By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
With four Council Meetings over a ten-day period, it’s a very busy time of year for staff and council members at Northern Bruce Peninsula. In addition to the day-to-day business of the municipality, there is also a 2024 budget to create and an arena/community centre to renovate.
A regular Council Meeting was held on January 8 as well as a Special Meeting to consider the 2024 capital budget. On January 15, a Special Meeting (cancelled due to weather and closure of Highway 6) was supposed to consider operating budgets and on January 17, a Special Meeting will address the budget for the renovation of the Lion’s Head arena/community centre.
The first draft of the 2024 budget was included in the Agenda for the January 8 Special Meeting. It proposes a 7.2% increase in the tax rate which, coupled with a 1.67% increase in the total assessed value of all properties, would generate a 9.11% increase in net tax revenue to a total of $8,399,770. (The total value of all property in MNBP is $1,746,403,018, which is an increase of $28,609,600 over the 2023 total.)
For residential properties, the 2024 mill rates will increase taxes by $33.65 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
The largest single component of our municipality’s expenses is our 442 km of municipal roads, which normally consume more than half of the municipality’s operations budget and, in the long term, more than half of the capital budget as well.
But this year is a bit different. More on that in a moment.
Road building and road maintenance materials have seen steep price increases over the last five years, especially the last three years. As Public Works Manager Troy Cameron told Council on January 8, surface treatment gravel took a huge jump in 2022 and another jump in 2023. He is anticipating a further 10-15% increase in 2024. According to the consultant study the municipality commissioned three years ago, we should be spending $1.4 million per year to keep our paved roads from deteriorating further (and more than that if we want an improvement). What we have actually been spending is about $1 million per year. Maintaining our gravel roads adds another $1.1 million per year. What’s worse, the consultant’s projections are based on 2022/2023 prices so the actual costs will probably be higher.
In addition to maintenance, Public Works is projected to spend $4.8 million in capital expenses this year — $720,000 in equipment, $3,015,295 in construction (roads, bridges, sidewalks) and $1,085,000 in resurfacing.
$1.64 million of Public Works’ capital budget comes out of various municipal reserves; $433,000 comes from federal and provincial grants. The rest comes out of this year’s budget.
But far and away the biggest project this year is the renovation of the arena/community centre building in Lion’s Head. The municipality had earmarked $10 million for the project, more than a quarter of which is federal and provincial grants. But inflation has taken a large bite out of what $10 million will buy.
Ball Construction, the firm MNBP hired to act as Construction Manager for the project, recently submitted an “order of magnitude budget” for each of the facilities MNBP would like to incorporate into the arena complex.
The total cost is $16 million, not $10 million. Council will have to decide whether to expand the budget or make drastic cuts to the facility.
Ball Construction’s report to Council appears in the Agenda for the January17 Special Meeting. It can be found online.
Tobermory Fire Department Floods Skating Rink
With the temperature dropping well below freezing and the forecast saying it will stay there for weeks, Tobermory’s Fire Department has flooded a skating rink at the baseball diamond behind the Tobermory Community Centre.
The rink should be up and running by the time this newspaper goes to print.
Tobermory and Northern Bruce Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Name Change
Tobermory’s Chamber of Commerce has jumped through all but one of the necessary hoops to change its name to Tobermory and Northern Bruce Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. The name change reflects a broadening of the organization’s reach and scope — it now has members from around the entire municipality and advocates on their behalf.
The final “hoop” in the name change process is recognition by the federal government’s registry of Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade. The necessary paperwork has been submitted.
