‘The Jerry Springwater Show’: Council criticized for ‘diabolical’ antics
By: Wayne Doyle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: BarrieToday.com, Sep 06, 2025
In a room full of accusations, allegations and generally mean-spirited comments, Springwater Coun. Matt Garwood has emerged as the calm in the eye of the storm.
The youngest member of township council, Garwood has demonstrated a maturity beyond his years, often dampening the cacophony with passive, articulate statements that have been well thought out and considered.
His most recent foray into the world of council peacekeeping came Wednesday night, following a tense and bitter argument over where the maps came from that have been used at various stages of the City of Barrie’s proposed boundary expansion.
“I have witnessed a lot at this table in three years and I think this is the most embarrassing,” he said after watching his fellow councillors attack one another for 20 minutes. “This is embarrassing.
“I’m not going to talk about maps today. I’m not going to start screaming at each other. That gets us nowhere guys, nowhere,” Garwood added.
Without warning or any apparent provocation, Coun. Phil Fisher took umbrage with where he thought Garwood was going in his comments.
“OK, point of order,” Fisher said loudly. “I’m not going to be chastised by you again. You do this every time.”
Fisher’s outburst earned giggles around the council table.
“Coun. Fisher, he didn’t even say anything,” Mayor Jennifer Coughlin interjected.
“Oh my gosh, he didn’t even open his…,” she began, losing her train of thought when she looked over to Fisher, who was chatting with some of the folks in the gallery.
“This is not a performance,” Coughlin said to Fisher. “Coun. Garwood has the microphone. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t accuse anybody of malfeasance or of lying. He’s just making a statement.”
Garwood took back the microphone.
“The reality is that this often looks like a reality TV show and that is the joke,” he said. “We are often — I’m not speaking to one member, I’m speaking to seven — the butt of that joke, over and over and over again. Tonight does not help.”
The joke Garwood refers to is the new moniker the township’s council meetings have earned, “The Jerry Springwater Show,” which is a hybrid offering that combines the bombastic outbursts of reality TV with the boring minutiae of municipal government.
Garwood is not the only one who’s concerned about council’s reputation.
Coughlin has chastised various council members numerous times for their behaviour, lack of decorum and wild accusations.
Recently, a number of Springwater residents have expressed their concerns over the goings-on at township council meetings.
Wanda Allen, spouse of former township mayor Don Allen, said she was up past midnight Wednesday, penning a letter that detailed her less-than-enjoyable experience watching Springwater Township council live over the internet.
“I hope you were at the Springwater council meeting tonight and I am also hopeful that you will share with the citizens of Springwater what transpired,” she said in her email, which arrived at 12:23 a.m. on Thursday, an hour-and-a-half after council wrapped up. “There are councillors there that not only need to be admonished, but ‘kicked out’ of their seats at the council table.”
She didn’t identify them by name, but called their behaviour “diabolical.”
One online commenter on BarrieToday said “three council members are acting like adults, while four are acting like children throwing a tantrum as if they didn’t get exactly what they wanted on Christmas morning.”
It’s that sort of comment that prompted Garwood to speak out.
“We are doing ourselves and our residents a disservice when we fight each other,” he said. “We have a significant matter in front of us. Let’s not fight each other, let’s not throw accusations.”
Springwater mayor calls Cabral’s boundary map questions ‘a personal attack’
By: Wayne Doyle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: BarrieToday.com,, Sep 4, 2025
Springwater Deputy Mayor George Cabral has a handful of questions he’d like answered regarding the City of Barrie’s boundary expansion proposal.
In an effort to provide clarity and transparency to Springwater residents, Cabral put forth a notice of motion at Wednesday’s council meeting that would have the township’s information technology (IT) staff perform an exhaustive forensic analysis that answers the following questions:
How did the boundary adjustment mapping come to include parcels of Springwater land that were not requested by the City of Barrie’s boundary adjustment respecting expanded employment land?
Why was additional Springwater land offered to the City of Barrie as part of the boundary adjustment process?
Who authorized this additional Springwater land to be offered to the City of Barrie and included in the boundary adjustment mapping?
Who was responsible for the creation of the boundary adjustment maps, and variations thereof, prior to May 9, 2025?
And where were these maps developed and created?
According to Cabral’s motion, organized boundary adjustment meetings in early winter 2023 between Barrie, Springwater and the Township of Oro-Medonte were taking place without the knowledge or direction of Springwater council, and well before strong mayor powers were granted to the local townships.
His motion contends Springwater council had “absolutely no knowledge of, involvement in, nor did it provide any direction regarding any boundary adjustment mapping.”
He wants the township’s IT department to use “whatever means” they have at their disposal to locate and examine any graphics, digital mapping, or digital documents available on any Springwater local hard drive, laptop, cloud, or Springwater server as it relates to the City of Barrie boundary adjustment mapping prior to May 9, 2025.
As well, IT staff would examine the embedded metadata — including but not limited to the date, time and author — and report back to council at its regular meeting on Oct. 15.
If the IT department doesn’t have the ability to perform this task, Cabral wants them to advise council at its next meeting and provide a list of qualified vendors with expertise in the areas of digital data mining, digital trace analysis and forensic indexing.
Additionally, the deputy mayor wants the Oct. 15 report to include a “repository” of all documents, including copies of documents obtained in the search. And should the documents not provide clear answers to his questions, Cabral wants staff to include options of suitable forensic auditing firms to complete an investigation into the matters he has outlined.
Springwater Mayor Jennifer Coughlin considered the motion an affront to her personally.
“In my opinion, this is nothing more than a personal attack and a personal vendetta,” she said. “I am tired of sitting at this table and having my integrity, my process, my goodwill, my oath of office be questioned.”
Coughlin agreed that residents have the right to the truth, but not at the expense of the taxpayer.
She made Cabral an offer.
“Let’s do a forensic audit, but when the report comes back and it says that I’ve done something wrong, I’ll pay for it,” she said.
“But when it comes back and proves again, just like the FOIs (freedom-of-information requests), just like the integrity commissioner reports, just like everything else that has been put forward and against me and comes up clean because there’s nothing to find, you pay for it — not the taxpayers,” Coughlin added.
In a recorded vote, council passed the deputy mayor’s motion with Cabral, Danielle Alexander, Anita Moore and Phil Fisher voting in favour. Coughlin, Matt Garwood and Brad Thompson voted against the motion.
Cabral walks out of meeting as Coughlin invokes strong mayor powers in Springwater
By: Wayne Doyle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: BarrieToday.com, Sep 4, 2025
With the deadline looming on a framework agreement with the City of Barrie on its boundary expansion proposal, Springwater Township Mayor Jennifer Coughlin exercised her strong mayor powers Wednesday, much to the chagrin of some members of council.
During a special session ahead of the township’s regularly scheduled council meeting, Coughlin introduced a reconsideration of a resolution passed July 2 regarding minister’s zoning orders (MZOs) related to The Remington Group and Paul Sadlon Communities, which directed council to revoke its support of both MZOs unless they are serviced through the Midhurst water and wastewater treatment facilities.
Unanimously supported in December 2023, both development proposals, when they came before council seeking MZO support, indicated that their preferred water and wastewater solution was to connect to the City of Barrie’s infrastructure.
The reconsideration failed to pass, with Deputy Mayor George Cabral and Councillors Anita Moore, Phil Fisher and Danielle Alexander voting against it.
Coughlin and Councillors Matt Garwood and Brad Thompson voted in favour.
Following a quick discussion with the township’s clerk, Coughlin announced her intention to use her strong mayor powers to introduce a bylaw that would authorize the mayor to include cross-border servicing for the Bayfield Street corridor in the discussions.
“Council, being a bylaw to authorize the mayor to include cross-border servicing for the Bayfield Street corridor in discussions with the City of Barrie and the province of Ontario regarding the boundary proposal, whereas pursuant with Section 284.11.12 of the Municipal Act 2001, the act of the head of council is of the opinion that…,” she began before being cut off by Cabral, who called a point of order.
“Your reconsideration failed,” he said.
“Yes, and if you would prefer me to defer to the clerk to speak to the legal counsel that we have received from (John) Mascarin (the township’s integrity commissioner and legal counsel for all things related to strong mayor powers) to ensure that everything that I am doing is within jurisdiction…,” she started before being interrupted again.
“I would ask then, Mayor Coughlin, that we seek another legal opinion with respect to that because a reconsideration when it’s lost, according to our procedural bylaw, means that it is lost and it cannot be voted on again,” Cabral said.
Coughlin advised Cabral that he was “absolutely right.”
However, the mayor added, she wasn’t looking for another reconsideration; she was introducing a bylaw, which, according to township clerk Jennifer Marshall, was well within her rights as a mayor with provincially appointed strong powers, as long as she provided the clerk and each member of council a copy of the bylaw being proposed, and the reasons for the proposal.
“Under this section of the Act, the mayor does not have, it does not spell out any timing or notice requirements, so she is able to do that now,” Marshall advised council. “And that was confirmed with Mr. Mascarin.”
At that point, Cabral left the meeting and did not return, even to vote.
Coughlin, as directed by strong mayor powers, read the bylaw aloud and provided her reasons for introducing it. She said the bylaw could potentially support the provincial priority set out in legislation to build 1.5 million new residential units by Dec. 31, 2031 in a number of ways:
It realizes a potential opportunity to create new housing units
It could potentially support the provincial priority of constructing and maintaining infrastructure to support housing
It could support the province’s desire for a local solution and it expecting a framework agreement to assist in its mandate.
On July 2, 2025, Springwater council passed a resolution to revoke its support for two MZOs — The Remington Group at 727 Bayfield St. N., and Paul Sadlon Communities at 742 Bayfield St. N. — unless they are serviced through the Midhurst water and wastewater treatment facilities.
On Aug. 14, council received an update in closed session from the Office of the Provincial Land and Development Facilititator where new information was presented that could be impacted.
When the vote was called, the township clerk reminded council that it was being done under strong mayor powers.
“So, just more than one-third of members of council need to vote in the affirmative to pass the bylaw,” Marshall said.
In a recorded vote, Fisher, Moore and Alexander voted against the mayor’s proposed bylaw. Coughlin, Garwood and Thompson voted in favour and the bylaw was passed.