Owen Sound isn’t on board with Grey County’s plan to offload some roads to the city and other lower-tier municipalities.
City council passed a recommendation during a special meeting Monday to not endorse a proposed road transfer agreement, and request Grey County council not approve recommendations from the Urban Road and Road Exchange Task Force due to “unresolved financial, operational, and equity concerns related to urban road transfers.”
Owen Sound council also directed city staff to work with Grey County to revise the funding approach to “more fully reflect operating, capital and risk impacts associated with urban road transfers.”
The county is proposing the transfer of most of its urban roads this year. Owen Sound is expected to take on the most, followed by Hanover and The Blue Mountains. A city staff report says many rural municipalities in Grey will upload some roads to the county.
During a Feb. 12 meeting, Grey County council voted to defer a decision on a motion from the county’s Urban Road and Road Exchange Task Force to move ahead with transfer agreements with the lower-tier municipalities. That delay was to allow more time for municipalities to get further information from Grey County about the proposed road transfers. It was deferred until March 26.
The proposed arrangement for Owen Sound would see the city assume 15.4 kilometres of roads from the county. They include Grey Road 1 from 10th Street West to the city limit, Grey Road 5 from the city limit to 9th Avenue East, and 9th Avenue East to Highway 26/16th Street East, and Grey Road 15 from Grey Road 5 to the city limit.
The city would receive around $9.5-million, paid out over 10 years. Those dollars are supposed to cover both operating and capital needs tied to the roads being downloaded to the city.
But councillors were told during Monday’s meeting the financial compensation proposed by the county for assuming the roads is no where near enough, and puts city taxpayers at risk.
In simple terms, Owen Sound thinks it’s getting screwed by Grey County.
The city pegs the replacement value of the roads at $87.6-million, and that figure doesn’t include bridges, culverts and traffic signals it would become responsible for.
“Staff have a responsibility to protect the interests of Owen Sound taxpayers,” Owen Sound City Manager Tim Simmonds says. “And staff’s analysis shows the gap could be in excess of $70-million in capital, and more than $300,000 in annual operational costs between the county’s proposed funding and the city’s estimated cost. (It’s) too great to proceed as proposed.”
“Our hope is the county will understand this is not a rejection of collaboration. But a clear signal there is still important work to be done, including further discussion, further analysis and further study, before an agreement of this magnitude can, from Owen Sound’s perspective, responsibly move forward.”
Another issue is some of the roads the county wants to dump on Owen Sound have not been properly maintained. And the county has been deferring related road rehabilitation projects in its capital plan. An Owen Sound staff report says since the county launched its road transfer process about $4.8-million in road projects previously identified within Owen Sound were cut from the county’s capital program. And, an additional $7.7-million of road projects were deferred to 2028 or later.
Several councillors voiced their displeasure with the road transfer arrangement as proposed.
Coun’ Melanie Middlebro’ says the county’s “been negligent in not performing proper assessments and condition reports.”
“I would ask that we would push for a minimum condition rating on all assets being transferred, and if it doesn’t meet that minimum condition standard then the county has to fund anything that was in their 10-year plan and bring these assets up to a standard that we would accept,” Middlebro’ says. “Owen Sound residents are being completely disadvantaged in having to take over these assets and in addition to that, we are now having to contribute to an increased county levy because they’re uploading rural roads from other municipalities that in disrepair, that they have then agreed to pay.”
“So we’re taking it twice, and it is completely unfair,” Middlebro’ continues. “And under no circumstances can this council support any further movement in this agreement without coming to a better deal for the Owen Sound taxpayer.”
Coun. Brock Hamley: “I think this proposal certainly affects Owen Sound and our residents the most. But folks shouldn’t kid themselves, there are significant outstanding financial issues with this proposal for all lower-tier municipalities in Grey County as it stands. I just really hope this pause gives our partners in other lower-tier municipalities the opportunity to see just how bad of a deal this is for all of our residents.”
Coun. Travis Dodd raised concerns about commentary from county staff at a recent meeting, when they stressed the county’s unilateral ability to proceed with its plans without lower-tier consent. Roads now, what in the future?
“That makes me question, what’s next? When something doesn’t become affordable for the county anymore, it’s easy for them to do,” Dodd says.
An Owen Sound city staff report confirms “county staff have pointed out that the Municipal Act allows the county to download the roads to the lower tiers with or without consent or funding.”
A motion from Dodd was also passed Monday asking for staff to obtain a legal opinion regarding the memorandum of understanding from when the city joined Grey County as a separate municipality in 2001, when municipal restructuring was occurring.
“I have concerns about the fact we have a memorandum of understanding … why the city joined the county,” Dodd says. “It broke out in that period about what we were trying to do. In section H of that MOU, ‘recognizing the City of Owen Sound could be the only municipality of the restructured county without the benefit of county roads within its boundaries, the following is means of providing equity in the establishment of such arterial system.’”
“So when we remove the county roads, go back, does that not change the equity that was provided? I don’t know,” Dodd continues. “What’s that agreement? Do we have to re-look at that agreement? What’s the legal opinion on that agreement about why we joined the county (25 years) ago? Has anything changed? Clearly.”
Grey County is expected to send a staff delegation to Owen Sound council’s next regular meeting on March 9 to discuss the road transfer proposal.