With the demise of print newspapers in the community, the District of Muskoka and the Town of Huntsville have mailed out letters informing community members that their respective councils will be holding public meetings to determine other forms for gathering input and communicating statutory notices, particularly planning matters, to residents.
In the past, the municipalities paid print newspapers to publish their notices. It was their primary form of fulfilling their obligation to communicate, disclose, and gather input, particularly on the planning applications before them. With the demise of print newspapers in our communities, municipalities are exploring alternative forms of communication, which will also require Official Plan amendments in order to reflect those changes.
Public meetings are being held in order to gather input from the community on preferred methods of communication. Those who do not make a submission, either in person or in writing before a decision is made, will not be able to appeal council’s decision.
The Town of Huntsville will hold an official public meeting on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at 1 p.m. at the municipal council chambers. Submissions can be made in person at the meeting or in writing. For more information on this call 705-789-1757 Ext. 2232 or email [email protected]
You can find the virtual link and instructions for the meeting in Huntsville, HERE.
The District Municipality of Muskoka will hold a meeting on the same on January 18, 2024, at 1 p.m. in the council chambers. If you wish to make a written comment, you must forward your submission no later than January 17 by emailing: [email protected]
You can also make a comment in person at the meeting. To watch a live stream of the meeting on the meeting date, click HERE. For further information, contact District Clerk Amy Back at 705-645-2100 or email [email protected]
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The loss of our regular local print publication means citizens may need to use their electronic devices and skills to check for notices about planning they may want to know about in their town or neighbourhood. I was surprised and pleased yesterday to get notification via Canada Post for the public meetings about the alternative notice provisions from the District, with an enclosure of the Town of Huntsville Notice. But as the Town states it would be ” cost prohibitive to provide notice to all Town residents for matters with town-wide effect” so I am guessing that it will be at council’s discretion to choose which notice methods are “necessary”
I am noting that we continue to have public meetings in locations that may not be physically accessible to all and that electronic streaming may not be a reliable option for technical and other reasons of internet access. Hopefully, our elected council representatives engage with residents widely and fully and consider the diversity of experiences and community needs and priorities. Transparency and meaningful engagement with the public by elected and administrative persons is not always a walk in the rose-garden, but crucial, if we are to build the community it is said that we want.
Indeed this is a big problem these days. Electronic communication seems to be heavily curated before it actually gets seen and a significant part of the population does not (believe it or not) spend half their day scrolling their favorite screen looking for this kind of stuff.
In things like Doppler and the former papers, planning data was essentially almost nonsensical as the maps were always so small and poorly displayed that they were essentially unreadable anyway. Clear plain English seems to be a lost characteristic of government these days. I suppose if you invent enough new words then few people know what your talking about and thus you can sort of feel more important as you know something someone else does not but this is a poor way to run a democratic government.
On site posting is a bit of a bad joke. I know where the poster was put up the day of the meeting in Lake of Bays, not weeks in advance as is required. When I asked about this staff said that the applicant had told them it was posted as required, but I know it was not and nobody cares at the municipal level. Also, it is somewhat hard to find a place to post data where it is actually noticed. One can achieve the legal requirement for posting a notice but find a spot where it will be practically not noticed. This is an art form for some developers.
One of the best things is to notify by mail, all the property owners within say a mile or half mile or some such distance from where the activity is to be taking place. This too is fraught with issues as in several cases I know of, the “adjoining” property was a public right of way and so the “real privately owned adjoining property” was not notified at all. A silly technicality that should be corrected.
This is going to be an interesting problem to be solved. Maybe the District should start it’s own newspaper, maybe they can make it profitable? Maybe this is a joke but seriously something is needed or the whole process is a joke! For sale and help wanted ads should make a profit. The Forester was given away free for years before they became bankrupt. A small subscription fee would help. One could maybe choose to subscribe by email or in paper, further lowering costs as many people would opt for email delivery.
Just a few thoughts