Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) approved the renewal of a of $1.2 million loan for the White Pines Wellness Centre this week.

The local centre's mission is to help individuals, families, and the community journey along their pathway to optimal mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wellness.

The loan was set to expire on Jan. 31. SNEC said that, currently, there are sufficient funds to pay the loan off in full. But, in the interest of long term planning, and matching cash flows, the excess funds will now be available for use in the immediate future to begin to address council’s 10 year financial plan, which will also address infrastructure needs within the community.

Wayne Staats, SNEC Finance Manager, spoke on economic projections indicating interest rates will fall in the coming years.

"Our thoughts are that they would decrease in three years time. So that's why we're suggesting a three year term, at which time the interest rate would be lower."

Coun. Sherri-Lyn Hill voiced her concerns with the loan renewal and Six Nations infrastructure needs saying, "we're in a crisis of infrastructure right now, and we need to have a plan to pay this off."

Hill also spoke on council's 10 year financial plan and her hope to see more transparency from that plan.

"I guess I'm still looking at what does it look like? Because we have some numbers here, but what's the overall goal?"

Darrin Jamieson, SNEC CEO, detailed the 10 year plan and what the excess funds will go towards.

"It's a 10 year plan and its in the neighborhood of a half a billion dollars for 10 years. And what this does it creates the opportunity for us to rather than pay off this particular loan, to utilize those funds for investment in that plan amongst other sources of funds that we have," he stated, adding that the investments would all be infrastructure related.

Jamieson finished by saying that paying off the $1.21 million loan would take away from SNEC's ability to execute it's 10 year financial plan.

The motion was approved by SNEC at Monday’s General Finance Meeting. The loan for the White Pines Wellness Centre will be refinanced on Jan. 31 for $1.2 million based on an indicative interest rate of 5.8 percent over a three year time period.

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