Shoemaker loses bid to put off Mill Market decision (update)

Matthew Shoemaker, Ward 3 councillor and mayoral candidate, failed tonight to block a $1.4 million city commitment to the Mill Market relocation project. 

Coun. Shoemaker moved to defer the decision until it's known whether further attempts to secure federal support for the project will succeed.

"Where does it end?" Shoemaker asked.

"How much money is council willing to put into this project?"

"It seems to be that council's willing to spend almost any amount of money on this project."

"We need either other sources of government funding, or to put a cap on this project."

"There is no cap and it's a vanishing amount," the Ward 3 councillor said.

Ward 5 Coun. Matthew Scott and Ward 4's Marchy Bruni voted with Shoemaker.

Eight other council members voted against the deferral motion: Ward 1's Paul Christian and Sandra Hollingsworth, Ward 2's Luke Dufour and Lisa Vezeau-Allen, Ward 3's Donna Hilsinger, Ward 4's Rick Niro, Ward 5's Corey Gardi, and Mayor Christian Provenzano. 

Councillors then voted eight-to-three in favour of immediately issuing a tender for renovations and leasehold improvements for a new Mill Market at 73 Brock St., committing as much as $1.4 million of city funds toward the project.

The $1.4 million would come from existing city accounts such as an asset management reserve and the community development fund.

This would not affect the levy. 

The injection of municipal cash was sought after Mill Market was advised that its application to the Infrastructure Canada Green and Inclusive Community Building Program for $1,750,000 was unsuccessful.

But Mayor Provenzano said federal involvement in the project is still possible.

"It's a rolling intake, so they're actually accepting additional applications," the mayor said,

"My understanding is that the application has been re-scoped and resubmitted, so there is an application back in front of the federal government," the mayor said.

Provenzano said Sault MP Terry Sheehan has assured him of his support for the project.

"I assure all of you I will be working very diligently to support Mill Market in that ask," he added.

"I don't think the story's completely told on this. I think there's still an opportunity to get a reasonable amount of money from the federal government to support this project. We'll work to make our case," the mayor said.

Tom Vair, the city's deputy chief administrative officer for community development and enterprise services, confirmed that "application has been resubmitted to the program. We look forward to working with the federal government to see that approved."

The proposal is to move Mill Market downtown from its present location in a converted fish hatchery at 35 Canal Dr.

Responding to questions from Coun. Dufour, Vair said the city first proposed demolishing the Canal Drive building in 2011.

That structure was built in 1987.

"The fish hatchery building was never meant to be a permanent home for the Mill Market," Vair said.

"It was meant to be a temporary home before it moved...There are outstanding issues that need to be addressed with it."

Asked by Dufour whether expanding the existing building is a possibility, Vair responded: "There would need to be a significant remediation of the building if we were to look at expanding it." Vair said city staff want to get the needed renovations done on 73 Brock St. in time for it to open roughly at the same time as the adjacent downtown plaza.Responding to Coun. Gardi, Vair said Mill Market receives about 3,000 visitors every Saturday.  

Asked about availability of parking, he said the plaza itself will have about 29 parking spaces.

"But when we look at the parking in and around the plaza area, we find there's more than enough parking." 

Brent Lamming, the city's director of community services, foresees even more visitor traffic to the plaza.

"On a peak Saturday, about 4,000 people would be there...Even through COVID, the lowest number was 700, and we're at capacity of 40 vendors right now," Lamming told the meeting.

In addition to the $1.4 million city contribution to the project, City Council also tonight authorized issuing a tender for renovations and leasehold improvements at 73 Brock St.