Town council authorizes administration to pursue grant opportunties

By Ron Giofu

Amherstburg town council has authorized administration to go after a pair of grant opportunities.

Council passed a two-part motion authorizing administration to go after the grants during the Feb. 13 meeting of town council. The first deals with the Gordon House as the town will apply under the Rural Economic Development (RED) Strategic Economic Infrastructure Stream (SEIS) for funding for improvements to the historic Dalhousie St. building. The motion says there was a recommendation required for the grant submission, with that recommendation being that $40,000 be included in the capital budget for improvements and $58,000 from the tax stabilization reserve with the $58,000 to be replenished in 2024 by a transfer from the capital new reserve.

Should the grant not be given, council directed that the $40,000 in 2023 proceed to complete painting and siding and that the allocation of the $58,000 from the tax stabilization reserve be rescinded.

The second part of the motion authorized administration “to submit a project application for the development of a Business Retention and Expansion program to the Rural Economic Development (RED) Economic Diversification and Competitiveness Stream (EDCS), subject to the results of the 2023 budget deliberations approving the Economic Development and Communications position required to execute the project.” Funding required for that submission includes a maximum of up to $92,000 from the tax stabilization reserve and that council delegates authority to CAO Valerie Critchley or her designate to “obtain letters of support and or enter into agreements for in kind or financial contributions from other organizations for this project submission.”

Should the grant for the Business Retention and Expansion project not be awarded, council would rescind the allocation of the $92,000 from the tax stabilization reserve.

Councillor Molly Allaire said “I’m always for grants but there’s a couple of reasons this worries me.” Allaire said a job has to be approved before a grant is potentially issued.

“Are we really making money if we are approving a job and spending money to complete that job?” she asked.

Allaire also questioned approving a portion of the budget ahead of time, which she believed is what they were doing. The money in question for the Gordon House “was more than I was willing to spend on this building.”

“It seems like it’s an all or none situation,” said Allaire.

Allaire noted the entire Gordon House opposition. project is painting and repairing the siding this year with windows to see upgrades in future years. A storage area is also part of the proposed work.

Critchley said the timing “is not ideal” but there is grant funding available and “we certainly never want to leave those grant dollars on the table” if they can be useful.

“We understand the dilemma,” she said, adding one of the applications is due Feb. 23 and administration needed direction on it.

“Certainly we understand the difficulty with timing,” said Critchley.

Councillor Don McArthur wanted to know about the second part of the motion and if the town would get money back if the economic development/communications officer position is not approved at budget time.

“It’s a lot of money to be spending on a heritage building,” she said. “I feel really worrisome approving all of those things. If I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I would be approving all of those items in budget.”

Councillor Linden Crain asked what would happen if no work was done at the Gordon House this year. Director of parks, facilities, recreation and culture Heidi Baillargeon stated this project was brought forward in 2022 but was redirected into replacing the KUBE ice system at the Libro Centre. The Gordon House is in need of replacement and repair to the siding and needs to be painted, but she said the building is not deteriorating.

Councillor Peter Courtney said he “was on the fence” about the motion, and believed three years of capital projects would be “shoved forward into this year.”

“I hate knee-jerk and I hate being rushed,” said Courtney.

While he enjoys hearing about grant opportunities, Courtney emphasized he was “on the fence” and “I don’t know where this is going to go.” He would later support the motion.

Councillor Diane Pouget agreed with Allaire, adding “we haven’t even approached the budget yet. I don’t understand why this is before us. It should be two separate motions.”

Pouget said they are going into budget deliberations when they can hear from constituents. She would not support the motion, with Allaire also voting in