PUSLINCH – Puslinch is looking for a favour from Guelph as the township seeks to negotiate their portion of the bill on improvements to a Guelph Junction Railway crossing.
At a Puslinch council meeting this week, mayor James Seeley said the township has been informed it needs to pay $80,000 for upgrades to a railway crossing at Hume Road.
In a follow-up phone call, Seeley explained that these improvements are split with the Guelph Junction Railway which is owned by the City of Guelph.
“From my understanding, that’s to increase the speed and frequency of their trains hauling freight from their Campbellville location to the City of Guelph,” Seeley said.
Seeley is looking to work something out with the city as $80,000 has a two per cent impact to Puslinch’s capital tax levy.
“We don’t feel that Puslinch’s taxpayers should be subsidizing a City of Guelph enterprise,” Seeley said.
The township is looking to enter into a cost sharing agreement that’s more reasonable for a small township.
Seeley said they have tried to negotiate at staff level and he has had private conversations with Guelph mayor Cam Guthrie but this hasn’t gone very far.
“They essentially responded to my staff that there’s legislation in place that we have a responsibility to pay and I’ve had some discussions with (Guthrie) and he’s taking the same position,” Seeley said.
Seeley said the legislation they’re referring to dates back to the Confederation-era when the country was building railroads from coast-to-coast.
However, there was some discussion at Puslinch council if this legislation truly applies.
Councillor John Sepulis said his understanding is that whenever something like this goes to arbitration, legislation rules in favour of whoever was there first.
This means if the township’s road was there first, it would favour the municipality but if the railroad was first they’re at the mercy of them.
Council directed staff to look into this to see if they can find old records that can clarify this.
In the meantime Seeley and Schwendinger were directed to have one more meeting with Guthrie and Guelph CAO Scott Stewart before going forward with a delegation to city council.
Seeley said he doesn’t doubt that there’s legislation that says they need to pay but there’s nothing that says they can’t enter into an agreement.
Ultimately, Seeley said he’s not trying to be critical but is looking for a favour as their budget is significantly smaller than Guelph’s.
“What I’m asking is, take into consideration that this is a pretty significant tax increase for a small municipality,” Seeley said. “For the City of Guelph to absorb that is really quite negligible. It would be a nice thing to do as a neighbouring municipality for a for-profit subsidy they have.”
