Meet your 2019-2022 council for the Town of Parry Sound.
All council members took an oath to the town last night before being sworn into office and beginning regular business.
Mayor Jamie McGarvey thanked all who voted in this election and took a moment to reflect on it as he addressed the crowd of constituents that joined the meeting in the town hall. As the evening progressed, the crowd slowly filed out of the meeting
“It was very clear with some of the questions that I had answered during the election that either some only started to pay attention every four years or their not looking for the answers on their own. So, my message over this next four years is, pay attention. The town website is full of information. The Labour Market Group is another source that has much information. It’s important because the next four years should be very interesting. I hear rumbling from the province saying that we’re all going to have to tighten our belts. They’ve promised to put money back in the pockets of Ontarians, so we have to ask ourselves, what does that mean? Will this mean shifts in funding or downloads? We’ll find out, but if this does mean a shift in funding, is the province paying less and municipalities more? Then the taxpayer doesn’t really win and municipalities grapple with the fallout. Municipalities work with nine cents out of every tax dollar. We also have 60 per cent of the infrastructure to look after. The province and the federal governments divvy up the remaining 91 cents of that tax dollar,” McGarvey said during a part of his speech to constituents.
“There have also been rumblings of municipal restructuring from the province. We will see where this goes but it has been made clear through AMO to the provincial government that there needs to be consultation between the province and affected municipalities if this is going to happen. I’d like to make something very clear, AMO does not get involved in the restructuring of municipalities or promote it. This is something between the province and the affected municipalities. I say this because in my role as AMO president, sometimes the lines of delineation become clouded,” he added.
McGarvey said he will continue to focus on supporting housing and job initiatives, and working closely with existing and new developers to maintain steady growth, and with social services and the housing department to help develop their portfolios.
“We need to make sure we have a quality of life here that will attract new business and new residents while supporting and retaining our current business and residents. It would be really nice to see that population number change to a higher number,” he said.
McGarvey noted that he will continue to work with municipal and First Nations neighbours to ensure the continued success of the district.
