It's hard to blame Innisfil for walking away
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by Chris Simon

If the details of the proposed Barrie/Innisfil land deal is true, you can't blame town representatives for walking away from the bargaining table.

After about 18 months of negotiations, Innisfil representatives turned down a deal offered by provincial facilitator Allan Wells several weeks ago. The bargaining was done behind closed doors, leaving the media and public left to speculate over many of the details and sticking points. But now, with negotiations officially closed, details of a final proposed settlement are being leaked.

Both sides each had a main objective through the bargaining process. Barrie wanted development lands so it's population could continue to expand and prosper into the urban centre of the Simcoe County area. Innisfil, in return, wanted Barrie to help service lands along the Innisfil Heights Highway 400 business corridor. When they entered into formal negotiations, Innisfil representatives believed they would be negotiating on a one hectare development land/one hectare of servicing area swap.

However, the final deal is believed to have missed two important factors which forced Innisfil to ultimately walk away. Had Innisfil representatives accepted the proposal, they would have given Barrie three times the amount of land being received in return. And while Barrie's new boundaries would have been clearly outlined in the proposal, the location of Innisfil Heights was left out. It's a clear indication that the province is still failing to recognize Innisfil Heights as a development area, something that is continually costing the town time and money.

Both sides saw their requirements heading into the negotiations as critical, and a failure to achieve their goals would cost millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Innisfil's very livelihood as a prosperous municipality is at stake.

Quite simply, failure to develop the 400 corridor would cost Innisfil thousands of new homes. The region would also be left void of 22,000 potential jobs.

While both municipalities and the provincial government are ultimately responsible for the betterment of the area's entire population, it's a wonder why the province would seemingly want to drain Innisfil's future economic base, while taking away significant development lands along the Barrie border.

Perhaps the province doesn't even want Innisfil in it's long-term growth plans for the area. But as long as the province continues to recognize Innisfil as a municipality, it has an obligation to negotiate a fair deal that will help both municipalities become economically stable.

Innisfil representatives saw where this negotiation was headed, and chose to wait for Simcoe County councillors to catch up. Hopefully, they make a decision that allows everyone to prosper.