New council has to find answers for population decline in Dawn-Euphemia

Heather Wright/The Independent

Paul LeBoeuf says Dawn-Euphemia is in a Catch 22 situation.

It wants to attract more businesses to serve residents, but it can’t attract them without more residents.

“You need people to support the stores, but you need the stores to pull the people in,” he said as he participated in a Round Table discussion hosted by The Independent in Dawn-Euphemia Sept. 23. Two of the candidates, Brad Goodreau and Adam McBrayne, were not able to attend the discussion.

Jason Meyer, a three term councillor seeking another four years in office, spoke at length about the township’s declining population saying it is a long-term problem. “This community has shrunk to half over the last 40 years,” he said.
“We’ve been excellent at raising taxes. We’ve been excellent at sharpening our pencil. We have not been exceptional on creating assessment, and we need it.”

Meyer says the township’s water system can support another 250 to 400 homes. The problem, he says, is up until now, it has been difficult to sever homes from farm land. The county until recently wanted 75 acres to remain as farmland after the house was separated.

That didn’t work in a community where many farm lots were traditionally 50 acres.

In the last year, the Lambton County planning department has changed direction, allowing homes to be severed if only 50 acres remains as farmland.

“We’ve been trying to sever as many whenever anybody comes to sever houses off instead of tearing them down,” says candidate Ann Gray. She’s seeking her second term.

She’d like to see more homes built, and soon. “It’s just where to build and getting the people in to build them.”

But Meyer says relying on farm severances is not enough. “We we need to fight the county. We need to fight the province, and we need to get the handcuffs off to get more development and to regain that community that kept our churches full, that kept our stores viable.”

There is the possibility of growth in the rural community, now home to 1,968 residents – the hamlets of Florence and Oakdale.

They’re considered urban centres by planners and housing development is much simpler than trying to use farmland. LeBoeuf thinks that may be the answer.

“For the smaller communities like Florence and even Rutherford, all the utilities are already there. The gas is there, the hydro’s there, the water’s there, so all the main functions that you need for communities already there.
“We just need somebody to come in and put in a shovel, right? And if that’s up to us to start it, maybe we should think about that.”

Because with growth in the hamlets, there will be a demand for services – a demand new businesses might move in to fill. Jerry Bijker and his family moved into Dawn-Euphemia six years ago. He’s now running for a seat on council. The idea of commercial services is appealing. Bijker says right now, the family goes to Bothwell or Newbury if they need something.
“There’s nothing close enough that makes it easy for us to get to. If I knew there was a store in Florence, I guess there is now. I would go there and get you know small groceries,”

There is also room for industrial expansion. Nearly a decade ago, Lambton County designated a block of land near Enbridge’s Dawn plant. Meyer believes the county expected Enbridge would be the sole developer of it.

Meyer would like to see some of that land sold by the Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership.
“I would love an industrial expansion…I’d love them people to be able to live here, play here, and shop here.”

What sparks growth in Dawn-Euphemia, doesn’t matter the candidates say; as long as it brings more people to the community.

All the councillor candidates were invited to be part of The Independent’s Round Table Discussions. Debb Pitel, Brad Goodreau and Adam McBrayne did not attend. You can listen to the discussion here: