Members of The Blue Mountains council have expressed wariness about plans by the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority to spend $3 million to renovate its administrative building.
At council’s meeting on Nov. 12, authority CAO Tim Lanthier attended to make two presentations to council about the authority’s draft budget for 2025 and its plans to undertake a significant renovation of its office building near Owen Sound.
Lanthier explained that the authority is planning a $3 million renovation of its building, which is located in Georgian Bluffs on the Inglis Falls property just outside of Owen Sound. The administrative building was built in the mid 70s and requires a significant amount of work and upgrades.
Goals of the project included:
- Making the building fully accessible.
- Improve work and meeting space
- An improved public entrance for the building, with a small addition of less than 500 square feet
- Make the building more energy efficient
- Address current issues with the roof and the skylight
The authority plans to use reserve funding of $800,000 - $900,000 for the project and would borrow the rest and pay it back over 15 years. The Blue Mountains’ share of the annual mortgage would be $53,000.
“We’re looking to renovate our administration centre. It hasn’t had an overhaul in the last 50 years,” said Lanthier, who outlined a number of issues and limitations with the current layout of the building. The accessibility of the building is a huge, huge item.”
Lanthier said the authority has been looking at the issue for several years and settled on a renovation to improve the existing building and in recognition that other options aren’t possible.
“It’s a project that needs to happen. It’s not feasible for us to build new,” he said. “We’re dealing with a 50-year-old building. The investment is required, putting band-aids on over and over is not going to make the costs go away.”
In his earlier presentation on the draft budget, Lanthier explained that the authority has held the line of the overall budget and is projecting a total levy increase of just $92,507 in 2025. The Blue Mountains share of that amount would be $32,000. The conservation authority’s levy is assigned to member municipalities according to current value assessment of properties.
Members of council were not pleased with the possibility of a budget increase of more than $85,000 ($32,000 for the operating budget and $53,000 for the proposed renovation) for the conservation authority.
“Sometimes when we can’t afford things, maybe we shouldn’t do them,” said Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon. “The timing is horrible, obviously. It’s a big pill to swallow.”
Coun. June Porter said 2025 was going to be very tough on municipal budgets.
“It really is not a good time,” said Porter. “This is going to be a fiscally challenging budget.”
Council made no decision on the matter at the meeting. The conservation authority’s overall budget, with the operating and capital costs, will come to council for approval at a future meeting.
