By John Francis
There are a few piles of old newspapers in my home office. They sit there, waiting patiently for me to figure out a way to file them.
On top of one of the piles is the Bruce Peninsula Press from Late September of 1998, with a front page picture of the School/Museum in Tobermory as it celebrated its 100th anniversary. It has changed very little since then.
Other than lighthouses, Northern Bruce Peninsula doesn’t have a lot of historic buildings. There are a few settlers’ cabins from the 1870s, including two superb examples that are being preserved and displayed at that same municipal museum in Tobermory.
In the way of public buildings, there are only two from the 19th century: the Eastnor Township Hall (Rotary Hall) in Lion’s Head and the old SS#2 School in Tobermory.
A few years ago, MNBP commissioned a re-imagining of the Rotary Hall. The architect came up with a superb plan that retained the original hall but added functional space on three sides to offer increased capacity, accessibility, washrooms, a cloakroom, food handling space and generally bring the building up to 21st century code. When the construction quotes came in higher than expected, Council backed away from the initiative.
As a result, Lion’s Head (and MNBP) still doesn’t have a 150-seat event hall that is comfortable, accessible and up to code.
St Edmunds SS #2 is a lovely brick schoolhouse, built in 1898. It was converted to a township museum 50 years ago and the artifacts started to flow in. The museum now has an impressive lot of pioneer relics on display and more yet in storage. Unfortunately, the building has seen only minimum maintenance in the last 100 years or so. Everyone who attended the 125th anniversary celebrations in September was struck by the museum’s superb collections, dedicated volunteers and… its urgent need for new windows.
As the artifact collection grows, the need for humidity-controlled storage of those artifacts grows. You can’t do that without properly installed double-glazed windows. And as the collection grows, it’s going to get harder and harder to fit it all into a one-room schoolhouse.
Where am I going with this?
Well, it’s budget time again. MNBP Council is about to begin deliberations on how much it will spend next year. And we’re already behind the 8-ball.
The largest single expenditure in the municipal budget is roads. Mayor McIver recently told me that two major components of road work — single surfacing and microsurfacing — are up more than 40% since 2021. Single surfacing is the process of turning a gravel road into a paved road. Microsurfacing is what they put on existing paved roads every ten years or so to seal the cracks and breaks.
Up 40% in two years…
Building construction costs — which would apply to renovations of our historic buildings — have also risen dramatically.
So Council is going to have a very hard time maintaining the service level we have become accustomed to, let alone contemplating improvements. We’re probably looking at a 10% tax increase just to keep what we have.
And yet we still need improvements in so many areas. Public safety for example…
We need a lot of sidewalks. On Moore Street, Philip Forbes Street and Bannister Hill in Lion’s Head. On Bay Street and Harpur Drive (aka “the front road” and “the back road”) in Tobermory. We need some way for people to walk or cycle on Big Tub Road without putting their lives in danger.
We need boat launches and bridges and bike lanes. We need sewage and water systems in Tobermory and a sewage system in Lion’s Head. And the aforementioned upgrades to the schoolhouse museum and the Rotary Hall. All of this while managing a ten-million-dollar upgrade to the arena/community centre in Lion’s Head.
Crunching Some Numbers
What are the tax implications of these projects? Glad you asked!
Take the Rotary Hall renovation, for example. Guesstimate the budget at a million dollars.
$75,000 a year will amortize a million dollar investment over a period of 20 years. That’s just under 1% of the total municipal budget. Technically, you could borrow the money from the municipality’s own reserves, pay a lower interest rate and reduce the annual cost quite a bit. You might reduce it enough that you could fit new windows for the schoolhouse/museum in Tobermory into that same 1%. Would you be willing to pay 1% more for that? How about making that 3% and we’ll throw in a bunch of unpaved pedestrian and cycle lanes?
If you would be willing to pay a bit more in taxes in return for improvements to public safety and public infrastructure — let your Councillors know. The decision will be made over the next few weeks.
Email your suggestions to info@northernbruce.ca by November 30. Please.
