The Town of Collingwood wants to advocate more aggressively to other levels of government for what Collingwood needs, and is looking to create a road map on how to best do that.
During their committee of the whole meeting on March 17, councillors were asked to consider having staff prepare a white paper for intergovernmental advocacy.
A white paper is the term used in government for a comprehensive guide that covers the issue, the existing policies, and sometimes presents solutions. It can be like a "101" for a specific topic.
“This white paper is about identifying priorities and potential tactics we could take and setting the stage for Collingwood being a very well-informed community rather than the ad-hoc approach we’ve taken to date,” said the town’s CAO Sonya Skinner in her remarks.
In Collingwood’s case, town staff are looking to create a white paper to help them advocate to the provincial, federal, upper-tier municipal and other agencies, non-profits and private businesses for what the town needs.
The town’s Official Plan, master plans and Community-Based Strategic Plan will help guide the work to ensure Collingwood’s needs are being identified in the white paper.
“The goal...is to strengthen our relationships with other levels of government, influence their key policy decisions and secure additional support and resources to support the town’s sustainable growth,” said the town’s planning director Summer Valentine in her presentation to councillors.
Examples Valentine gave during her presentation of services that impact Collingwood residents but are not under the control of the municipal government included education, child care, health care, homelessness and energy.
During discussion, councillors voted unanimously in favour of receiving the report, however shared reluctance to provide permission for staff to proceed on the work necessary to prepare a white paper.
“I’m struggling with this a bit,” said Coun. Kathy Jeffery. “The process has always been that elected officials advocate with elected officials and staff advocate with staff.”
Jeffery noted that she understood that the town’s executive director of customer and corporate services Amanda Pegg’s role was created to address intergovernmental advocacy, so she was confused as to why the white paper was needed as another layer.
She noted that the Association of Municipalities of Ontario oversees advocacy on behalf of municipalities already, as does the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
“We don’t want to be sending out competing or confusing advocacy,” said Jeffery. “We need to be working for the best for Collingwood through those associations.”
“I have concerns about taking resources away from other things and creating a duplicate of something I thought we already had in place,” she said.
Skinner clarified that everyone’s roles would stay the same, however said it can be hard for staff to plan where to spend resources for items that are the responsibility of other levels.
“It’s become more important for municipalities to advocate with other orders of government,” said Skinner.
She shared the example of child care spaces.
“Do we need to advocate further for that through maybe a community improvement program that might bring those kinds of spaces, or advocate with the County of Simcoe?” she said. “Are there enough long-term care beds and the right types? Some of the things we need to advocate for are really based on local circumstances.”
“The intention is to sift through these things...to support getting more resources in Collingwood,” she explained.
Mayor Yvonne Hamlin said she thought completing a white paper would be “generally, a good idea.”
“What I would hope would come out of this is a broad way to approach each issue. I find issues come up unexpectedly,” she said. “We need a process.”
Coun. Deb Doherty said she thought it was important to consider other orders of government, but questioned whether the town really needed a white paper to direct those efforts.
“Each issue will be dealt with in its own unique way,” she said.
Coun. Christopher Baines said he’d vote to proceed but wanted to reserve judgment on the exercise until the white paper came. He also noted that such issues were coming more front-of-mind for municipalities as provincial and federal governments cut back on spending and leave municipalities holding the bag in the end.
“I think this is evidence of municipal mission creep we are faced with,” said Baines. “It’s a shame we’re in this circumstance.”
At the end of discussion, council voted 6-2 in favour of having staff prepare a white paper on intergovernmental advocacy, for future council endorsement. Doherty and Jeffery were opposed. Once endorsed, the white paper would be used by the town to develop a future strategy for advocacy.