It wasn't that Tay Township had been denied a provincial grant for infrastructure funding which left council members confused, so much as why that was the case.
At the Tay Township committee of the whole meeting, council and staff laughed during an operational services report regarding the Victoria Harbour wastewater treatment plant expansion, as the project was denied a Housing-Enabling Water System Fund grant by the province for an interesting reason.
“I did just receive an email,” explained operational services general manager Shawn Berriault during the meeting. “We questioned why we weren’t successful.
“I’m commenting after just reading it, because I don’t understand it – is ‘project readiness’. We’re actually out for tender, so I don’t know how the Ontario government could feel we’re not ready for this project,” Berriault stated.
A tender for the plant expansion was sent in February and closed in June with results from four bidders each ranging near $48 million; $21 million over budget as the township had budgeted $27 million. Tay applied for the first round of funding investments from Housing-Enabling Water System Fund, which had given $970 million to 54 projects in 60 municipalities across the province.
Recently, Midland received a $30 million grant for its water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure through the grant, which Midland Mayor Bill Gordon described as “truly life-altering money”.
Berriault continued that Tay staff would continue to apply for the second round of funding after reviewing the reasons why the request was denied. “It just pushes back any development in the Harbour for another six months or so,” he added.
Mayor Ted Walker agreed with the report recommendation to put current upgrade designs on hold while the township continued to apply for future grants and funding as they become available.
“There’s really no other way we can proceed,” said Walker. “Also, (I’m) very disappointed that the province didn’t see fit to provide us funding with this project. They keep talking about providing housing, how important it is, how they’re going to change the plannings so that we can build more houses; and yet we are stagnated in Victoria Harbour because of the sewage – wastewater plant being at capacity.
“When they cite one of the reasons as being project readiness, it just makes me laugh. You’ve got to come up with a better excuse than that,” Walker noted.
Coun. Gerard LaChapelle called it a “cop-out” and suggested Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop be contacted to help with the matter; Walker noted that he had spoken to her following the announcement .
Said Walker: “I did talk to our MPP about two weeks ago to express my disappointment; and actually, she expressed her disappointment as well that we weren’t successful as she knew how important it was to us. So, (we’re) keeping our fingers crossed for this next intake.”
LaChapelle also asked Berriault about the applicant pool of municipalities, receiving the response that if applicants weren’t ready for the first round then they could reapply, thus increasing those numbers.
“The one saving grace,” added Berriault, “is if you received a grant, you can’t reapply. That is a good thing. “Penetanguishene didn’t get their funding either; one other local municipality (Midland) did.”
Deputy Mayor Barry Norris expressed hope that preliminary figures could help with future financing.
“I think maybe down the road we can get some numbers to do with debenturing, and why we’re struggling with this. If we don’t get funding, basically those (project cost) numbers are so high that we won’t be able to afford it,” said Norris. “I think it just sets why it’s so critical we rely on funding to do this.”
A future report is anticipated for council once responses from potential funding options and applications are explored.
The Victoria Harbour wastewater treatment plant expansion phase 2 options report, including provincial response and proposed site plans, can be found in the agenda page on the Tay Township website.
Tay council meets for committee of the whole meetings every second Wednesday of the month, and regular council meetings every fourth Wednesday of the month. Archives and livestreams of council meetings are available through the Tay Township YouTube channel.
