Dear Editor:
RE: Cost of Centre Wellington operations centre climbs to $44 million, Nov. 21.
The new operations facility in Centre Wellington, the Taj Mahal, truly has all the bells and whistles of the uber-elitist environmental crowd but it now is four times the cost at over $44 million, just for the first phase. The second phase is another $10.7 million but that is 10 years out, so look for that to go up.
Nice financial bait and switch to lower the cost to get approval. Every meeting about it is an add-on to make this even more expensive. The consultant was flubbing around answering why Brantford and Barrie were used as cost comparisons. Brantford is a regional government and Barrie is a city of over 145,000 and a single-tier entity. It turns out they did not do a real apples-to-apples comparison with second-tier municipalities like Centre Wellington.
The consultant just had them as customers and it gave a favourable comparison to the mayor and council. Pathetic rationalizing. This will be the largest debt-financed project in Centre Wellington history.
The secret words to clinch the deal will be “no tax increases no matter what the cost. It is all development charges and selling land assets.” Everyone should be thrilled right?
Unfortunately, development charges, which account for 8% of every new housing unit, will have to go up. Development charges in Ontario have increased between 144 and 200% over the last 20 years. Housing has increased 330% on average.
The More Homes Built Faster Act 2022 states that non-profit and affordable rental and owned housing is exempt from development charges. Any real effort to make even 10% of our housing affordable will mean that council will have to say no because no development charges can be applied.
Say bye-bye to significant affordable housing projects in Centre Wellington. The new Taj Mahal for the privileged staff just can’t afford to let that happen.
Stephen Kitras,
Centre Wellington