Many people may not know where Almaguin is. It is the eastern part of the District of Parry Sound, and if you are still at a loss as to where that is, it is north of the District Municipality of Muskoka, and south of the City of North Bay. Almaguin may sound familiar, that's because it is a mix between the names Algonquin (coming from the all too famous park on its eastern boundary) and Magnetawan, the large river that cuts through the centre of the region, evetually emptying in Georgian Bay. The region begins in the small town of Novar on the boundary between Parry Sound and Muskoka, just north of Huntsville on Hwy. 11, the pivotal link that spans the entire area. Almaguin's northern terminus is the town of Callander, situated on Lake Nipissing. The eastern boundary as mentioned before, abuts Algonquin Provincial Park and the region offers many backcountry access points to the park. The western boundary lies at the halfway point of the District of Parry Sound, just east of Dunchurch along Hwy. 124, and west of Loring along Hwy. 522. The region is an extension of cottage country, but on a smaller scale, there are plenty of lakes and rocky hills blanketed in lush forests. It is a haven for cottagers and outdoor recreationalists. As for the physical geography, it is the southern extension of the Canadian Shield, with agricultural pockets dotting the landscape throughout, mainly along the Hwy. 11 corridor.
One more note about the geography of the area before I get into the reasons why Almaguin should be part of Southern Ontario, and a perfect segue into that argument. The District of Parry Sound in its entirety was surveyed on a skew much like the rest of Central Ontario and other areas of Southern Ontario. That skew is eleven degrees to the west, more of an alignment to the magnetic north and having more to do with magnetic declination than anything else, used by those early surveyors to layout the townships and lots within nearly a century and a half ago. The reason for this being of importance is because it created the term 'South of the French' referring to the part of Ontario that is south of the French River, which flows from Lake Nipissing into Georgian Bay. What that means is that all of the land south of the French River, as well as the Mattawa River, is surveyed along the same lines, organised into 100 acre lots, a clear indication that all of the land south of that was intended to be included in Southern Ontario. And, if you take a look at a map of Ontario, the old Voyageur waterway which cut across these rivers and Lake Nipissing, form a natural choke point, a thinning of the land, almost like an isthmus separating Northern from Southern Ontario. What is even more striking, is that it serves as an equidistant measure for all directions from Toronto, east, west, and north, so in modern terms, it's all in a day's drive.
So, why if this is all true, hasn't the region been incorporated into the Southern Ontario fold? The major reason is the Canadian Shield. Sure it exists in Southern Ontario, in places like the counties of Frontenac, Haliburton, Hastings, Kawartha Lakes (Victoria), Lanark, Lennox and Addington, Peterborough, and Renfrew. But while in these counties (except for Haliburton) it is only the northern extrimities that are situated on the Shield, the rest of those counties are made up of rich agricultural land, the necessary ingredient for economic generation, stability, and near self-sufficiency. Prime agricultural land is hard to come by on the Canadian Shield, besides the isolated areas and belts that exists, for the most part it is unsustainable. Taking a note from my own families history, there are more stone piles on the old farm than fields, and it's been said that the only crop you can count on is the number of stones that come up with the thawing of the frost every spring. However, agriculture does not make up an economy on its own, other resource extraction such as forestry and mining are common place throughout the North, but again, not so much in Almaguin. Although the ground below is Canadian Shield, which is synonymous with coniferous trees and the pulp and paper industry, the forests of Almaguin are an extension of those found in Southern Ontario, making for an interesting blend of whats called mixed forests, but leaning more heavily on the deciduous and broadleafed trees. As for mining, there are only a handful of small operations throughout the region.
What then is the major economic driver of the region? Well, like it's Southern neighbours, the region has a service industry base, that means offering services to the people who live there, banking, insurance, mechanics, and shops and stores. There has to be more than just that, right? There exists a small manufacturing industry, making canoes and furniture, and other goods such as textiles. What is the main stay however, is the construction industry, both highway and building contruction. Our former Premier, Mike Harris, who was from North Bay, embarked on the ambitious plan to make Hwy. 11 a four laned freeway, not only for the economic benefit of having a modern arterial link to Southern Ontario from his hometown and spanning through Almaguin, but also to alleviate the burden of high traffic volumes and curb the amount of vehicle accidents along the busy route. The spin off was that a perculiar industry was created, that of the highway construction worker. Companies that only built driveways and dug septic systems were now employed as sub-contractors to carryout the necessary work to build the roads. Larger construction corporations needed a work force and many of the unemployed entered as unskilled labourers, moving up the ranks of the companies to become foreman, managers, and all positions below and between. With the construction of Hwy. 11 set to be complete in the fall of 2012, these men and women will not be out of a job, they will simply go where the work is, as they have done before, keeping their residence in Almaguin while working out of town. The other side of the construction industry, that of building houses, cottages, and anything else with a floor, roof, and the walls to hold them up, has always employed many Almaguinites, building cottages and docks on our many lakes, employing electricians, plumbers, brick layers, and carpenters for years.
If the economy is healthy (for the most part), then again, why hasn't Almaguin made the necessary steps to move forward? There are a few reasons outside of geography and play more on socio-economics and socio-demographics that come into play. Every region has to have a centre, and that is one of the things that Almaguin is lacking. An area of approximately 20,000 people, needs a regional centre, but with only four towns that exceed or come close to 1,000, finding that regional centre is hard. However, the largest of the towns, at 1,100, is Sundridge, situated in what is the middle of Almaguin, at the junction of Hwy. 11 and Hwy. 124, and situated on the beautiful waters of Lake Bernard. It has all of the modern facilities needed of a regional centre, and a strong community dynamic required to be a place of management and cohesion. Powassan is too far north to be considered central, and Burk's Falls too far south. However, each is a sub-region centre, both having medical facilities (going back to laws that don't apply to certain areas, the Local Health Integration Networks slashed the services at Burk's Falls). Burk's Falls even has a court house that serves as a subsidiary to that of Parry Sound. So with Sundridge in the middle, Powassan in the north, Burk's Falls in the south, and a whole gammit of towns scattered throughout, Almaguin has the nodes it needs to be run effectively and efficiently.
However, the problem of never having a regional centre and being in actuality part of a larger district, Almaguin as a cohesive unit has always been more of a myth than a reality. Because there is no actual centre town in which the region rotates around like the spokes of a bicycle tire, the north has shifted to North Bay and has actually been severed from the region both provincially into the riding of Nipissing, and federally into the riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming, while the south has fed off of Huntsville and Muskoka and become organised into larger community bodies and organisations. (It should be noted that the three municipalites, Mun. of Callander, Twp. of Nipissing, and Mun. of Powassan that were put in the fold of Nipissing, have strikingly different demographics (overwhelmingly Anglophone and of North European descent) from their new provincial and federal ridings. Even the politics are different, the votes are reminiscent of the days when the three municipalites were part of Parry Sound-Muskoka). This lack of a centre has caused the municipalities on either end of the region to become bedroom communities to the cities on their fringes, splitting Almaguin into a quasi-three way divide, where the centre is still standing strong, but being pulled ever closer to the south, as, beneficially, it should be. If the centre can remain strong, it can possibly bring the region back as a cohesive functioning unit, void of any separation, regardless of which provincial and federal ridings they are part of.
Why a county? What would lead me to believe that this is possible? A county's governing structure is made up of the mayors and deputy mayors of the municipalities within. A warden is appointed by vote by those and from those mayors and deputy mayors, to act as the voice and leader of the county, it is a very simple concept and as democratic as it can get. But what has to happen before Almaguin becomes a county is the elimination of the overrun and if you will, underrun, of the region. First and foremost, the unorganized townships have to be eliminated, either by the formation of responsible government, or through amalgamation with other townships and municipalities where government is already formed. Some of you may be wondering what an unorganised township is, well, it is about the last holdout to days gone by. These are surveyed areas that have no municipal government, are served by a local roads boards which looks after the maintenance of roads, and have a volunteer fire department, usually. The land owners in the area pay their taxes directly to the provincial government, and without any sort of government level in between, I've always been fascinated with the lack of clarity and transparency that must exist with getting these tax dollars back to the people who paid them. So why do they still exist? Because the people who live in these areas have it slightly easier and like it that way, they pay land tax, school board tax, and probably a health services tax for ambulance service. As well, they do not have to conform to building codes per se, and besides local law enforcement, there is no building inspector, health inspector, environmental inspector to be found. It's almost as if it is lawless, people enjoying the right to build whatever shanty they please and then be able to call it a home, as long as it doesn't exceed a certain size, or disrupt a waterway. It has always seemed a bit backwards to me, and as such the lack of checks and balances that are not in place has always led me to believe that things are not being done properly, and could be done better. Bringing these areas into the modern fold will pave the way for Almaguin to be made a county, and it should be made known that not all of Almaguin is unorganised, only isolated pockets, and that not all of those living in unorganised townships are happy with the situation.
The next step is the amalgamation of municipalities, getting rid of the overrun, combining tax bases to put more expenditures into one coffer, and allow for the better management of areas that may be lacking and in need of modernity. Within Almaguin, there exists 23 different municipalities (that term is used loosely) in the form of villages, towns, townships, municipalities, and unorganized townships. Combining these in different ways to create half that number, into areas that already act as single units in many ways, would eliminate the excess and harmonise the area into fluidity and manageability. (The exact municipalites will be revealed in Part 2).
Cost cutting would be another benefit of amalgamation if a county structure did come to fruition. An example of cost cutting may be as simple as this: three municipalities are merged into one, they each bring 3 snowplows with them, but the new municipality only requires 8. The 9th can be transfered to the county department, with no extra tax burden. Same can be said for the clerks and Cheif Administration Officers, or CAOs. 1 new municipality only requires 1 CAO and a deputy, the 3rd can be employed at the county level at no extra cost, it would simply be a transfer of equipment and talent. Things do not always work as fluid as that, but they could in this perspective.
Lastly, counties have departments, ranging from health services to roads boards, that take on their responsibilities as required. The strange thing about Almaguin, is that some of these already exist. The Almaguin Roads Board is one of these examples. It may not include all of the municipalities in the region, but there is only a handful that are outliers. Medical and school boards are organised on the combining of two districts, that of Parry Sound and Nipissing. These could stay in place, as Almaguin would not be the only county being created (sneak peak of Part 2, Almaguin, Parry Sound, and Nipissing would all be made counties, just how and what they look like, you'll have to wait).
I've gone on at length, and this is a good place to conclude with a few facts. Haliburton County, with a population of 16,000 plus, is the poorest economic region of Ontario, Almaguin's 20,000 plus would then justify a county, with similar demographics and economic structures. Frontenac County, which Kingston was once part of, was demoted to the status of a management unit, above a district, but below a county. If these two counties exist at a level that is below what Almaguin can achieve, then Almaguin should be granted the status of county.
Any comments, questions, revisions, additions, constructive criticisms, are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment