Calvin Township’s costs to support its share of Cassellholme senior’s home in North Bay is becoming a growing concern.
The 30-year mortgage to pay for the new $121 million addition ties the municipality into decades of payments and has become “an enormous burden” for taxpayers, Mayor Richard Gould said at a recent meeting.
That meeting occurred on October 29 in Calvin’s council chambers. Council called a special meeting, as members of Cassellholme’s administration – administrator Angie Punnett, Dave Smits, Cassellholme’s Director of Capitol Projects and Facilities, and William Brooks, Cassellholme’s Chief Financial Officer – were coming by to present to council.
Council decided a special meeting dedicated to the topic would be useful for residents and offered an hour-long session to hear from the administrators and raise questions on the future of the contract.
See: No City of North Bay takeover as sole operator of Cassellholme
The levy to help cover construction was $49,765 in 2022, and $49,716 in 2023. William Brooks confirmed the 2024 rate was $49,560. Just under 50,000 per year may not seem like much, but Calvin’s tax base is small, and these numbers amount to around “529 dollars per household per year,” Mayor Gould emphasized.
Calvin Township's taxpayers are paying more per resident for Cassellholme than other municipalities, including its neighbour, Mattawa, which recently expressed its desire to exit from the Cassellholme contract. Why so? The rates to support the senior’s home are based on a municipality’s Current Value Assessment (CVA), which is an estimate of all the properties’ value within a municipality as determined by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
See: Cassellholme fees ‘crippling for Mattawa’ Mayor Bélanger warns
About $400,000 of Calvin Township's tax income comes from Enbridge, which runs a natural gas pipeline through the municipality. This money is included in the CVA, which raises Calvin’s contribution. The average CVA of a single-family dwelling in Calvin is $153,000.
The township's budget hovers around $1.7 million, and about $456,000 of that goes to external boards and agencies. Just under $50,000 for Cassellholme, $265,260 for the Nipissing District Social Services Administration Board, and just over $97,000 for policing, to list the big-ticket items.
Revenue from Enbridge’s line raises the cost paid to Cassellholme, but that money also helps to cover the costs, and if lost, the township would lose a major revenue source. “The federal government is talking about eliminating natural gas in the coming years,” Mayor Gould reminded council.
He said so in the context of whether or not Cassellholme had a backup plan for heating – currently, the new build is set up for natural gas – and how that could add to the future costs for municipalities, having to install an alternate heat source.
Currently, there is no plan B for heating. It’s natural gas all the way, which could lead to further expenses. The federal government does have plans to reduce fossil fuel usage, as outlined in its Clean Electric Regulations.
For now, Cassellholme’s board and Calvin Township’s council remain on the same page, as both want the province to help with the project’s interest rates. “Our dialogue with the province has been around the interest, and the relief of the interest that we sit with right now,” Administrator Punnett noted.
“They’ve at least entertained some conversations” about that, Punnett added, but “nothing certain” has come from those talks yet.
“We’re not sitting on our hands doing nothing,” Punnett emphasized, “but I don’t feel that as an employee, or with just our board, it’s not enough of a voice, so we’re here tonight to be very honest and transparent about where we’d like to go and how you can help.”
“We want our municipal partners to come together and strategize and move forward on the front,” she said. “We want to come together.”
Council agreed.
“I think it’s important that we all work together,” Councillor Dean Grant concluded. “I know you’re regulated by the province,” Grant continued, speaking of the Cassellholme board, “and I think this is where the fight lies, with the province.”
“Calvin residents are paying four times more than Mattawa residents,” Grant added. And “if you don’t share that burden,” Mayor Gould emphasized, “I don’t how the township would even manage to go forward.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
