WELLINGTON NORTH – Council here has approved a staff recommendation to spend $406,781 in grant funds for 10 projects aimed at modernizing delivery of township services.
In 2019, the township received $618,175 from a $200-million provincial modernization and efficiency grant and staff wanted the money earmarked based on “recent correspondence from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing,” according to an Oct. 25 staff report to council.
The report stated funding must be “spent or allocated in an upcoming municipal budget or through a separate report to council” or the township would risk not qualifying for future modernization grant funds.
Councillor Sherry Burke said during the Oct. 25 council meeting she believes the project recommendations are good but wanted more council discussion before approving.
“I think some of these projects that are listed on here are a little bit premature to pass, seeing as we’re going to discuss some of these later on,” she said, referring to upcoming budget deliberations in the months head.
CAO Mike Givens cautioned council the province may be coming out with additional modernization funds and said “unless you have allocated the initial funds from 2019, you’re not eligible for future intakes of the modernization [funds].”
“Part of the reason of brining the report forward is to allocate the dollars so that we might be eligible for additional modernization funds from the province,” Givens said.
He later said “there may not be additional dollars … so it may be a moot point.”
The intent of the staff report, Givens clarified, is indeed to move forward with the recommended projects, but he added they would be subject to change and would be brought forward to council in the future if projects did change.
Township staff’s projects include:
– $5,000 for bylaw and property standard enforcement;
– $4,000 for fibre optic installation in Kenilworth;
– $100,000 for hybrid vehicles and charging stations in Kenilworth;
– $12,000 for key fobs;
– $113,000 for maintenance manager, work order and records management software;
– $75,000 for a welcome centre and work stations at the Mount Forest and District Sports Complex;
– $10,000 for radio and dash cams for operations fleet vehicles;
– $4,000 for facility security cameras; and
– $83,780 for consultants to review delivery of services.
Burke said she wanted more information on the Mount Forest sports complex welcoming centre and work stations and also questioned whether hybrid vehicles would be tied to transportation plans moving forward.
“I just don’t think that there’s enough information on some of these projects,” Burke said, in part.
Givens said funds allocated doesn’t necessarily mean funds spent and projects could be jigged around differently in the future if changes are needed.
“I’m not trying to force the issue,” Givens said, adding council needed to be comfortable moving forward on recommended projects.
“If that’s not the case then we provide either more information or we update the list to reflect the projects that council is supportive of,” he said.
Councillor Dan Yake echoed Burke’s position.
“Moving forward in the next little while, I think we could have a more in-depth kind of discussion or you know, proposal or whatever you want to call it, brought forward to explain exactly what we’re doing,” Yake said.
But both councillors quickly acquiesced to a suggestion by Mayor Andy Lennox to go ahead and accept staff’s recommendations with the caveat more information on the projects be presented to council, after their approval.
Council approved allocating the modernization funds to the recommendations as written with direction to staff to provide more information to council.
Those projects total $406,780 of the $618,175 grant.
The difference would be spent on auxiliary fees like “IT initiatives” and previously approved items like a website redesign and fire department modernization.
