CENTRAL MANITOULIN—The proposed Central Manitoulin roads budget is likely to see a potentially significant increase in 2026, but that is not necessarily bad news.
That note came up during the November 13 meeting of council, where it was pointed out by Councillor Derek Stephens in discussion of a motion to move the roads budget forward to deliberations on the 2026 municipal budget that many of the upcoming projects on the roads budget represent a bit of “catch up” following the closure of a municipal dump.
“The operating budget is above a little higher this year than last year,” said Councillor Stephens. “I do think that most of it is maintenance that hasn’t been done.”
He pointed out that municipal staff have “been saving us an awful lot of money on our dump costs and the closure,” he said. “Now we have to catch up on that maintenance on our roads. I do think that there were significant savings from the actual dump closure cost, which, theoretically cover a lot of the increase that we’re going to see in that actual increase in the operating side of the roads budget.”
The Providence Bay landfill was closed to accepting waste in June 2023, since then the municipality had first sent out a request for proposals (RFP) to close the Providence Bay landfill site and to construct a transfer station. Those bids turned out to be significantly higher than had originally been estimated (around $1.2 million) and council decided to rejig the proposal a bit in the hopes of bids coming in lower, that proved to be a forlorn hope, however, as the second RFP came in even higher around $1.6 million.
It was noted at the time of consideration of the bids that the municipality could undertake the closure with its own forces—with the result of significant savings.
“The major cost in the closure was the cost of soil,” noted Central Manitoulin CAO Denise Deforge. “We were able to work with local providers and a couple came in that tests showed were acceptable to the ministry.”
The exact savings have not yet been teased out of the ledgers, but a ballpark estimate of the cost would be $700,000.
“It’s hard to guestimate the exact number because we have other work going on at the same time,” said Ms. Deforge.
“We would like to thank our wonderful roads crew,” she said. “They did an amazing job. A lot of work went into it, including our former special projects manager Patricia Mader. She is the one who really made this happen.”
In other developments, the municipality directed staff to write a letter to the Sudbury District Health Unit asking for information on tile beds and tile bed designs and to set up a meeting between the municipality, the Ministry of the Environment and the Mindemoya Stewardship Association to discuss issues that the association had presented to the Waste, Water and Education Committee.
“A lot of the beds and that are on that lake were all approved at some point in time,” noted Councillor Stephens. “I really can’t see that anybody has jurisdiction on telling people that they have to change them. So, what’s actually going to come out of this meeting?”
“Education, I hope,” responded Mayor Richard Stephens.
It was noted by Ward 1 Councillor Brian Mitchell that the stakeholders on Lake Mindemoya include more than the motion was calling for and should include both M’Chigeeng and Billings.
It was explained that the stakeholders should include everyone who uses the lake, not just the municipalities and residents, pointing out that there are resorts with transient users as well.
Council also considered the institution of a “user fee” bylaw, opening up a 60-day comment period.
“We need to direct staff to create the user fee framework,” noted Mayor Stephens, “to serve us as a guiding document for counsel to establish annual facility user rates.”
“This was a request of staff because we have not had a real guiding framework for years (or have ever?)” said Mayor Stephens. “Hopefully there will be some changes and a time for input from the public on that, too, so that we’re all working from the same church.”