MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article about a petition against a new Tiny Township administration building, published Oct. 23.
I would like to make a statement regarding four comments Mayor David Evans made in the article you wrote.
Saying the majority of Tiny council are in favour of moving forward with the new building is true but not reflective of the majority view of the community. Four members of Council voted for construction of a new building which plans show it has156% more space than we currently have, double the size. They did this after 3 protests totalling approx. 600 people, an electronic petition with over 2,800 people saying "No" to the build, 3,000 lawn signs saying Stop the Admin Build, 1,100+ emails that said ‘no” were sent to the building committee and numerous deputations saying no to a new municipal administration centre. Also, the Town held 3 public engagement information sessions, and in those sessions, 1 person suggested artwork in the lobby. No one else came forward saying they wanted the building. And now, we have a petition in Queen's Park with 7,676 signatures. So, to say 4 members of Council want the build does not reflect what the taxpayers want.
Mayor Evans also said, “The benefits of the building are frankly numerous and frankly irrefutable.” This is not right. Taxpayers have spoken out loud and clear against construction at a new location. And to say irrefutable is an understatement...impossible to deny or disprove! For all the taxpayers that are opposing this build, it has been easy to disapprove of this project for financial reasons and for realistic reasons. Financially, we can not afford tax hikes 3xs the rate of inflation every year and having to come up with $150K a month to pay back a 30-year loan.
Blackline Consultants were hired by the Town to report on the organization of the current administration building. Blackline's realistic report released in January of 2023 stating digitize services and processes and adopt a hybrid workforce model. This report got tossed in the garbage.
Back in 2016-2018, two consulting firms were also hired by town. The firms recommended fixing up the current building, which was done, new roof, HVAC, heating and ventilation. Taxpayers also paid $38,500 for a 4th consulting firm called Gordian Consulting (a leading provider of facilities solutions to successfully budget and maintain capital intensive assets) to do a report on the current building in 2023. The report was completed in October 2023, 12 months have passed, and senior staff just included it in Oct 30/24 agenda, after I did a Freedom of Information to get it out to the public
Mayor Evans also stated that the building is estimated to cost about $21 million. It was reported in the June 26/24 Committee of the Whole Class D Estimate that the cost will be $26,378. That includes selling the current administration building that they say is in poor condition and polluting Tiny for $2M. (There are no reports of the building being in poor condition and in the past 7 years a little over $500k has been put into the building fixing all the major issues that needed to be addressed. The Mayor has also been quoted in the past saying the building is old, if that is the reason, we would be tearing down the two schools in Tiny and all the churches). This $21M Mayor Evans quoted does not include $22 million in interest payments over the 30 years. Also there are added costs like non-recoverable HST, hydro, water and septic going onto the site, development charges and levies, abnormal soil conditions/contaminated soil, inspection and testing, post contract contingencies, windows drapes/curtains, premium labour, LEED costs, winter heat to shell construction, furniture and loose equipment, price escalation and project scope contingency, construction insurance and most urgently noted, the Ice Age Grass that is growing on the property. The project is in the early stages still and the $26M is an estimated cost only. Ongoing cost control has not been clearly determined.
And lastly, Mayor Evans said, 'We need this facility, it's something that's been int he works for a long time in the township'. The fact of this statement is that previous Councils started talking about it in 2014 with no formal committee until 2016 when the BNAC (Building Needs Assessment Committee) was formed. BNAC met 3 times in 2016, once in 2017, 4 times in 2018, 6 times in 2019 and 2 times in 2020. Up until 2020, they were tossing ideas around for renovation, then building a small building in the rear of the current admin. building and finally looking at another site to build a small building. They had discussed whether a renovation may be too difficult because they did not know what to do with staff. Fast forward to today, because of Covid, we all know staff were able to work from home and be dispersed to the 3 community centres Tiny owns to do their jobs.
There were no building committee meetings from March 2020 until Feb 2023.
When Mayor Evans got elected and joined the BNAC, they had their first 3 meetings (Feb 21/23, March 20/23 and May 1/23) behind closed doors and never even submitted the minutes of these 3 meetings to the public. Those minutes got released to the public 17 months later, October 25,2024. They then had two more meetings in May 2023; May 15th and May 30, ignoring the Charter of the BNAC which outlines they must advise the public and how to advise the public. At that point in time, May 30/23, they were selecting a build site and approving $78K to hire Letts Architect.
Therefore, to say it has been in the works for a long time, which was the equivalent of the old committee meeting sporadically to Mayor Evans having meetings every month and sometimes two times a month or three times a month is a false statement. Ideas were being thrown around prior to Mayor Evans being on the building committee, and soon as Mayor Evans joined the committee, it was full steam ahead, let’s get shovels in the ground attitude without any public input whether taxpayers wanted to fund this, which is the largest capital expenditure in the history of Tiny Township.
I also need to point out, we have three community centres in Tiny and two private senior centres that are available for gatherings and rentals. The current building committee has plans to build yet another 7,000 sq ft. community hub/centre in this administration building. No one wants another community centre! We have approximately 5,500 full-time residents in Tiny and seasonal people don’t drive up here to go hang out at a community hub.
On Oct 22/24 a petition asking Tiny Township to hold a referendum with 7,675 signatures was tabled at Queen’s Park; addressed to Hon. Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. The government must file a response within 24 sessional days of receiving a petition.
Karen Zulynik
Tiny Township
