Small Town feel, Big City money!

 

More politics later. Today I want to talk about political influence.

I think before the next election it will be imperative that as many people as possible understand that their decisions’ at the polling station truly do matter. Even more important will be for more and more people to understand that their decisions are being influenced by some good people, some devious people and even some plain old nasty people. Over the next few days, I hope to show that need to influence you is being driven by one dependable influencer… MONEY!

For as long as I have been alive, Provincial and Federal politics was always an important part of my upbringing. I knew my parents party of choice, I saw the signs go up on our lawn during each election and I even remember our home being converted into a polling station a few times when I was young.

I remember my father’s discussions in our home with MP or MPP candidates, and I remember how important I thought those discussions were. However, I have no specific memory EVER of municipal politics being discussed in my childhood home.

I never really gave that any thought until I took an interest in politics myself. My wife and I own a successful business in town. When you own certain types of businesses, you are in all kinds of situations where you meet politicians. When we were participants in a local home show, for instance, politicians would wander the show introducing themselves. You are also more involved with Town Hall through activities like having business licenses issued, etc.. We also joined a local Service Club where past Mayor Borthwick and long time Councilor Watson were members. At one time that meant we would have lunch with them a couple of times a month. So, we met and learned to respect some politicians we respected. Stan Wells, George Watson, Walter Borthwick, Dave Foster and Cal Patterson were in our list of respected municipal representatives before Sylvia entered Politics.

During the 2014 election, as nomination closing date approached, it appeared that some Council Positions might be won by acclamation and so, Sylvia decided it was time to join some of these great politicians.

Many would say, the election campaign of 2014, changed the face of municipal politics in Wasaga Beach forever. It soon became a dirty campaign with unfounded accusations of corruption, for the first time being what people were directed to focus on.

Tomorrow, we will get to how this was accomplished in 2014, why it almost completely failed in 2018, and how it was accomplished again in 2022. But, that will be tomorrow. For today, let’s focus on “WHY” this is happening everywhere.

The “Why” of municipal political involvement for Small Town Ontario historically was never really about money. The things local politicians actually had control over were not the big ticket items. The pay for Council Positions in these communities was also not a living wage, but represented an amount that encouraged civic minded people to step in and help their communities. These positions were typically held by business people or working people with jobs that supported their families and the wage was not typically important. Instead, it was people with a sense of civic pride that stepped up.

So, what changed? As our world grew, populations in “small town” started to grow. Big Cities started filling up and urban sprawl affected the growing needs of “small town” Ontario in ways that used to only be financially important to big city.

The best two examples of these issues locally are the attractiveness of our Hydro Utility and the blossoming real estate market.

These issues attract outside forces once they become carrots. Going way back to 2014, there was an apparently innocent lunch attended by three Mayors and a consultant (lawyer) who brokers Hydro Utility purchases. The meeting was witnessed by someone who started talking about it and locally, that launched our communities efforts to save our utility from the auction block. Now, one has to ask the question… had any meetings taken place with any politicians PRIOR to being elected about selling the utility? After all, the practice of smaller local hydro utilities being purchased by large power companies had been slowly happening for years. Those outside forces influenced deals in Collingwood and Orillia, but despite the third Mayor (Smith) at that meeting voting to recommend selling the utility at our WDI board meeting, a massive community protest put a stop to a sale in Wasaga Beach. The pressure is still there today because of the MILLIONS of dollars now at stake yearly.

The urban sprawl that feeds that growth of our hydro utility also feeds the growth of another industry… real estate! The growing housing crisis today is in part caused by massive increases in real estate values. Wasaga Beach is actually a prime community to demonstrate this. Typically a cottage community, it has evolved to become a settlement area (not by official designation) where those looking for affordable housing that just cannot afford the GTA, come here.

This real estate explosion has seen real estate values of key properties go from tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands to Millions of dollars.

Because of this, people with ties to property developers have entered the previously uninteresting world of Small Town Politics. In 2024, land that used to be used to entertain locals and visitors by hosting a mini-put golf course and probably making a couple of thousand dollars a year, could now be re-zoned and 8-10 multi million dollar condominiums could be built on the same property. All that would be required would be zoning changes and building permits, both which are the responsibility of municipal politicians.

Even more profitable could be the acquisition of lands owned by the municipality and embarking on the same process of saturating the lands with condominiums. This could be done on lands presently owned by a municipality (like the condos proposed by FRAM at Beach two in 2017/18). It might also be beneficial for a municipality to acquire lands for these purposes by leveraging solid municipal credit opportunities backed by the tax-payers. (Like the properties at Beach One or 140 Main Street).

I am aware of two large developers who were actively involved in recent elections, that are now working with those they helped win their seats, to try and move their condo developments forward. This is happening on lands purchased in recent years by the developers and land purchased in recent years by the town. What should keep people asking questions is, are there also plans to have the town acquire even more lands through purchase or expropriation to further these plans. In at least one case, a realtor who specializes in expropriation situations has become a very vocal political influencer in social media platforms.

I mentioned the other levels of government earlier because typically the more expensive, potentially lucrative areas such as social housing, gambling and health care were the responsibility of these other levels of government. Local small town politicians wouldn’t make decisions that directed those funds.

Well… unless it is Wasaga Beach we are talking about.