There are winners and losers in the province's growth plan released for Simcoe County, pleasing some local municipal politicians and angering others.

In Collingwood, the plan provides for more people, but fewer jobs, but overall, Mayor Chris Carrier is pleased with the document entitled, Simcoe Area: Strategic Vision for Growth.

In the provincial document, Collingwood would be allocated a population of 33,400 by 2031. This is 3,200 more than the municipality was slated to be allocated in the County of Simcoe's Official Plan.

Under the plan, the town was allocated 13,500 jobs, which is 900 less than under the County plan.

Carrier said he is pleasantly surprised with the province's Strategic Vision for Growth in Simcoe County that was released last week.

Carrier said he was opposed to the county's Official Plan because it went against the province's Places to Grow Act and was promoting sprawl.

Collingwood is one of five growth areas in the county, including Barrie, Orillia, Bradford and Alliston.

Carrier is pleased with some of the guiding principles of the document, including intensification and protecting watersheds such as the Nottawasaga River.

"It clearly does support the principles of walkability and public transit," he said.

"I do have a concern about the reduction of jobs," Carrier said, adding people are working longer and a lot of baby boomers will work past 65.

At Monday's council meeting, Councillor Ian Chadwick asked for a staff report, which will be given to council at the planning meeting in July. The town has until Sept. 2 to make comments.

In Clearview Township, government's proposal to redistribute population allocations in Simcoe County clearly angered  Township Mayor Ken Ferguson after Clearview saw its allocation of 26,000 people cut by 7,200.

Ferguson and other municipal leaders across the county spent months determining where population would be situated between now and 2031, only to have the province move the numbers around in the new plan, saying the changes are best for everyone.

"To get stonewalled by the province like this - after we went through this exercise, is mud in your face," Ferguson said. "I'm pissed off - we spent hours on this. We held special meetings. What was the point?"

He said the province's changes make it clear municipal politicians are redundant.

"This shows we're redundant as mayors and councillors," Ferguson said. "We might as well go home."

He said the growth plan exercise that municipalities took part in at the county level was nothing more than a farce organized by the province.

"It was an exercise organized by bureaucrats at the province to make it look like they were engaging us when in fact they had their minds made up long ago."

The population allocation for Clearview, with its current population of 14,600, means the municipality won't be able to accommodate all of the development interest in the municipality, the mayor said.

"As far as I'm concerned the province can deal with that hot potato," Ferguson said.  

The County of Simcoe took a less aggressive stance than Clearview's mayor.

In a news release issued Friday, the county said: "Although the County of Simcoe worked towards a local solution and acknowledges the efforts of the 17 municipalities that participated in that process, the county also expresses respect and understanding for the province's position and efforts in this matter."

Warden Tony Guergis added that: "We are aware that there have been announcements and there are additional announcements coming from various provincial ministries. We want to consider all of this information and input from all of the county's partners to ensure the picture is complete."

Guergis said that in the coming weeks the county will have meetings with various partners and discuss the province's position at county council.

In Wasaga Beach, Mayor Cal Patterson said the 26,000 allocation was a nice sized population for Wasaga Beach looking ahead to 2031, considering seasonal residents are not included in the proposed projected growth figures.

He said overall he has mixed feelings about the new growth allocation for Simcoe County, released by the provincial government Thursday.

"I always felt that the 35,000 was a bit higher than I'd like to see our community be but 26,000 is lower than I thought we would be," said Patterson. "Keeping in mind they are looking for input and our input will be to remind them that we have infrastructure and water and sewer capacity for 38,000 people. They are allocating more growth for Collingwood that doesn't have the infrastructure to support it, which is a contradiction, as far as I am concerned, in the whole process."

Wasaga Beach's current population is between 15,000 and 16,000 and Patterson says there are an additional 4,000 to 5,000 seasonal residents.

"As we grow to be 26,000, we may have another 10,000 seasonal people. They have the housing unit and all the services but they are not counted as part of our population.

He said businesses may be disappointed by the proposed reduction in allocated growth but many residents will be pleased.

"They moved here to live in a smaller community anyway," said Patterson.

With files from Michael Gennings and Trina Berlo