OrilliaMatters received the following letter to the editor from Doug Lewis regarding our article on the city spending more than $100,000 on a core service review and strategic plan.
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Orillia City Council should be complimented on their foresightedness in planning for a core service review and strategic plan for council over its term of office.
Every administration must plan ahead. Forward thinking makes eventual action easier and perhaps less costly.
In September, 1984 I was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Simcoe North and the Progressive Conservative party formed government.
At Christmas time, I received a call from John Fraser, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, which at the time had jurisdiction over the Trent Severn Waterway. He said that a marina loan had just fallen through in Thunder Bay and they had funds to spend on the Trent Severn Waterway.
He asked if the City of Orillia had any plans in the works for the waterfront. If so, were they “shovel ready?”
I called Bruce Bayne, the City Clerk and asked. "Sure," he said: “We are ready to go with a breakwater at the waterfront to enhance our marina. We can go to tender immediately.”
That is how the funding for the breakwater at the waterfront came about.
Fast forward to now.
It is my understanding that in five to ten years the city will have to undertake a major renovation of Mississaga Street from the waterfront to the west side of the library. The potential for disruption and necessary expense is enormous.
My suggestion is that the City of Orillia start its forward planning, engineering and consulting now.
This is not an issue that will go away or is very subjective. This is a necessary event that is going to happen in the near future.
I suggest that the city seize the initiative and start whatever engineering, consulting and planning that will have to happen, sooner rather than later.
Elected officials and bureaucrats with funds to spend at the federal and provincial levels are always looking for “shovel-ready” projects. They don't want to hear about engineering to be done, environmental surveys and public consultation
Let's get ahead of the curve with everything we can that goes into the Mississaga Street renovation.
That way when another “ failed marina in Thunder Bay” project comes along, we are ready.
Doug Lewis
Orillia
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