{"id":139735,"date":"2023-02-08T14:49:40","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T19:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=139735"},"modified":"2023-02-26T13:42:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T18:42:36","slug":"prince-edward-county-passes-capital-budget-for-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/prince-edward-county-passes-capital-budget-for-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Edward County passes capital budget for 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, Prince Edward County Council passed its 2023 capital budget.<\/p>\n<p>The tax supported <a href=\"https:\/\/princeedwardcounty.civicweb.net\/FileStorage\/C4EBBC3B498E48EFAB5D8B703B4FC3D0-FINAL%202023%20Capital%20Budget%20Presentation%20-%20Expenditu.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Capital Budget<\/a> was approved for $85,103,026 and the rate supported Capital Budget for $25,103,201.<\/p>\n<p>The largest item and lion\u2019s share of the tax supported Capital Budget was the long-term care redevelopment at the H.\u00a0J.\u00a0McFarland Memorial Home site. The new 160-bed facility is estimated to cost around $65\u00a0million, with over $43\u00a0million coming from <a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/prince-edward-county-approaches-debt-limit-seeks-permission-to-exceed-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">municipal debt financing<\/a> over a 25-year term. County staff are scrambling to take advantage of a one-time novel accelerated provincial incentive program worth over $42\u00a0million to ease the financial burden.<\/p>\n<p>But with the deadline for the program, which requires construction ready status by this August, there is a potential that it will not be met. Coun. David Harrison described the situation:<\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-139735-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Harrison-LTC-Voicer.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Harrison-LTC-Voicer.mp3\">https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Harrison-LTC-Voicer.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Picton Coun. Phil St-Jean countered:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-139735-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/St-Jean-LTC-Voicer.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/St-Jean-LTC-Voicer.mp3\">https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/St-Jean-LTC-Voicer.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Council voted in the grand majority to include the project, which will have a 1 per cent impact on the tax levy. Single tier municipalities in Ontario are required by law to maintain at least one long-term care home.<\/p>\n<p>For the rest of the tax-supported stream, council authorized the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$641,000 in land improvements including Western Beach Improvements and Fire Training Ground preparations;<\/li>\n<li>$1,288,000 for buildings\/facilities including library, museum, and community centre renovations, as well as authorizing the phase\u00a02 revitalization of the Crystal Palace;<\/li>\n<li>$3,074,780 in fleet acquisitions including a new land ambulance and fire pumper tanker truck for Picton service area;<\/li>\n<li>$535,325 for municipal information technology, including new teleconferencing facilities;<\/li>\n<li>$738,100 for other equipment including a sidewalk plow replacement, fire department gear, and library collection items;<\/li>\n<li>$754,000 for studies including a study for examining the feasibility of a local organic waste processing facility;<\/li>\n<li>And $2,605,804 for bridges (which amounted to revitalization projects for the Loyalist Parkway and Burr Road bridges.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As for roads in the county, $10,720,971 was allotted for projects, including Phase 2 of Picton Main Street reconstruction, intersection improvements, and traffic calming. Just over a quarter of that amount was committed to other rural roads, which will employ the county\u2019s new asset management system in prioritizing roads for repair work.<\/p>\n<p>During deliberations, some council members questioned the merit of the system, especially with its associated <a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/county-recommends-increased-funding-to-avoid-road-deterioration\/\">5-year plan<\/a> to have some roads overall getting worse before they get better, as North Marysburgh Coun. David Harrison said:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-139735-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Harrison-Roads-Voicer.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Harrison-Roads-Voicer.mp3\">https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Harrison-Roads-Voicer.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>But\u00a0some council members championed the plan, including Picton Coun. Kate MacNaughton:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-139735-4\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MacNaughton-Roads-Voicer.mp3?_=4\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MacNaughton-Roads-Voicer.mp3\">https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MacNaughton-Roads-Voicer.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Under the rate supported stream, council approved over $25\u00a0million worth of water and wastewater equipment and infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to the full story below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, Prince Edward County Council passed its 2023 capital budget. The tax supported Capital Budget was approved for $85,103,026 and the rate supported Capital Budget for $25,103,201. The largest item and lion\u2019s share of the tax supported Capital Budget was the long-term care redevelopment at the H.\u00a0J.\u00a0McFarland Memorial Home site. The new 160-bed facility&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":102711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,225],"tags":[23206,4615,462,6552,5086,23207,19478,23114,23116,14241,16733,20111,15364],"radio":[13055],"origine":[267,269,13050],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139735"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142341,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139735\/revisions\/142341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139735"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=139735"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=139735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}