MAYOR PROUD OF 2019, EXCITED ABOUT 2020

By Kirk Winter

City of Kawartha Lakes Mayor Andy Letham sat down with me and spoke about the successes and challenges faced by the City in 2019, and the promise that is on the horizon for 2020.

Letham was very pleased with the functioning and operation of the new, leaner eight person council. Letham found the smaller council “much more focused and much more business like” than that of the former 16-person council. The Mayor said with fewer people there was “much less unproductive conversation and Council could focus on the big picture and a long-term vision for the City.”

Letham said to accommodate the smaller council “committees that Councillors served on outside of their regular council duties were reduced and combined, while others were done away with entirely.” Councillors shared duties with each other when needed, and Councillors with extremely large ridings, like Emmett Yeo in Ward One, leaned on the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for assistance to ensure there was a Council presence on important days like Remembrance Day.

Letham was excited about the position of Deputy Mayor that Council experimented with this year, and didn’t have enough good things to say about Doug Elmslie, who pioneered the position in 2019. Letham was pleased to see Pat O’Reilly toss his hat into the ring for Deputy Mayor in 2020, and he was elected by acclamation. Mayor Letham feels Deputy Mayor O’Reilly “will excel in community outreach and will very much enjoy being the Council point man on the 2020 International Plowing Match that just so happens to be hosted in the Councillor’s ward next year.”

When asked to share some of the highlights of the recently approved 2020 Operating Budget, Letham focused on the following:

1. The budget is both affordable to taxpayers and fell within the confines of the financial plan the City is using as a framework for decision making

2. The budget puts money into City-owned assets, roads and road maintenance

3. The budget was not just for fixing things. It is a budget that will be building things with a vision for the future

4. The budget will help shape CKL by beginning long-term planning on the future of culture and transportation in Kawartha Lakes

One of the new assets the City is hoping to build is an arena/fire hall to replace the aging facilities currently found in Ops Township. The project will cost close to $15 million, and two-thirds of the funding is currently in place with the municipality and the federal government providing almost $10 million of the seed money necessary. CKL is waiting for the province to pony up part or all of the remaining $5 million from a $1 billion infrastructure renewal fund the Ford government is allocating around the province.

When I asked Mayor Letham about how much in transfers from the province the City expects to lose, he was unsure. He and other municipal officials have “made the point in meetings with the province that Mayors want to have a say and be included before any decisions are made by the province to either reduce transfers or download more provincial services to the municipalities.” Letham believes “with a seat at the table the municipalities can better prepare for these changes, whatever they are.”

Letham believes the opening of the 407 is a “good news story” for CKL but likely will not have the impact on CKL that some have been predicting. The Mayor believes that “the 30-minute drive that separates CKL from the 407 termination point is just far enough that likely we will not experience the growing pains that Port Perry and Uxbridge have gone through” as those communities have been pulled into the orbit of the GTA. Letham thinks the local impact will likely be felt in improvements made to Highway 35 and growth in new home construction as Toronto families and retirees begin to look to CKL as an affordable place to live, but close enough with the 407 extension to continue working somewhere in the GTA.

Letham believes that 2020 will be an exciting year to live in CKL. Council has just approved over 1,000 new homes to be developed across the City including 530 opposite Wilson Fields on Colborne Street in Lindsay. The Mayor believes the Colborne Street project will break ground in the spring “with 100 or so new homes coming on the market for each of the next five years.” He hopes that the long expected commercial project at Highway 36 and Colborne Street featuring some kind of big box anchor store will be announced very soon. Letham said that the saga surrounding that commercial development was “the single most frustrating element of his five years in public office.”

Mayor Letham was very pleased to share that among the new units being built in CKL “there will be apartments, condominiums, row townhouses, stacked townhouses and single family homes.” A 157-unit stacked townhouse is planned for St. David Street in Lindsay, and Letham believes that some of this new construction stock will help alleviate the shortage of rental accommodations currently facing residents in CKL.

Labour negotiations with the multiple unions/organizations representing CKL employees have been going well according to Letham. He reported that “most City employees have ratified long-term deals and that employees seem very pleased with their new contracts.”

On the issue of rural broadband, Letham had much to report. All three levels of government have provided funding for the project, the goal of which was to provide cell phone service for to as close to all Ontarians as possible. Currently, only 80 percent of Ontarians have reliable cell phone access with many living in rural areas are doing without. Letham expects work to begin soon with cell phone towers being constructed to close the remaining mobile broadband gap.

2020 also marks the year that downtown reconstruction begins in Lindsay. With Bobcaygeon done, Lindsay will be the next downtown to have infrastructure replaced and beautification projects completed, followed by Fenelon Falls and then Omemee. Tenders will be unsealed on December 12 to see which construction firm will be awarded the multi-year, multimillion dollar Kent Street reconstruction project.

The Mayor shared that a number of local firms are looking to expand for 2020 in CKL, hoping to take advantage of the development fee holiday just passed by Council. The City is prepared to wave development fees for those who create jobs in CKL, and that has gotten the attention of the business community. Letham shared that “70 percent of new jobs will come from businesses that already exist.” Business are telling him that if they can save significant amounts of money in development fees by building during the City moratorium, they are seriously considering doing just that.

When asked what the priorities and challenges are facing the City in 2020, Letham itemized them in short order:

1. Keeping the momentum moving forward on economic development

2. Create jobs in CKL

3. Oversee a successful downtown revitalization in Lindsay

4. Make sure that all the development that has been approved moves forward in a timely manner

5. Keeping City costs affordable

6. Sticking to the long-term financial plan approved by Council

7. Planning/preparing the City for whatever decisions come out of Queen’s Park

Letham sounded very much like a man on a mission, and if everything comes to fruition in 2020, the Mayor expects next year could be an interesting and prosperous year for residents in the City of Kawartha Lakes.