Sault Ste. Marie council approves Mill Market move

The relocation of Sault Ste. Marie’s Mill Market has received final approval from city council. In an 8-3 vote, council accepted a recommendation from administration to accept a tender of over $2.9 million. Council also approved an additional municipal contribution of more than $946,000. Some of that money will come from unallocated funds and from the now deferred waterfront promenade project.

“Having the amenities there, having that space completed, especially at this time when we’re dealing with (challenges) around construction costs and so on,” said Donna Hilsinger, a current city councillor and mayoral candidate.

“Things are certainly not going down; they are going up. So there’s no upside to waiting.”

Councillor and fellow mayoral candidate Matthew Shoemaker disagrees.

“This council has made clear that there is no amount of overage that they aren’t willing to spend to move these projects forward,” said Shoemaker.

“Despite applications in for funding that we haven’t heard on yet, we’re in an incomplete phase of this, in that we have applied for federal funding, (and) we don’t have an answer yet.”

However, Mayor Christian Provenzano says the city must demonstrate that it will invest in itself.

“The reality is we have to be willing to invest in our own municipal infrastructure,” said Provenzano.

“We have to demonstrate a willingness to invest in our downtown if we want other people, private sector parties to invest in our downtown. So, we didn’t want to lose this current tender, so we decided, since we had the funds, we’d move ahead.”

Provenzano says the current building, which is not hooked up to the City’s waterworks, cannot be renovated and that it was never meant to be the permanent home for the market.

There is also interest in developing the current market site, Provenzano told CTV News.