Tiny, also known as Tiny Township, is a township in Simcoe County, south-central Ontario, Canada. The Township of Tiny can be found in the southern Georgian Bay region and is approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) long or 410 square kilometres (160 sq mi).

Tiny
Township of Tiny
Canton de Tiny (French)
Wyebridge
Wyebridge
Tiny is located in Simcoe County
Tiny
Tiny
Tiny is located in Southern Ontario
Tiny
Tiny
Coordinates: 44°41′N 79°57′W / 44.683°N 79.950°W / 44.683; -79.950
Country Canada
Province Ontario
CountySimcoe
Settled1800s
Incorporated1868
Government
 • MayorDavid Evans
 • MPsAdam Chambers
 • MPPsJill Dunlop
Area
 • Land336.93 km2 (130.09 sq mi)
Population
 (2016)[2]
 • Total
11,787
 • Density35.0/km2 (91/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)
Postal code FSA
L0L 2J0 & L0L 2T0
Area code(s)705, 249
Websitewww.tiny.ca

Communities

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The township comprises the communities of Ardmore Beach, Balm Beach, Belle-Eau-Claire Beach, Bluewater Beach, Cawaja Beach, Cedar Point, Clearwater Beach, Cove Beach, Crescent Beach, Coutenac Beach, Deanlea Beach, Dorion's Corner, East Tay Point, Edmore Beach, Georgian Bay Estates, Georgian Heights, Georgian Highlands, Georgian Sands Beach, Georgina Beach, Gibson, Ishpiming Beach, Kettle's Beach, Kingswood Acres, Lafontaine, Lafontaine Beach, Laurin, Mary Grove, Mountain View Beach, Nottawaga Beach, Ossossane Beach, Perkinsfield, Randolph, Rowntree Beach, Sandcastle Beach, Sandy Bay, Sawlog Bay, Silver Birch Beach, Sloane Point, Thunder Beach, Tiny Beach, Toanche, Wahnekewaning Beach, Wendake Beach, Woodland Beach, Wyebridge, Wyevale and Wymbolwood Beach.[citation needed]

 
Lafontaine

Lafontaine

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Lafontaine was originally called Sainte-Croix (French for "Holy Cross"). It was renamed Lafontaine to honour the politician Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, one of the early Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada.

In honour of the region's French history, Lafontaine hosts the annual Le Festival du Loup in July, a festival of francophone music and culture which celebrates the death of a wolf that terrorised the village in the 19th century.

Geography

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Tiny Township is located on the peninsula that separates Severn Sound and Nottawasaga Bay at the south end of Georgian Bay, and has a coastline of 70 kilometres (43 mi). It extends southward into the Wye River watershed. The municipality is home to Awenda Provincial Park on Georgian Bay at the north end, and the Tiny Marsh Provincial Wildlife Area, source of the Wye River, in the south.[3]

Tiny contains an artesian well that produces some of the purest spring water in the world.[4][5] Many residents were concerned that a proposed garbage dump over the aquifer would contaminate the water, and a series of protests achieved a one-year moratorium on the dump.[6] The dump's certificate of approval was later revoked by the province in 2010.[7]

History

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The township was named in 1822 after a pet dog of Lady Sarah Maitland (1792–1873), wife of Sir Peregrine Maitland, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. Two other adjoining townships were also named for her pet dogs, Tay and Flos (now Springwater Township).[8]

Humans have occupied the area now known as Tiny Township for at least 11,000 years. Excavations in what is now Awenda Provincial Park in the 1970s uncovered four archaeological sites dating from the Paleo-Indian period.[9] For much of the Pre-Contact period, the Indigenous peoples of the area would have been hunter-gathers living mostly in small family groupings which would come together in larger groupings during particular times of the year to collect resources such as fish or berries.[10]

Around 1100 C.E., agriculture was introduced to south Central Ontario, with people growing corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and sunflowers. This led to the development of villages centred around longhouses. By 1600 C.E., the five nations of the Huron-Wendat Confederacy had established their villages in the territory they called Wendake, a part of which included what we now call Tiny Township.[10]

Starting in 1615, French Catholic missionaries, first Recollets and then, in 1625, Jesuits, began proselytizing among the Huron-Wendat in what was then called Huronia.[11] The Jesuits built the mission Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and wrote extensively about the Huron-Wendat culture. In 1636, Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf observed and wrote about The Huron Feast of the Dead which occurred at the Huron-Wendat village of Ossossané which was located in what is now Tiny Township.

Diseases brought by the French in this period had a devastating effect on the Huron-Wendat. It is estimated that circa 1600, just prior to European contact, the total population of Wendake was between 20 000 and 25 000 people. However, a series of epidemics between 1634 and 1642 reduced the population to about 9500 people. Attacks by the Haudenosaunee in 1648 and 1649 dispersed the Wendat people, with most traditionalists joining the Haudenosaunee, while others joined with the related, neighbouring Petun people. The remaining Huron-Wendat who followed the missionaries fled to French Territory.[11]

In the 1700s, as the threat from the Haudenosaunee waned, Ojibwe people began to move back into the area. In 1798, the Ojibwe (Chippeway) and the British signed Penetanguishene Bay Purchase turning some of the land which would become Tiny Township over to the British who soon after established a naval base at Penetanguishene. A subsequent treaty in 1815, the Lake Simcoe–Lake Huron Purchase turned over the remaining part of the land which would become Tiny Township.

By the mid-19th century, families from Quebec began moving to the Tiny Township area for the cheap and fertile land to farm. The Baldwin Act of 1850 established the Corporation of the United Townships of Tiny and Tay. In 1868, the townships were separated through a Simcoe County by-law.[3]

Demographics

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In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Tiny had a population of 12,966 living in 5,434 of its 9,699 total private dwellings, a change of 10% from its 2016 population of 11,787. With a land area of 335.05 km2 (129.36 sq mi), it had a population density of 38.7/km2 (100.2/sq mi) in 2021.[12]

Canada census – Tiny, Ontario community profile
20162011
Population11,787 ( 4.9% from 2011)11,232 ( 4.4% from 2006)
Land area336.93 km2 (130.09 sq mi)336.83 km2 (130.05 sq mi)
Population density35.0/km2 (91/sq mi)33.3/km2 (86/sq mi)
Median age53.1 (M: 52.7, F: 53.7)
Private dwellings9,712 (total)  9,564 (total) 
Median household income$69,915
Notes: Includes corrections and updates.
References: 2016[13] 2011[14] earlier[15][16]
 
Sandy beach on Nottawasaga Bay near Lafontaine

Services

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The township's fire protection services are provided by the Township of Tiny Fire and Emergency Services. The service has a complement of 95 firefighters operating 15 pieces of fire apparatus from five stations located in Lafontaine, Wyevale, North West Basin, Wyebridge and Woodland Beach. The township falls within the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police and is policed by members of the Southern Georgian Bay and Huronia West detachments.

Notable people

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Tiny census profile". 2011 Census of Population. Statistics Canada. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  2. ^ "Census Profile, 2016 Census: Tiny, Township". Statistics Canada. 8 February 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Township Quick Facts". Township of Tiny. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  4. ^ Shotyk, William (2008-05-04), "Remarkable Natural Filtration", Canadian Water Treatment, archived from the original on 2011-07-06
  5. ^ Mittelstaedt, Martin (2009-05-04), "The battle over the world's purest water", The Globe and Mail, pp. A8, archived from the original on 2009-05-07
  6. ^ Friesen, Joe (2009-08-29), "Site 41", The Globe and Mail, pp. M1
  7. ^ "Province buries Site 41 dump site in Simcoe", Toronto Star May 26, 2010
  8. ^ Rayburn, Alan (1997), Place Names of Ontario (University of Toronto Press), Toronto-Buffalo-London, ISBN 0-8020-7207-0), pp.345
  9. ^ Friends of Awenda Provincial Park (2012), "Cultural Heritage" http://www.awendapark.ca/?page_id=79
  10. ^ a b Friends of Awenda Provincial Park (2012), "Native Occupation" http://www.awendapark.ca/?page_id=375
  11. ^ a b Heidenreich, C.E (2011) "Huron-Wendat" The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/huron/
  12. ^ "Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions (municipalities), Ontario". Statistics Canada. February 9, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  13. ^ "2016 Community Profiles". 2016 Canadian census. Statistics Canada. August 12, 2021. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  14. ^ "2011 Community Profiles". 2011 Canadian census. Statistics Canada. March 21, 2019. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  15. ^ "2006 Community Profiles". 2006 Canadian census. Statistics Canada. August 20, 2019.
  16. ^ "2001 Community Profiles". 2001 Canadian census. Statistics Canada. July 18, 2021.
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