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Orangeville deputy mayor sees tax increase for residents next year

July 13, 2023   ·   1 Comments

By James Matthews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

There are ways to make a new Orangeville fire hall cost-effective to construct and environmentally efficient.

And Grant Peters brought some suggestions on how to accomplish those goals during council’s Monday (July 10) meeting.

Peters is in favour of an environmentally optimized net zero emission fire hall. He’s been in the green building industry for a number of years and has, in fact, been involved in the construction of more than a dozen net zero fire halls.

“That expertise and experience is what’s driving my passion for this building,” he said.

From an environmental perspective, Peters said deciding to make the new fire hall a net zero building could yield the single biggest impact on diminishing Orangeville’s carbon footprint in the next decade.

The cost to go to a net zero design for a new Orangeville Fire Department fire hall has been estimated to be $5.6 million. There’s also an opportunity for $10 million in possible funding.

Ever-increasing utility costs and carbon tax implications are reasons in favour of adopting a net zero design for the new fire hall, Peters said.

The $5.6-million cost could be whittled down by removing a building automation system, reducing wall insulation, and having an all-electric building can eliminate natural gas costs.

Another option to chisel at the price tag is to reduce the planned building size.

“We’ve seen the costs of this facility triple … in the last five years,” Peters said.

He isn’t an architect, but he’s seen “a lot tighter” of a building design for that type of facility in other municipalities.

“And I think it can be done here,” he said.

Regarding savings, the overall cost has been pegged at $740 per square foot. If 2,000 square feet can be shaved off the design, the project would save $1.5-million.

“You’re also now heating and cooling 2,000 less square feet,” Peters said. “Those make the … costs of pursuing net zero that much less and therefore a much more attainable payback.”

Councillor Joe Andrews asked Peters if he had any suggestions as to where 2,000 square feet of space could be cut from the new fire hall.

“I didn’t have a specific area necessarily to cut,” Peters said. “I’m not the architects or engineers or firefighters who are advocating for these spaces.”

Many of the fire facility projects on which he’s been involved didn’t include a fire hose tower, he said.

“That’s a controversial decision, depending on training aspects,” Peters said. “Very few of them contain a community engagement, or museum, or cultural section, if you will.”

He said many fire halls have a smaller footprint for a fitness room.

“That 2,000 number was just meant to demonstrate the magnitude of a decision,” Peters said. “That’s less than 10 per cent of the area, but it shaves a significant amount of cost.”

Aside from considerations as to how to make the new facility a net zero structure, there are other reasons for council to take into account to cut costs for the project.

Taylor said council is under siege by financial pressures.

“So much so, the announcement from me is I see no other way than a fairly significant tax increase as we come forward at the next tax season,” Taylor said. “We’re in a lot of trouble here because the costs have escalated. Not through decisions that have been made here, but just what’s happening in the world and inflation and where we go.”

He said he tends to gravitate toward options that will cost less. He understands the need to become more environmentally efficient by 2050. He described an anxious balance.

“What’re we supposed to do?” Taylor said. “I hear you about 2050, but we’re sitting here today with wants, needs, and a financial burden that is slowly closing on us. It’s a big deal.”

Councillor Andy Macintosh acknowledged the previous town council on which Peters sat as a councillor, pushed a net zero agenda.

“But that was before COVID,” Macintosh said. “The world’s changed and I just worry that we can’t sustain the way we’re going on.”

Peters has been urging council to apply a $1.5-million grant toward the cost of the new fire hall. Macintosh said, given the magnitude of the bill, any grant in that amount isn’t much of a respite.

“This project has increased $4 million since you were on council,” he said. “We’re in a bit of a pickle.”

Heather Savage, the town’s community services general manager, said there will be a clearer picture of how much the fire hall will cost as they approach when the tender will be issued, whether they pursue net zero or non-net zero specifications.

“We have to go through the process to figure out the exact cost,” she said.

The architectural firm for the fire hall project has hired cost consultants to compare the Orangeville project to a number of others with some of those being net zero builds.

“There will be opportunity for cost-savings, or there will be opportunity to implement green building standards as we go along as we build the fire station,” Savage said.

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