Twin-pad arena plan on hold for a year
City council voted a final time on Monday to put off building a twin-pad arena and aquatics complex at Trent University until 2020, since a provincial government grant of $18 million isn’t expected after all.
Although two citizens asked council to find an entirely new site for the arena — on grounds that the Trent lands are in a wildlife sanctuary, and the arena would be built partly on a wetland — council voted against looking elsewhere.
Council is still planning its $53-million arena and aquatics on Pioneer Rd. at Trent.
It’s meant as a replacement for the aging Northcrest Arena, which will close as soon as the new arena opens.
Originally the city intended to build a twin-pad replacement arena, and then added the pool. But now the finances are in question.
On Dec. 3, councillors gave preliminary approval to delay building the complex until 2020 (rather than starting in 2019).
Activist Roy Brady asked council not to build at Trent University, saying there is a petition online with 1,000 signatures asking that council look for a new site.
Brady was reading to council a presentation prepared by Jo Hayward-Haines, who couldn’t be at the meeting on Monday.
Susan Chow, a botanist from Trent University, told council they ought to reconsider the site because it would invade a wetland that may be provincially significant (it hasn’t been evaluated to find out for sure).
She also said there are at least two species at risk living on the site: the wood thrust and the Eastern wood-pewee (two bird species).
But council didn’t debate or discuss the matter. In other business Monday:
Draft budget:
Council voted to receive the 2019 draft city budget, which recommends an all-inclusive 2.5 per cent tax increase.
Councillors have until Jan. 14 to review the draft documents before they begin a week of budget talks.
In the meantime, there will be a public meeting on Jan. 9 where people will be able to weigh in on the draft budget at City Hall.
In addition to $70.4 million for construction, the draft budget document recommends spending a $282.1 million to carry out city services.
If adopted as proposed, the draft budget would mean a 2.5 per cent tax increase on your bill. (That’s less than last year, when the tax increase was 2.85 per cent).
For an average taxpayer with a house assessed at $251,700, it would add about $98.52 to the tax bill.
For that homeowner, the total tax bill would be about $4,038.
That's an all-inclusive increase, meaning it includes the municipal taxes plus the education tax, stormwater and sewer surcharge;
Farmers’ market
City council voted a final time to put off granting the board that operates the farmers’ market in Morrow Park an extra year on its licensing agreement.
The board is called the Peterborough District Farmers’ Market Association (PDFMA) and it holds a licensing agreement to operate the market on Saturday mornings on city-owned property at Morrow Park.
Their agreement expires in May 2019; city staff had recommended it be extended until May 2020, but council won’t decide on that until early next year.
A year-long extension on the agreement would have given city staff extra time to develop a bidding process whereby anyone who wants to run the market for five years, from 2020 to 2025, can bid. That’s what staff recommended — but council had other ideas.
On Monday council ordered a new staff report with details on what the bidding process might look like, and how citizens might be consulted on what kind of market they want.
When councillors get that report, early in the new year, they will be expected to decide when they want that bidding process to take place (spring 2019 or 2020) — and also whether to extend the PDFMA’s licensing agreement to 2020;
Coun. Keith Riel said again on Monday he isn’t happy with the way the market is run, however: he noted that wholesalers buy food at the Food Terminal in Toronto and pass it off as homegrown at the market.
But Coun. Lesley Parnell said lots of local farmers and artisans sell homegrown and locally created offerings, and she said boycotting the market hurts those vendors;
Marijuana retail stores
Council voted a final time to allow cannabis stores to set up shop in Peterborough.
Now that cannabis has been legalized, Ontario municipal councils have until Jan. 22 to vote on whether they’d like to allow privately-run cannabis retail stores to operate within their boundaries.
Opting out of having cannabis stores isn't recommended, states a new city staff report, because it turns away investors.
Dr. Rosana Salvaterra, the medical officer of health, said she understands the city would pay a steep price if it didn’t allow retail stores. But she said she has concerns that the city isn’t being given much control over cannabis stores: council cannot limit the number of stores in the city, for instance.
Coun. Lesley Parnell and Coun. Henry Clarke — who are on the health board — spoke of how it will be challenging for Peterborough Public Health to oversee programs related to cannabis without extra funding from the city. Coun. Dean Pappas and Coun. Keith Riel were both adamant that the PPH shouldn’t get any additional money from the city. A full debate on this is expected during city budget talks in January, when the PPH asks for an increase in 2019;
Peterborough Distribution Inc.
Council voted a final time to have staff prepare a new city report, due Jan. 21, as an update on the status of a planned deal to sell Peterborough Distribution Inc. (PDI) to Hydro One.
In late 2016, city council of the day voted 6-5 to sell PDI to Hydro One for $105 million. Although a deal has been struck, the sale hasn't gone through yet. The deal includes only the city’s delivery infrastructure — the wires, poles and transformers of Peterborough Utilities, which deliver electricity to 37,000 customers in Peterborough, Lakefield and Norwood.
Other divisions of the utility will stay in public hands.
Coun. Dean Pappas, a longtime opponent of the deal, said at a meeting on Dec. 3 he expects the new staff report to explain if there’s now “a chance to kill the deal.”
Brock Mission
The new design for the Brock Mission emergency shelter for men is still overbudget by about $1.75 million, but council voted a final time to go ahead with the plan anyway since federal funding for the project is expected.
On Monday, council gave final approval to build a new shelter for $9.3 million, with a new design from local firm Lett Architects.
That’s $1,753,000 higher than the city’s budget of $7,547,000. But the city has applied for $5.3 million in loans and grants from the National Housing Strategy, and a new city staff report states that the city has pre-qualified for the money (and can expect a final decision by March).
If the city gets that $5.3 million, they can combine it with $1,250,000 in fundraising (which is ongoing), plus other grants and money set aside by the city, for a total of $9.3 million.
A staff report states that construction can start in spring for completion in late summer 2020.