By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
There have been three MNBP (Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula) council meetings since the last issue of this newspaper. Important issues were discussed.
Tobermory Daycare Property
On July 8, Council discussed the future of the former Tobermory Daycare/former St Edmunds Township office at 3 Centennial Drive in Tobermory. The building — which sits on several acres of property including hundreds of feet of highway frontage — is structurally sound but 60+ years old and the basement has chronic flooding problems. The CAO Report suggested five possible actions: sell the property; tear down the building and turn the property into green space, fix it up and rent it out, turn it into a parking lot and welcome centre or do nothing.
The welcome centre and parking lot grabbed everybody’s attention. The other options all seemed less attractive.
Deputy Mayor Rod Anderson kicked off the discussion, stating that the parking/shuttle intrigued him. He wondered if the Chamber of Commerce would be interested in running paid parking at that location; he pointed out that 50 parking spaces at $20 each would be a thousand dollars a day.
Councillor Smokey Golden said “all I know for certain right now is we shouldn’t sell it”. The school is there and if the municipality didn’t own that land, they’d “have no control of what anybody did with it”. She pointed out a drawback of that site — the Centennial Drive intersection is on a curve on Hwy 6, so people might be almost past it before they notice. She also noted that the property is not hooked up to sewers, although the main sewage line is just across the Highway.
Councillor Golden offered some random perspectives on using the property:
• drainage issues are why this property didn’t work in the first place. Nobody’s going to be able to divert all that water in a way that doesn’t affect something;
• the Centennial Drive property would be a great place for an outdoor rink;
• there were so many cars driving around the village of Tobermory on Canada Day weekend, all looking for a place to park. That makes for a lot of very unhappy people.
• we need extra parking and we need a shuttle on weekends.
Councillor Todd Dowd began by referencing an email I had sent to staff and Council, substantially similar to the Publisher’s Column in the last issue of this newspaper. He said he had spent a lot of time in his tractor, thinking about the Centennial Drive property and he felt we needed to go one step further. The daycare centre should be torn down. A new building should be constructed there, with space for the food bank, a new Meeting Place, washrooms, a welcome centre — then tear down the Meeting Place too.
He said those two old buildings are money pits and we would be forever throwing money at them if we maintain them. He recommended a simple, functional building to meet all those needs, but built entirely above grade, with the entrances at the gable ends so they are covered.
Deputy Mayor Anderson noted that the municipality would probably have to pay to put a turning lane on Hwy 6. But he agreed that the Centennial Drive property would be an excellent place to put a skating rink.
Mayor Milt McIver applauded the variety of suggestions that had come out. He agreed with Councillor Dowd that the existing buildings are a money pit and he liked the idea of combining all the functions of both into a single building. He agreed with Councillor Golden that it was concerning that the entrance to the property is on a curve on Hwy 6. He noted that poor sight lines have been a problem at the information centre building at Ferndale.
Councillor Golden pointed out that the entrance could be moved to the north edge of the property. Deputy Mayor Anderson suggested that you could perhaps enter the property via Dunks Bay Road.
Meeting Place Property
The Meeting Place building came up for discussion at Council’s July 22 Meeting.
Facilities Manager Mark Coleman explained that the HVAC units at the Meeting Place building need to be replaced and that the roof leaks in many places, including around the HVAC units. It would be very difficult to address one of those issues without also addressing the other. The repair cost would be $140,000 total.
Councillors Dowd and Golden objected to putting that much money into a deteriorating building.
Deputy Mayor Anderson pointed out that a long-term solution — a new building — is not going to happen for at least three or four years. The process wouldn’t even begin until the daycare building is demolished. Fixing the roof on the existing Meeting Place would give us a few more years to make up our minds. $70,000 for 36 months is a worthwhile investment for a building that sees a lot of use. He noted that the HVAC units can be salvaged and used elsewhere.
Mayor McIver agreed, saying we will need at least another three or four years out of the existing building. He pointed out that we will need to be a lot more generous (with our capital budgets) in future than we have been in past.
Councillor Aman Sohrab agreed that we need to maintain the existing building until an alternative is finished.
Council passed the motion, although Councillor Dowd voted against.
Renegotiate with Bruce County?
There has been strong sentiment in recent years that Northern Bruce Peninsula does not get good value in return for the $7 million it sends to Bruce County every year.
Some months ago, Council voted to hire a consultant to explore this idea, to find whether the complaints were valid. StrategyCorp was hired to conduct a study and report back to MNBP. Their report was presented at a Special Meeting of Council on July 22.
The StrategyCorp presenters offered next to nothing in the way of analysis of the cost benefit equation between MNBP and the County; they noted that in 2022, MNBP contributed 13% of the County’s levy revenues and received 8% of the allotments. The presenters pointed out the limitations of basing an argument on a single year’s numbers, but did not look at other years or discuss longer term trends.
They concentrated instead on the legislative framework and the politics of changing the relationship between MNBP and Bruce County.
They noted that it would be very difficult to change the County levy as it is provincially mandated.
They told anecdotes about current and past politicians. They talked about the tensions among finance, engineering and planning departments. They talked about how nearly impossible things look much more manageable if you phase them in over four years. They talked about the frustrating unpredictability of provincial assistance.
Councillor Golden summed it up: “So we can’t negotiate what we pay — we need to get more bang for our buck, not whine about our contribution…”
The presenters stressed the degree to which everything is political. They suggested that MNBP frame its complaints in terms of unmet needs. They talked briefly about “cost compensation grants”, which some counties use to offset unequal distribution of county resources.
But they repeatedly reminded Council that lack of help from the Government of Ontario is a much more pressing problem than Bruce County.
They left Council and staff with a lot to think about. A Staff Report will be presented at a future meeting.
