Sault city council wary about cost increase to Downtown Plaza project
Sault Ste. Marie Council is directing city staff to take another look at the Downtown Plaza project after administration asked for a budget increase.
With municipal budget deliberations just around the corner, administration asked for a $1.4 million increase to cover cost overruns, which would have brought the overall price of the project to more than $11 million. However, the full budget request was not granted.
Administration cited supply chain issues as the reason for its request, which is also the reason for a delay in the pouring of the plaza's concrete slab, which is to be used as a rink.
City councillor Angela Caputo suggested council grant half of the proposed increase, which the rest of council supported.
"I think for a project that the community has been so loud about opposing, that was a big ask last night," said Caputo.
Tom Vair, the city’s deputy CAO of community development and enterprise services, said the city will make do with the $660,000 increase approved by council.
"We were able to get about half the money that we had asked council for, so that will enable us to continue the project rolling," Vair said.
"We will be coming back to council on Feb. 13 at budget time with some additional information for them to make a final decision on the second half of that money."
Caputo, meantime, said while she supports development of the downtown, any investment should be a smart one.
"I understand that there are cost overruns, especially as a business owner," said Caputo.
"But I also understand that we can't, in business, we can't bleed the pot dry, especially on something that the community has so loudly been stating that they are opposed to."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.