There has been much discussion on social media and by other candidates about the Cost Sharing Agreement with Carleton Place. I also see a lot of misinformation about what took place with the agreement between Carleton Place, Beckwith and Mississippi Mills. My intention is not to stir up division but to bring forward the course of events that unfolded and include the documentation and letters sent and received through the process.
The agreement itself was first developed back in 1987. The agreement involves an assessment done by Howard Alan (chartered accountant) and an annual projected budget done by Carleton Place. The assessment determines the percentage of the budget that each municipality pays for the use and maintenance of the Carleton Place Pool, Library and Parks & Rec. The agreement does not allow for any interference of the budget by either Beckwith or Mississippi Mills. There is no appeal mechanism. Mississippi Mills and Beckwith are only able to ask questions about budget items, nothing else. As far as I know, there was no reconciliation between projected budgets and the actuals over the years.
Carleton Place presented their 2021 budget with very significant increases that was substantially over the Mississippi Mills Cost Sharing budget, 49% to be exact. When asked why the large increase, the response was it was due to Covid. Both Beckwith and Mississippi Mills representatives declared the increases as unacceptable and stated the increase was a result of management decisions by Carleton Place without asking for any type of input or approval. Mississippi Mills unfortunately laid off all but one senior Parks and Rec staff member during Covid simply because there was no revenue coming into the facilities. It did not make sense that the cost of operation of these cost sharing facilities would increase so much being shut down without employee expense.
When asked for the number of Mississippi Mills members in the Carleton Place Library, a number of 635 users was given and the expense for the 2021 budget for the library was $59,893.00. The Mississippi Mills Library Board which looks after both Libraries in Mississippi Mills, became involved in the process. The Library Board received a notice from the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture that the agreement was in conflict with the Library Act and in order to receive provincial grants in the future, they must separate from this agreement in which they did. The Mississippi Mills Library Board offered any Mississippi Mills resident a $30 refund for a Carleton Place membership, to date 9 people have been reimbursed.
Council appointed Councillor Gerard and me to negotiate with Carleton Place representatives an acceptable payment for the 2021 Recreation and Pool cost sharing services. A negotiation cap was given by Mississippi Mills Council. Two offers were made to the Carleton Place representatives, and they declined. They did however send an invoice for the full amount.
Mississippi Mills Council did not vote on terminating the Agreement. There was never a motion or vote to terminate. A letter was received from the Carleton Place CAO stating that Carleton Place terminated the Howard Allan Cost Sharing agreement for the Pool and Parks and Rec components. The letter is below.
A motion was passed by Council to pay the budgeted amount to Carleton Place and was carried. A further Amendment was moved by Mayor Lowry and Deputy Mayor Minnille regarding a new Agreement with Carleton Place for the Pool Service and the request was sent to the Carleton Place through their CAO. The response was denied unless the conditions were met to cover the original increases to the other components of the Agreement.
