Barrie Unlimited?

As a followup to my post about the Toronto Unlimited logo, Barrie has decided in all it's wisdom to use the same designer, Liz Gill, for their rebranding campaign.

By all appearances, she is a very competent designer with some pretty big projects under her belt. However, the Toronto Unlimited logo has spawned much debate and has been panned by blogs, articles and designers alike. This begs the question; why are they essentially repeating the scenario which led to a loathed identity by using the same designer and committee process?

Also, I thought that Barrie's big thing was that they want to come out of the shadow of Toronto, and establish themselves in their own right. What is the logic of achieving this by mimicking Toronto in the creation of their brand?