Pine St extension approved as part of stimulus bid

If Sault Ste. Marie gets the whole chunk of stimulus funding City Council is asking for, almost $55 million worth of new projects will be starting construction this year.

The Canada Infrastructure funding will be distributed among four projects that City councillors approved last night for the stimulus funding request.

Funding will be sought for a new $22 million West End community centre that would replace the McMeeken Centre and the Korah West branch of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and will also include a two-field indoor multi-use facility.

Stimulus cash will also be requested for the planned new $21.8 million Algoma Public Health building on Sault College property, for two more sections of the Hub Trail at a cost of $5 million, and another $5 million for an extension to Pine Street from Willow Avenue to Second Line.

The Pine Street extension proved to be contentious and was pulled off the list to be voted on separately lst night.

It passed in a six-to-four vote.

When Ward 5 Councillor Frank Fata asked why it had to be Pine Street, Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi replied that City Council had already approved the project and it's been slated for construction in 2011 or 2012.

"Any discussion [on whether the project should proceed or not] at this time is closing the door after the horses have bolted," said Fratesi. "If you turn this one down, there isn't another one in the wings and you will have missed this opportunity."

Fratesi said that a deal has already been cut to buy the land from Sault College and both the public input cycle and environmental assessment have been completed.

Quite a lot of money has already been spent on consultants who advised that Pine Street was the best option and councillors agreed to follow that recommendation, the CAO said.

"I tend to favour going with this project only because we have a problem up there," said Fata. "We need to do something about it."

Commissioner of Engineering and Planning Jerry Dolcetti said the planned Pine Street extension will reduce traffic congestion on the section of Great Northern Road between Willow Avenue and Second Line.

"We also saw it as an opportunity to extend the Hub Trail and it coincides with the opening of the new hospital," said Dolcetti.

Ward 6 Councillor Frank Manzo and his Ward 2 counterpart Terry Sheehan argued that an extension to Willow Avenue would have been a better option because it would be a more direct route to the hospital.

Ward 5 Councillor David Celetti said it would be better to fix broken roads than to build a new one.

"I've never supported it because it just seems like we're going the long way around to a very congested corner," Celetti said. "And, I'm going to get a hundred phone calls from people when that goes through, saying they've been waiting over 50 years for their road to be fixed."

Dolcetti said once these major projects are paid for, there will be more money available for smaller projects like fixing roads.

Fratesi said that a collection of smaller projects under one umbrella application would not be accepted.

He said it had to be up to four single projects that can begin construction this summer and be essentially completed by March 31, 2011.

Councillors Manzo, Sheehan, Celetti and Ward 3 Councillor Lorena Tridico voted against submitting the Pine Street extension project for stimulus funding.

Councillors Pat Mick (Ward 3), Steve Butland (Ward 1), Fata, Susan Myers (Ward 2), Ozzie Grandinetti (Ward 6) and Lou Turco (Ward 3) voted to submit the proposal.

Ward 1 Councillor James Caicco was absent and Ward 3 Councillor Bryan Hayes didn't vote, declaring a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the project.

Funding for the road extension project would come from the Building Canada Fund - Communities Component, if approved by senior levels of government.

On Wednesday, April 15, notice was e-mailed to all municipalities in Ontario that applications could be submitted for projects that met the qualifications of two programs being administered by the province on behalf of the federal and provincial governments.

That's when the term "shovel ready" was finally defined.

For months, the federal government has been saying it would be funding some "shovel ready" projects if they met the criteria and if the provinces and municipalities each kicked in one-third of the costs.

But even the criteria released on April 15 were pretty vague in terms of proposal-writing, Fratesi told councillors.

"While the budgets of both the federal and provincial governments which were recently passed mentioned several programs, only two were rolled out on April 15," the CAO said. "There is, however, an expectation that at least three more programs will be rolled out in the very near future."

The deadline for proposals is May 1.

Fratesi said that City staff decided not to apply for funding for a harbour and deep-water port, a bridge plaza or for short-line rail upgrades, because other federal funding has already been earmarked for those projects.

He said other municipalities, including Sudbury, have asked for mostly road repair or construction projects.

"We decided that we have already been spending a lot of money on roads and staff feels maybe it was time we direct it to something else," Fratesi said. "We believe the senior levels of government will look at it favourably."

Several councillors expressed concern that approving these funding proposals would commit the City to raising taxes, an option City Council doesn't want to explore at this time.

"We are not in a position to say how much we will be debenturing until we know how many of our proposals are approved," said Ward 3 Councillor Bryan Hayes "We may get one, two, three - or we may even get all four."

But Fratesi said that even if the City was approved for all four projects and had to borrow some money to debenture some of its share of the funding, it would not result in a tax increase.

"At the end of the day it should not result in a levy increase," said Fratesi. "We think the province is going to approve these projects because they're well put-together and meet the criteria."