OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is an open letter to Mayor and Council, from former two-term city councillor Pat Hehn, about the city's budget deliberations. The budget is subject to ratification at a special meeting following this afternoon's council meeting.
I have tried very hard to stay out of the discussion of this year’s budget and for the most part have managed to do so. However, the above three items are causing me great distress and I find that I must address them.
As most of you know, as well as being a city councillor for the past eight years, I was the executive director for the Victim Services Program here in Orillia for 15 years. As a councillor, I chose to sit on committees such as the warming centre, the physician recruitment and retention committee and the library board as dealing with the needs of our vulnerable citizens was near and dear to my heart.
Recreation Centre
When I ran for Council back in 2014, one of my objectives was to move the site of the Orillia Recreation Centre from the then planned site of the David H. Church School to the downtown core. I fully believed that the rec centre needed to be easily accessible to all our citizens with room for buses to enter.
Last year a disabled citizen wrote OrilliaMatters that he was having trouble accessing the recreation centre as the bus heading north on West Street stopped across the street from the facility and he couldn’t understand why it couldn’t turn into the parking lot. A friend of mine and I lobbied the Mayor for the change because it made total sense and it happened. That is the sort of thinking that needs to happen as I am certain that he was not the only person that it affected.
It was also my understanding that the recreation centre like our parks, the library, our buses and our trails was a service to our community. It was for all the citizens of our community, not an elitist few. I always knew that we would not break even on any of these facilities.
Although the increase may not seem like a lot of money, to some it is. You must remember, as an example, that not all seniors receive CPP or have a pension. By keeping our citizens healthy, we keep them out of our hospitals and not needing health care as much. It is a win/win situation.
I have absolutely no problem with increasing the rates for people who live out of town, after all their tax dollars did not build nor are supporting the facility.
Buses
My mother, Myrtle Bowlen was on council along with Mayor Don McIsaac’s mother, Pat McIsaac, when the buses were first introduced in Orillia back in 1975. I don’t remember a lot about my mom’s tenure on council, but I do remember how proud she was that Orillia would finally have bus service. It isn’t perfect, but we have certainly struggled over the years to make it the best we can. To cut it back seems totally regressive. Our mothers would roll over in their graves!
It has been suggested that we only need it hourly at certain times of day. May I remind you that Lakehead students pay a fee as part of student fees to ride the bus and expect to be able to ride the bus. If you cut service, they would not be happy and may decide not to support that fee. Remember, not all students live close to the university. Those that do, may want to come into town at night to visit a bar or go to a restaurant. The downtown campus may have evening classes as well. Those who live in town may wish to go to the show or visit a bar or restaurant closer to the campus or use their library.
Many workers of minimal wage jobs struggle to get to work as it is. If they have to transfer and then wait an hour, you are making their trip home difficult. I would not want my daughter walking home at night from an evening out.
Buses are a needed service, not one that we should be cutting because it is easy.
Garbage Tags
The citizens of Orillia have complied with converting to clear garbage bags, most use the green compost garbage containers and we have adjusted to having our garbage picked up every other week. We have even gone down to receiving only 20 garbage tags per year.
I think that is about as far as most people are willing to go. I know I cringed when we reduced the garbage tags to 20. The feeling is that they pay their taxes. The garbage truck drives past their home. I am afraid if you start asking people to pay for all their garbage, you will see more being dumped into dumpsters or on the side of the road. We have less garbage with the clear bags. See that as a win.
Overall, budgets are difficult. The first one is a struggle particularly as the landscape is new for so many of you. You will learn what is important to people and next year will be easier.
Patricia Hehn
Retired Councillor, Ward 4
