During the final city council meeting of the year, Coun. Lori Baldwin-Sands proposed the establishment of a reserve fund for a future aquatic and community centre in St. Thomas.
City treasurer Dan Sheridan cautioned, “Well we’re talking about two separate things. Establishing a reserve is one and adding money to it is the second part right?
“So if council wishes to add money to a reserve from the 2025 budget that money has to come from somewhere.
Mayor Joe Preston raised concerns about using money the city currently receives from the St. Thomas Gaming Association and Jackpot City.
Several members of council, including Coun. Gary Clarke questioned whether such a fund was necessary at this time.
Clarke cautioned that he didn’t want to set up false expectations with ratepayers.
“We just had, I think, a $100 million shortfall for infrastructure needs in Yarmouth Yards that we’re deferring or we’re taking on debt to complete a lot of large projects.
“And so I don’t want the public to get the sense that we’re going to get a civic centre built in the next year or two because we’ll hear the same thing about the animal shelter. Why isn’t it built yet? It’s taken you four years to get it done.
“There’s only so much debt we can take on. And so I really look forward to the treasury department analyzing the whole thing and kind of figuring out when we can afford to do this so that we don’t set people up for false expectations that this is something that can happen right away.”
Speaking on behalf of council, Preston zeroed in on what he would like Sheridan to report back on.
Baldwin-Sands’ motion to establish a reserve fund for a community centre was deferred until staff can bring back the report to council in the new year delving into the implications of such a fund.
Written by Ian McCallum
