ELORA – Renovations to the Elora Community Centre have been at a standstill for two years due to the pandemic, but more problems have come up as rising construction costs have turned a $5-million capital project into a $10-million project.
The township’s community services advisory committee will meet Wednesday night and receive as information the options on how to further proceed with the project – whether Centre Wellington council should do portions of the project or do all of it and find extra funding from township reserves or grants.
It will then come to a meeting of full council at a later, as-yet undetermined, date.
In 2018, Centre Wellington council approved the township’s parks, recreation and culture master plan which included the expansion and renovations to the 40-year-old facility.
The original timetable for construction was early 2020 with completion at the end of 2020. However, the pandemic hit and construction was delayed.
Plans for major renovations moved ahead in September 2021 as council approved hiring a Toronto-based architectural firm to develop and design the project.
Work consists of the replacement of the arena floor, along with the refrigeration system beneath it. New boards and glass will be installed. Accessibility improvements will be made to the change rooms, washrooms, hallways and entrances. The refrigeration and mechanical room will also be moved to the far end of the building, and the repaving of the parking lot.
Council received funding for the project from the provincial and federal government’s Investment in Canada Plan (ICIP) funding for just over $3 million. The township was to be responsible for $1.3 million of the $5-million project.
However, the project costs have increased dramatically due to COVID-19 challenges such as rise in construction costs, supply chain delays, ICIP grant funding delay and weak Canadian dollars.
As such, the scope of work for construction has been re-estimated to cost at $9.8 million instead of the original cost of $5 million.
Rising construction costs and inflation is currently affecting all county municipalities: Mapleton Township has had to approve a 30 per cent project cost increase with its Drayton water tank – going from a $4 million project to a $6 million one.
“These factors are impacting all public and private organizations, including all municipal governments,” said Mayor Kelly Linton in an email.
“We can expect the costs of our planned capital projects to be higher than anticipated and that council will have some tough decisions to make.”
