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Dufferin County councillors continuing debate on future of POA court in town

February 16, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

Dufferin County’s councillors have approved a decision to have an “all councils” meeting in March to discuss the staffing and location of the Provincial Offences Administration (POA) Court in Orangeville.

Caledon staff are currently contracted to administer the POA court in Dufferin, but the staff are now fighting with the Ontario Superior Court staff for space at the Orangeville courthouse.   

The special meeting, to be attended by all members of the county’s lower-tier municipal councils, will be open to the public and is tentatively set for Wednesday, March 28 at a location yet to be determined.

At last Thursday’s county council meeting (Feb. 8) Mono Deputy Mayor Ken McGhee, chair of the General Government Services committee, told council that “additional information and investigation required” has been brought forward, which all municipalities need to know.

He requested that, due to this new information coming to light, all municipalities should weigh in on the issue, and defer the decision until after the special meeting, which council supported. “We have a number of questions raised from parties that we hadn’t investigated.”

Mr. McGhee later told the Citizen that one piece of information revealed was the amount of revenue to get from the Superior Court. “If we do certain things, we lose revenue. The lower municipalities should be aware of that.” Other information includes that most communication can be done electronically.

He said that he expects a motion will come out of the special meeting. “Yes we look at the interests, but one section’s interest can’t drive the whole thing.”

The future of the POA court has been discussed for over a year now.

County council has been given four options to consider: to maintain the status quo for the county to rent the space to the Caledon POA staff; move the administration office to Caledon, but the court would still be held in Orangeville; lease the entire first floor to the Caledon POA staff; or relocate the court to Caledon East.

Councillor McGhee said they don’t want to make a decision that takes away the use of the facilities, due to certain standards for certain courts. “If you change them, then you lose the courts.”

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