The province has given Cassellholme permission to move forward with construction of the nearly $122 million redevelopment project.
Chris Mayne, Chair of the Cassellholme Board, says after MPP Vic Fedeli’s work at waiving the provincial guarantee requirement, this was the next step and it’s a “huge announcement”.
“To approve construction before the contractor may have had to raise their price by November 30th, we’ve just barely met that deadline,” he says. “We’re actually hoping to have shovels in the ground, they may be snow shovels, over the next few weeks. They’ll start to do some preparatory work (including) clearing trees and surveying in advance of doing the real construction in early spring.”
In terms of the member municipalities, Mayne says there are political issues, but the building permit has been granted and all the architectural drawings have been approved by the province.
He says there are details that need to be ironed out with the financing.
“Do we finance through Infrastructure Ontario? Do we levy the municipalities for the full amount? That’s a decision that lies with the municipalities at this point and we’re hoping they may finally appreciate that we need to move forward,” he says.
Mayne says there are some realistic, preferred financing options and the board is hopeful the municipalities will agree to those over the next few days.
