Nuclear expansion, a growing town and protection from erosion are key items the Town of Saugeen Shores plans to discuss at an upcoming conference with key provincial politicians and their staff.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference is scheduled to take place August 20-23 in London.
Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau says representatives from the Town are speaking to the minister of energy, the minister of infrastructure and the minister of public and business service delivery.
Charbonneau says they’ll be talking to to representatives from the Ministry of Energy about an expansion proposal at the Tiverton based Bruce Power nuclear generating station to possibly include a new build nuclear project.
“Obviously we’re pretty excited about that. That’s a major announcement for our community and for our region,” says Charbonneau explaining, “We want to talk to the Province and work with them on figuring out how we build the housing and the infrastructure we need to serve the workers who would be moving to the region to work on building potential new reactors and operating them.”
He adds, “We want to let the minister know about all of the work we’ve been doing for several years to prepare our community to meet the needs of our growing population.”
Saugeen Shores’ population grew 16 per cent between 2016 (13,715) and 2021 (15,908).
Charbonneau says Town reps are scheduled to talk to the minister of infrastructure about the planned aquatics and wellness centre in Port Elgin, to provide high quality recreation opportunities for a growing population.
He explains, “We’re still a relatively small community who are in effect, supporting a provincially significant operation in terms of the nuclear plant, so we think it makes sense for the Province to support us in building things like new aquatics and wellness centres.”
He adds, the Town wants to understand how it can align the aquatics centre project to match what the province is trying to do in order to qualify for a provincial funding stream.
Back in May of this year, council decided to remove some elements from the aquatic and wellness centre’s design plans with an aim to prevent the $49 million project from going about $10 million over budget. They reduced glass in the design, removed plans for a cathedral style roof over the pool, and took heavy timber out of the plans as well.
The pool will still have eight lanes, the gym will have a full-sized basketball court, two volleyball courts and can expand for eight pickleball courts. A four lane track has been revised to a three-lane track.
There are multipurpose rooms planned, a fitness studio, a conditioning centre with gym equipment, washrooms, change rooms and offices.
The third item Saugeen Shores plans to meet with the provincial government to discuss is Pioneer Cemetery in Southampton. Saugeen Shores is looking for help in dealing with erosion that threatens grave sites dating back to the 1860s.
Charbonneau says the matter falls under the purview of the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery. “This has been an ongoing issue for a long time. It’s a very, very complex issue and the solutions to the problem are very costly, and of course it’s also an issue that —- these are the ancestors of many people who live in our community, and so it’s an emotional issue as well.”
He adds, “We don’t really have the capacity ourselves to deal with with such a complex issue and so we very much need the help of the Province.”
Last year, Town representatives spoke to ministers and their staff about the need for more school spaces to accommodate a growing number of Famlies in Saugeen Shores. Charbonneau says the town and school board are making progress on the matter and are looking at accommodating more students in the future. Last year, Town reps also met with ministries about physician recruitment issues.