No answer from province on annexation

Neither the city nor Cavan Monaghan Township have heard from the Ontario government after requesting help sorting out a stalemate over annexation in May.

Scott McFadden, the mayor of Cavan Monaghan, says the township still hasn’t received a letter from the province regarding annexation.

Allan Seabrooke, the CAO of the city, says the city has received a letter of receipt from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

“But no response yet,” Seabrooke wrote to The Examiner in an email.

Although McFadden said he would have expected some sort of response by now, Seabrooke said he hadn’t really expected one so soon.

A spokesman from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs was asked by The Examiner, late in the day on Tuesday, whether responses to the city and county were forthcoming.

The spokesman wrote in an email that the answer to the question required a bit of research and would be available early Wednesday.

Last month, the city and township arrived at a stalemate over a possible annexation deal and sent letters to the province asking for help. The stalemate arose after a deal seemed to be coming.

The city and township officials had arrived at a deal that would have allowed 4,140 acres of land from the township to be absorbed by the city.

Under the deal, the city would have had to pay the township $2.5 million annually, for the next 25 years, to annex the lands (which are southwest of current city limits).

The idea was to increase industrial lands for the city.

But when city council wanted to be able to pay less upfront while gradually increasing payments, township council said it didn’t want to renegotiate.

City council then voted to ask the province to decide where the border should be - and how much the city should pay.

Township council and county council wrote to Queen’s Park, too – but their request was a bit different than the city’s. Instead of asking for a ruling, the township and county asked that the city be encouraged to hold a public meeting on the prospective deal.

City council hadn’t wanted to take that next step - not without reassurance from the township that the pay schedule could be adjusted.

McFadden told The Examiner in May that there’s a reason city council didn’t get that reassurance.

“They were asking for it at the wrong point (in time),” he said.

He explained that all three councils - city, township and county were asked to receive a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which is a non-binding framework for the deal.

Next, they were asked to set up public meetings to see how citizens feel about it.

After that, they could have worked out an annexation proposal that covers every detail of the plan, McFadden said - including the pay schedule.

McFadden says his council didn’t refuse further negotiations - they simply said no to renegotiating the MOU that was three years in the making.

“It’s done,” he said.