'Life changing': Hundreds sign petition against proposed annexation of Oro-Medonte land

When Oro-Medonte Township’s Mayor Randy Greenlaw and Deputy Mayor Peter Lavoie make their presentation opposing Barrie’s planned annexation at the provincial government’s standing committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy in Ajax on Tuesday, they’ll have the support of hundreds of Oro-Medonte residents.

On Monday, five of those residents — Jane Voorheis, John Caldwell, Rosemary Dunsmore and married couple Brad and Becky Simon — presented the mayor and deputy mayor with a petition signed by more than 400 Oro-Medonte Township residents opposed to the City of Barrie’s planned annexation.

“Becky (Simon) started the petition and I sort of guided her as to where we should go to get signatures,” explained Dunsmore, who has lived on her Ridge Road property in Oro-Medonte for more than 60 years. “My thought was we have to go to all of the landowners that are involved and their neighbours.”

Becky Simon canvassed Line 1 and Dunsmore solicited signatures from folks who live on Line 93.

John Caldwell, who represents the fifth generation of his family to live on the same plot of Oro-Medonte land, started his own petition Sunday morning and in less than two hours, he had more than 150 signatures.

By the end of the day, Caldwell’s petition had just over 300 names.

“Right now, I look through the field and see the Dunsmores' property,” Caldwell said. “It would be life changing if the city came out here. The impact would be huge."

The Simons, relative newcomers to Oro-Medonte, moved into their home on Line 1 south in 2021.

“We’re new to the neighbourhood but we dumped all of our money into that house, it’s our dream property,” Becky Simon said. “And now it’s completely threatened.”

She said she felt sick when she heard Barrie was considering annexing her property, adding she’s been “panicked” since learning of Barrie’s plan.

“This is our little house away from the city,” Becky Simon said. “We call it The Resort.”

Both of the Simons work in Toronto.

They’ve heard Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall talk about the importance of having employment lands in Barrie so its residents don’t have to wake up early every morning and make the daily commute to the Greater Toronto Area. 

They laugh when they’re told they’re the folks Nuttall claims to be concerned about — the ones for whom he’s proposing annexation.

“The jobs he’s going to have come here won’t pay us enough to afford a house,” Brad Simon said. “Why does he think people drive to Toronto in the first place? It’s for jobs that pay a decent wage.”

The Simons don’t believe annexation by Barrie will do anything good for them. In fact, they believe the opposite will be true, especially if the land around their property is zoned for anything but residential.

“I think it would ruin our property if we’re looking at dump trucks or a factory instead of the forest,” said Becky Simon. “And we’re at the bottom of the hill. What happens when they start developing up there?”

She’s concerned about chemicals and pollutants entering the water table and making their way down the hill to her well. 

“I don’t even know if we’ll have good drinking water after that,” she said.

After Greenlaw and Lavoie present their case to the provincial government’s standing committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy on Tuesday in Ajax, Simcoe County Warden Basil Clarke will address the same committee the following day in Vaughan.

On Thursday, a delegation that includes Greenlaw, Lavoie, Springwater Township Mayor and Simcoe County Deputy Warden Jennifer Coughlin, Springwater Township Deputy Mayor George Cabral, Clarke and the chief administrative officers from Oro-Medonte (Robin Dunn), Springwater (Jeff Schmidt) and the county (Mark Aitken), will be meeting with Paul Calandra, minister of municipal affairs and housing.