Municipalities who don’t support the financing around the Cassellholme Redevelopment can expect to receive levy notices as early as next week.
Chris Mayne, Cassellholme Board Chair and Councillor with the City of North Bay, says after the city received a legal opinion on the financing, the board sought out its own.
“The opinion that they shared with the board is that Cassellholme does indeed still retain the ability to levy, which really is to just impose a tax on the municipalities that supersedes their regular abilities to tax, which means Cassellholme does have the ability to move forward and finance the redevelopment,” he says.
The vote to levy was 3-0 in favour after Mayne, Vice Chair and fellow North Bay Councillor Mark King and board director Claire Campbell supported the motion.
Two board members, Mattawa Mayor Dean Backer and East Ferris Councillor Terry Kelly, abstained and North Bay Mayor Al McDonald was absent from the vote.
Mayne says staff will now calculate the various amounts to be paid by the member municipalities and expects notice to be given early next week.
“With a goal of having money in the Cassellholme account by early September that would allow us to still proceed with construction in early fall,” he says.
The central issue with the financing is an Infrastructure Ontario requirement that the provincial share of the $122 million dollar redevelopment be guaranteed by the municipalities.
