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As directed by council at the closed session on Sept. 20, staff executed a purchase and sale agreement on a 20-acre land in Fergus for $3,950,000, which closes on Nov. 30.
David Sunday from Gowling WLG assisted the township with the legal aspects of the agreement.
“We have allowed the farmer to farm the property in 2022 as we will not need access for it in 2022, and the owner of the property will be allowed to remove any of the buildings and equipment parts until the end of December 2022,” said CAO Andy Goldie.
Council agreed that the township will borrow money for the project and pay back loans using development charges and the sale of surplus land and buildings.
Coun. Bob Foster was sceptical about the finances involved, asking Dan Wilson, managing director of corporate services and treasurer, “if there’s a year where there’s no revenue from the development charges, how will we make the debt payments?”
“We review debt on an annual basis and that includes projected growth related debt and the ability to pay growth related debt,” replied Wilson.
“We can amend our projected growth-related debt annually based on growth projections. It’s our debt management as a whole from two years that’s part of the debt process.”
Foster, unsatisfied with the response, demanded Wilson to answer his question in a straightforward fashion, in which, Mayor Kelly Linton intervened, noting, “it was a question and he provided you a good answer and some full answers to you.”
Linton reminded council that this is only an information item, which means, there’s no motion to put forward.
