ELORA – Centre Wellington council’s special meeting on Nov. 8 was short, but it certainly wasn’t sweet.
During the 21-minute meeting councillor Bob Foster accused staff of withholding important information and Mayor Kelly Linton called out Foster and threatened to remove him from the meeting if there was another outburst.
Managing director of corporate services Dan Wilson presented council with a recommendation to approve a borrowing bylaw to allow the township to fund the purchase of land for a new operations centre through Ontario Infrastructure Lands Corporation (OILC).
Council approved the purchase of 965 Gartshore St. in Fergus in a closed session on Sept. 20.
While the price was $3.95 million, extra expenses such as land transfer taxes, title insurance and legal fees have brought the total to $4.4 million Wilson said.
He said 93 per cent of the project is growth related and will come from development charges. The remaining seven per cent will come from the land sale reserve.
“Nothing will come from water or wastewater rates or taxation rates,” Wilson said.
Councillor Bob Foster thought the debt load was too high and would “hamstring” other projects. He said the purchase price, approved at $3.95 million, would actually cost $5.3 million when interest was added.
He accused staff of “once again not providing full and accurate information” and predicted the actual cost of the operations centre, budgeted at $27 million including the land purchase, will come in at $35 or $36 million.
“I don’t know where you’re getting your numbers from,” Linton said as he invited Wilson to respond.
Wilson said the township has a 10-year forecast for debt capacity and is well within provincial guidelines.
And in terms of development charges, the operations centre makes up a small portion of all the growth-related needs in the forecast to 2041 and did not severely impact the development charge rate previously approved by council.
He said it was smarter to use debt to finance growth-related projects than to have those costs borne by taxpayers.
Foster suggested interest would add $1.3 million to the project and called a point of order when Wilson was trying to speak, but Linton wouldn’t allow it.
“You’ve questioned my integrity by questioning my calculation. I’d like to speak to that,” Foster said.
“Councillor Foster, you’ve just told the managing director of corporate services that he was misleading. That, actually, is a point of privilege,” Linton replied.
“My calling you to task on the numbers you are pulling out of the air is not a point of order. That’s requiring evidence of something you are saying that’s completely misaligned from what we’re hearing from our staff. There’s no point of order here.”
Foster did not accept that.
“You accuse me of pulling numbers out of the air. That’s an attack on my integrity,” Foster said.
“One more outburst and I’m going to ask you to leave the meeting,” Linton responded.
Councillor Stephan Kitras wanted to know the total amount of interest that will be paid over the 20-year loan period, but Wilson did not have the answer at hand.
He said the current interest rate with OILC is 2.94% and the agency would provide a final rate when the application is approved.
Kitras said the township overpaid for the land and could have found another suitable parcel of land for half the price, but he provided no further details on that assertion.
Councillor Kirk McElwain thought Foster had raised some good questions but had nothing further to add to the discussion.
Councillors Steven VanLeeuwen, Neil Dunsmore and Ian MacRae spoke in favour of the plan and noted using debt to purchase the land had already been presented to council in previous meetings.
In a recorded vote, Foster, McElwain and Kitras voted against seeking a loan from OILC, while Linton, Dunsmore, MacRae and VanLeeuwen voted in favour.
Wilson said it’s a rigorous process to get a loan from OILC and passing the bylaw is the first step.
