw that Seguin has started thinking about their 2017 budget. Their high priority items are summer weekend support for a nursing station in Rosseau, taking responsibility for unassumed roads, and a tennis court. All this with a potential 0% increase in taxes. Seguin is doing just fine with their current business model. Why take on development that might mean responsibility for building the services accompanying business and non-seasonal resident growth? It might mean tax increases and unfamiliar faces. That’s okay, the area municipalities have their cake and are able to eat it as well. They  seem to be riding as high on property values as were the Middle East oil kingdoms were when oil was $100 a barrel. As long as property valuation stay high, and seasonal residents don’t become permanent residents and expect Toronto level services, it’s all okay.

Mismatched Objectives, Taking Off and Heading to Port.
(Best to just get out of each other’s way.)

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Update: tracking down a link for the Beacon Star article I came across a squabble between Carling and the The Archipelago about phone bills. Yup, sure, let’s invest more in regional cooperation. (Not!) The Town of Parry Sound needs to take on a Singapore or Hong Kong frame of mind. Small is beautiful. It may not be cheap but it offers great value. Can we erect borders?

 

 

District Policing – Reaching Consensus

18 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in Reflections, Safety, Seguin Township

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It seems that consensus is being reached among the regional municipalities to forego local policing. Instead, the communities will depend on the services of the Ontario Provincial Police, even if might be more expensive.

I agree with the decision, and I believe that investigating the alternatives was an important exercise. Without a clear idea of the costs and the implications it would have been an option that would have hung over the local municipalities. ‘Would we be better off with a local force? would it be cheaper? Well, maybe yes, and maybe no.’ It would have been a serious distraction to have left it hanging out there. At least the numbers and analysis have been completed and it seems there might be savings, there might not, but there was a guarantee of upfront investments, oversight requirements, and quite possibly headaches in the years to come.

I liken the situation to a person with a longer laneway who has benefited from their brother-in-law, a professional, plowing his snow for a well below market price, because well, he lives next-door and he wants to make sure his sister is able to get in and out safely. The brother-in-law moves away and the the husband finds out what it really costs to plow his laneway. His first thought is to get his own truck and blade. Yes, it would cost a bit upfront but it would save money in the long run. And it would be far more economical if he could defray his costs by plowing his neighbours’ laneways. He might need to take a loan, and there would be a need to store the equipment, repairs, the time to do the plowing, but by gosh he would be saving money.

Well, it might be cheaper if he can buy the equipment at a reasonable cost and his neighbours agree to participate. But he will now need to get up early and plow not only his snow, but that of his neighbours. And there probably won’t be a winter vacation, and …. And what if he finally decides he no longer wants to plow snow? How easy would it be to sell the equipment, and how much would he lose?

In the end I suspect that Township of Seguin Council and others realized there was more in the way of pain and liability than was offered by the potential savings. That was probably also the case with the other municipalities.

It needs to be remembered that the local municipalities were receiving below market pricing for their policing costs up until this year. It can be argued that the previous pricing was fair because these municipalities made limited use of policing services. That may be true, but it’s a little like health care coverage. Although I may not require the types of services that are used by many others I am still required to pay a similar amount in terms of federal and provincial taxes as those who do. It’s effectively an insurance plan and I consider myself fortunate that I only have to pay for coverage and not use the services. Going forward the OPP costs are now scaled to include basic ‘insurance’ and a ‘usage’ component. The less you require, the lower your policing bill. But there will always be a basic cost that is a function of your population. It’s like an automobile insurance policy with an annual premium and a deductible. Have too many accidents or tickets and your policy cost will go up. But even if you are a perfect and lucky driver you still will be paying more for your basic premium than you think is fair.

I take care of my own snow rather than use a service. The area is small, I can do a more careful job and at the same time protect the landscaping. I also have the time, and in the process get some exercise and save a few bucks. And I prefer to enjoy the snow rather than ‘get away’, so it all lines up. If I had a larger piece of property I would surely toy with the idea of getting bigger equipment, but I hope in the end I would make the right decision and hire a professional with the equipment to get the job done.

MetrolandMedia has good coverage of the policing issue at www.parrysound.com if you want to dig into the details.

Eyes Wide Open (Parry Sound in Colour)

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Municipal Policing – Mayberry or Ferguson?

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Reflections, Safety, Seguin Township

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The North Star has featured a series of well written articles in the past month concerning the deliberations at Sequin Township Council regarding the option of creating and operating a municipal police force. Seguin is hopeful that other area municipalities, particularly the deep-pocketed municipalities of Carling Township and The Archipelago, will join with them to share and defray the start up and ongoing operational costs of a municipal police force. Seguin is looking to save at least 20% of their eventual Ontario Provincial Police bill. The area municipalities have yet to feel the full impact of the OPP cost changes because the Province has decided to phase the increases in over a five-year period.

Here are some things the Staff, Council and residents of the surrounding municipalities may wish to consider as they debate and decide on local policing.

OPP protection is less a service than it is insurance. The insurance includes competent and capable policing that acts to deter crime. It’s like home insurance. After paying home insurance for more than thirty years, with no claims, it would perhaps have made better sense to self-insure. I would have saved a bundle of money over the past three decades. But would I have had the necessary protection if there were a major fire, or a flood, or a burglary? Could I have qualified for a mortgage without insurance? The municipalities make the argument that they have only a limited number of calls for the police per year and the effective cost per call is too high. Well if you keep your calls for service down you will have lower costs in the long run because the costing is calculated on a per resident charge plus a call for service formula.

Get over the sticker shock. The surrounding municipalities have been living a subsidized existence when it comes to policing costs. This was the reason for the revised two part cost formula implemented by the Province, a, a basic cost per residence (insurance cost) and a cost per incident (service cost). It’s like a service contract on a furnace where you pay a flat fee per year and that gets you a free cleaning, but you pay a deductible if you have a furnace problem and need extra service. The municipalities will still be paying less than that charged to the ‘lawless’ residents of Parry Sound with the new pricing model, and won’t have the ‘pleasure’ of OPP vehicles rushing through their towns to get to a neighbouring municipality.

Do-it-yourself may be more expensive. As expensive as it seems to establish a police force, it will cost even more to dissolve a police force. I have heard that the second happiest day of a boat owner’s life is the day they buy their boat. There are estimates that it will cost about $2 million to set up a municipal police force between the expenses for equipment and a new facility. That figure doesn’t seem to sit well with some members of Seguin Council and they think it’s too high. It’s not! I have yet to see a major project come in under budget. Budget for the $2 million, add in another 25% for unforeseen circumstances, and work like the devil to come in under budget. Don’t start with the thought that you can do it do it for even less. And remember, if you decide it doesn’t work the wind down costs would the same, or even more. Separation packages for police officers aren’t cheap, and specialized used equipment usually gets sold for 25 cents on the dollar.

Will the possible savings represent good value? That 20% savings Seguin is hoping for amounts to what, $250,000 or so annually? Yes that’s a big figure, and if your business model is to be the low cost, low service, municipality then you have a bit of a problem. So you will pay about $2 million upfront to perhaps save $250,000 per year. Hmm, that means an eight-year pay back not considering inflation. Add in even limited inflation and it gets to be ten years. Add in cost overruns and it more like twelve years. And if it doesn’t work out and you start getting the municipal police problems seen in too many small community police forces and you decide to wind it down. Ouch, ouch, ouch. But why not get a few of your neighbours to join in and share the pain, I means the savings?

Small police forces too often lead to big problems. An article in USA Today noted that small police forces don’t have the resources to provide qualified oversight, do proper training, and properly monitor performance. Read the article and don’t assume that Seguin is Mayberry and you will have Andy Griffith and Barney Fife running the show. Actually that might be a great example of the type of policing you will get, except this is real life, not a television script.

Someone needs to take responsibility. Do local councils really want the responsibility of managing a police force? In the case of Seguin, Carling and The Archipelago perhaps they have the time to keep a close eye on a police force in terms of costs and quality control. They don’t have much to worry about beyond road maintenance and making sure they don’t anger the seasonal residents by doing anything that might raise property taxes. Parry Sound Council has their hands full running a real town with real services in addition to managing services for the District. But hey, if the municipal policing thing really doesn’t work out the councillors can always choose to not run for reelection and let someone else clean up the mess.

I look forward to following the OPP deliberations at Seguin Township Council, and may even drop by for a couple of meetings. From what I have read things are starting to heat up. Why watch reality television, when you have council meetings? It’s not as scripted and there is no post production editing.

Handle With Care!

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Local Policing. A Bargain. Really?

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by in Reflections, Seguin Township

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I read with interest the CBC article by Neil Mcdonald titled – “Ferguson’s predatory police are not the only ones”. It’s worth a read and underlies the premise of this post. Here’s a link to the article on the CBC website.

His article discusses the US Federal Government’s report on the very serious misuse of police powers in Ferguson, Missouri. The report suggests the local police were more interested in creating revenue from ticketing and fines, presumably to validate their jobs, than protecting the public. Neil Macdonald suggests that Ferguson is not the only community to face this type of police behaviour. The article notes that, “A law-abiding, mentally impaired employee of a local convenience store — a black man — was such an easy target that he was arrested 258 times in four years, often dragged out of his bedroom in the back of the establishment.” Note the words – law abiding.

So with the objective of saving money the surrounding municipalities are looking at creating a local police force that would be accountable to the local councils and staff. What would be their accountability? How would they be supervised and monitored? Would the police force be asked to create enough revenue to offset a portion of their costs? Might policing become a net profit centre? Those tourists seem like easy pickings, sort of like Canadians driving through Georgia for their winter vacation in Florida.

Yes, I know this is Canada and we don’t behave like those morally suspect capitalist Americans. We would never allow a similar situation. Or would we? Have local police forces across Canada ever focused their attention on revenue generating issues rather than protecting the public? All members of the public? There are how many missing Aboriginal women in Canada that it seems neither the politicians nor the police want to find or investigate their disappearance.

I’ve mentioned this before but it’s worth repeating. A former Parry Sound resident who grew up in town, and was in high school in the 70’s, told me that he often wondered when the local police officer approached a group of students whether he was looking to bust, or looking to sell. This was a time when Parry Sound had its own police force, and I’m told there were some very serious conflicts of interest. The Town with time eliminated the police force and brought in the OPP. Yes, this was a high school student who perhaps bought into the local gossip about the local police. But perhaps it wasn’t gossip, perhaps it was fact. Regardless, a police force that does not have the trust of the people they are tasked to protect is unable to do their job. If you can’t trust the police are you likely to ever cooperate with them?

Are the OPP perfect? No, there are too many individuals with borderline personality disorders who are attracted to policing because of the discretionary power it provides them. But there is a system, a province wide system, in place to monitor and weed out those who either don’t fulfill their roles, or who abuse the system and the people. It’s much harder to do if you have a police force that is managed by individuals who have no experience doing this, and who may carry political or personal agendas.

So I wish the local communities luck with their plans to implement local policing. It can be done, it can be successful, but great care needs to be taken that rot doesn’t set it.

Ferguson seems to have rotted right to the core, police, staff and probably the politicians. But hey, that’s there not here. We’re different aren’t we?

I’m happy to pay a bit more for policing and have it operated professionally. Not perfectly, professionally.

 Cleaning Up! (Parry Sound, Night Crawling)

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Cut and Run for the ‘Burbs’?

15 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by in Budget/Financial, Parry Sound, Reflections, Seguin Township, Town Council

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Recent editions of the North Star and Beacon Star report some residents are claiming that they intend to sell their home in Parry Sound and head out to the ‘suburbs’ where the taxes are lower.

But is the cost of living really lower? Nah! You’re just swapping one set of expenses for another. If you want to move to the ‘burbs’ do it for quality of life, not to save money.

The ‘burbs’ do offer lower taxes, and there is no charge for water, but it all comes at a cost. About $10,000 for real estate fees to sell, the cost of a mover, the cost of driving to high-priced Parry Sound for shopping, appointments, work and school/social activities. The ‘burbs’ do provide additional mosquitos and black flies, bears, a septic bed, a well and water testing, and …. You don’t get affordable internet access, gas utilities, easy access to medical and dental resources, a two-minute drive to the hospital, grocery stores, …

The only real reason to live in the ‘burbs’ is because it makes for a much shorter commute, or you want to enjoy nature up close and personal. It’s not a money saving proposition in any way, shape or form for the average person. I guess it would be cheaper if you were willing to channel your inner hermit, but that probably doesn’t apply to most of us, at least not those of us who still need to work.

A bunch of Parry Sounders are getting their ‘knickers in a twist’ about a potential 5% tax rate increase, which has recently been lowered to a targeted 3.8%. A 2% increase last year, instead of a 0% increase, and a 2% increase this year would have pretty much led to the same effective increase as is now being proposed.

Parry Sound Council is facing a little bit of a ‘perfect storm’ in terms of budget challenges. The storm is not their fault, but they could have been much better prepared.

I remember the proposal for a 2% rate increase last year was rejected by a majority of the Councillors. There was a minority who wanted the increase, but it was an election year and the ‘no tax in 2014’ group perhaps wanted to offer the residents a bit of a break. In no way did the decision to not raise rates have any impact on Councillor’s electability. It was just a Council who at that time felt that life was good and they were in a position to pass on a tax break.

So how much does a 2% tax increase impact taxes? The current residential tax rate is .011 (2014), not including the school board taxes. This translates into a property tax of $2,200 for a property with a $200,000 assessment. A 2% increase is an additional $44 per year, 3.8% means an additional $83.60. Not a trivial amount, but certainly not a life changing increase.

The same $200,000 property in Seguin would carry a tax rate of .035, about a third of Parry Sound’s. (Some of that is because until 2015 they carried very little OPP expense.) So a $200,000 property in Seguin would pay about $700 in municipal property taxes, a savings of $1,500 per year versus Parry Sound. A move to Seguin, after selling your property, would probably pay off in about 8 years and be cheaper thereafter. But expect taxes to go up, or services to go down, with the phasing in of higher OPP charges over the next five years. Seguin is the ‘property tax haven’ in the area, McKellar taxes would be about 23% higher, McDougall about 47% higher and Carling would be about 6% higher than the Seguin rates.

But unless you don’t work in Parry Sound, or shop here, or have kids in school in Town, a bigger issue is the cost of gasoline and the added vehicle mileage. For some perspective a $0.10 per liter increase in the price of gas adds up to an additional $5.00 to 6.00 or so per fill up, or perhaps $300 per year. And gas bounces around that much on what seems like a weekly basis. If you are planning to move to the ‘burbs’ the price of gas, and vehicle depreciation, are more important cost considerations than a 2% or 5% increase in your property taxes.

The ‘perfect storm’ I mentioned earlier is a product of two issues, one of which should not have caught Parry Sound Council by surprise. This is the drop in revenue from our ‘big box’ stores. They have been protesting their assessments provincially for the past five years or so and are on the verge of getting a large reduction that will impact Parry Sound to the tune of a couple hundred thousand dollars per year in lost revenue. And on top of that the Town will be required to refund their overpayment for the last four years, an amount on the order of $1 million in total. Ouch, ouch, ouch. But this should not have been a surprise to Council and their deliberations on tax rates last year. There should have been an accrual for a portion of the likely repayments; but there wasn’t.

Also hurting is the reality that the OPP savings are not what was expected. The Province is phasing in the savings to municipalities like Parry Sound over a five-year period and on top of that limiting the actual amount of annual savings. And those limited savings we were hoping to enjoy have been offset in a large part by the addition of Provincial Court costs to the Parry Sound OPP bill. That can fairly be called a surprise, but it doesn’t represent an additional cost for the Town, it’s just not as much of a savings in costs as was expected.

Don’t like the taxes? Get involved and let the Town know where the cuts should be made. Cut back snow removal? Stop cutting grass in the parks? Close the Stockey Centre and/or the Bobby Orr Community Centre? Delay infrastructure repairs and updates? It will all save money and lower taxes. A dirty secret is that it’s not the annual capital investments that cost the most in Parry Sound; it’s the costs related to the day-to-day operation of the Town. But those are figures that are discussed behind closed doors. There is nothing nefarious about this, the figures are available to all of us, it’s just more convenient to have Staff review and propose an operational budget as a package. And given the attendance at council meetings and budget discussions I’m pretty sure people don’t really care enough to invest their time and effort in the issue. They just prefer to bitch and moan.

Don’t like the proposed tax increase? There are three realistic options:

  1. Get over it and pay your taxes and consider them a bargain for the services you receive.
  2. Get involved and help the Town and your fellow townsfolk understand where we can reasonably hope to cut costs and reduce taxes.
  3. Move to the ‘burbs’ and let Parry Sound Council know why you moved.

But most people will prefer to pay their taxes and bitch and moan about them. But I wonder: why make yourself miserable if you aren’t going to do anything about it. Lead, follow or move out of town!

On the Water! Walk to Town! No Taxes! (Parry Sound in Black & White)

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No, It’s Not Parry Sound

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by in Parry Sound, Seguin Township, Suggestions

≈ 4 Comments

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I’ve noticed that some of our neighbours have taken to referring to themselves as being located in Parry Sound. Yes, these Seguin companies are in the West Parry Sound District, but not Parry Sound.

You know Parry Sound – HIGH taxes and FAST internet, versus Seguin – LOW taxes and SLOW internet, and at this time of year, lots of blackflies.

I saw this before when working south of the border where companies and individuals would claim a Princeton address, or a Valley Forge address, or a Palo Alto address, even if it was just a post office box.

This came to mind today when I received an Explorers’ Edge release headlined – Explorers’ Edge AGM takes place on June 3, 2014 in Parry Sound. Actually it’s at Grand Tappattoo Resort in Seguin Township, although they list themselves as located at Otter Lake, Parry Sound. The Air Rider people also list themselves as being in Parry Sound on their Highway 400 billboards.

It’s nice to know Parry Sound is an aspirational address. As a realtor in Princeton once told us (loosely paraphrased), “When you live in Princeton you don’t need to drive an expensive car. Expensive cars are for people who wished they lived in Princeton and need to impress.” I’d like to think that’s the same for us Parry Sounders ;-).

Carry on, we’re happy to share the prestige associated with living in Parry Sound.

Yes They Have Trains, but do they Have a Trestle to Compare? (Parry Sound in Black & White)

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The Smart Community

16 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Parry Sound, Reflections, Seguin Township

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I was invited to attend a West Parry Sound Smart Community presentation yesterday evening that provided an update on the project. In short the project is intended to provide most, if not all, West Parry Sound municipality residents with access to reliable high speed internet. With the exception of Parry Sound most of the communities have limited access to affordable higher speed internet services such as cable and rely on a patchwork of services that include cellular, satellite and DSL. In general these services are not particularly reliable, fast or reasonably priced. One Seguin resident noted that they pay $105 per month for 15 GB of data through one of the cellular providers. Service can be very spotty and unexpectedly change if one of the suppliers decides to reorient one of its towers. The arrival of summer with cottagers and campers in the provincial parks means what was reasonable service is likely to be swamped with the influx of these seasonal users.

There is a definite need for better internet service for communities outside of Parry Sound. The West Parry Sound Smart Community has the objective of developing and implementing a plan to provide this type of service. Vianet has agreed to work with the West Parry Sound Smart Community and provide high-speed fiber service. This service will depend on the installation of infrastructure that is estimated to cost on the order of $30-$40 million. The status of the plan was the topic of last night’s discussion. Rather than summarize the presentation I’ll add my thoughts on the realities of the plan. There is a short summary of the presentation at parrysound.com (no they are not a sister or brother blog to parrysounds.com ;-).

Key Thoughts/Points:

  1. The plan is to provide fiber from end to end with speeds on the order of 100 Mbps. This is very fast and more than almost any residential and most business infrastructure can fully exploit, like your car that can hit 200 kph but you are limited to 100 kph. Right now cable provides about 10-25 Mbps, and cellular 2-5 Mbps (LTE can be higher).
  2. The cost will be split 1/3 Vianet (~$10 Million) and 2/3 regional municipalities (~$25 million). The regional municipalities will look to provincial and federal governments to cover the cost.
  3. The case is being made that high-speed internet is a necessity to attract businesses. That may be the case for ‘onesy and twosy’ type high tech entrepreneurs. Real businesses will also require additional infrastructure, i.e., water and sewer service, that only Parry Sound currently provides. It seems that better internet service really will have its greatest impact on residential satisfaction. The municipalities will be able to offer low taxes and cheap high-speed internet service. Businesses will be interested but unlikely to bring in a 50 person business that depends on septic systems.
  4. Doing some back of the envelope calculations it seems the creation of a Smart Community high-speed internet service will cost about $1,500 to $3,000 per potential user. I have not included Parry Sound in the calculations because we already have reliable internet service in most of the town (cable, DSL and cellular). And we are likely to have higher speed fiber based internet service by the early 2015, without any additional federal or provincial funding.

I’m happy to see this initiative being undertaken by the West Parry Sound District municipalities, but I don’t want to see the Town of Parry Sound paying for it. We carry the burden of providing significant infrastructure services for Town residents, visitors and the outlying communities. We will be ‘wired’ at no cost to the Parry Sound residents regardless of whether the Smart Community initiative succeeds or fails. We are big enough and concentrated enough to be able to attract these services without federal or provincial support and subsidy.

It’s the outlying municipalities that depend on Parry Sound for many of their services who need to find the resources to pay for this type of infrastructure upgrade. Parry Sound has been investing heavily in infrastructure, we don’t need to be subsidizing our neighbouring municipalities’ wish for faster and more reliable internet services. By most any definition Parry Sound already is a “Smart Community”.

Show me the fiber! (Parry Sound in Black & White)

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