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Innisfil Today asked all members of town council to pick, in no particular order, this council’s most significant accomplishments during the 2018-22 term of office. Separate stories have been written for the mayor’s, deputy mayor’s and councillors’ responses, which we’ll be sharing in the coming days and weeks.
It was a very “unusual” term in the eyes of Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin, but one where council accomplished a significant amount and set the town up for success in the years to come.
But first, they had to make sure their residents were looked after in the immediate threat of COVID-19.
“I am very grateful to my fellow council members for their commitment and hard work and I think at the top of my list is how effectively we, as a council team worked together, especially in the face of a worldwide pandemic,” she said. “Council and staff really came together to ensure we had an effective COVID response.”
That response included the Helping Hands program, the introduction of the Troy Scott Community Fridge and a town donation to the local food bank. Municipal services, such as the town parks, beaches and the Innisfil IdeaLAB and Library remained open to provide families with safe spaces while pandemic restrictions remained in place. The town’s Beaches in Motion program was so successful it was replicated by other municipalities.
This was Dollin’s eighth term on council, a nearly 30-year stretch that has seen the community explode in terms of population. With that growth comes a variety of needs that weren’t anticipated in the days when the municipality was home to about a third of the people it is now. Perhaps the most important of those initiatives are in the health care field.
“We continued the work of our previous council, with the opening of the Rizzardo Health & Wellness Centre,” Dollin said. “The Centre brought much-needed health resources to our community; including outpatient clinics run by Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH). This was RVH’s first footprint in Innisfil.”
It won’t be the last. In October 2021, RVH announced its longer-term plan of building its south campus across the street from the Innisfil Civic Campus at the corner of Yonge Street and Innisfil Beach Road.
“We were thrilled to be joined by the premier in March of 2022 where he presented a $2.5 million planning grant to get us started,” Dollin said.
A priority on community involvement – and acting on those suggestions – was a highlight for the mayor.
“We engaged residents in ways we haven’t previously, through the creation of the Innisfil Beach Park Ad Hoc Committee and through our School Zone Traffic Advisory Committee,” she said. “The Park Committee was responsible for Sierra’s Chair, a new floating wheelchair, a BMX pump track, new decorative tree lightening and a new Dog Days of Summer initiative. The School Zone and Traffic Committee added signalled crossings, purchased a speed camera and opened a new walking trail to connecting Jack Crescent to Goodfellow Public School.”
Dollin, who was also elected deputy warden for the County of Simcoe this term, will be seeking re-election in October.
