Woodstock Is Hopeful For Grant Selection

Wednesday, 13 November 2019 08:19

Woodstock City council has applied for three grants for projects in the Friendly City. They applied through the Canada Infrastructure Program Culture & Recreational Stream (I-C-I-P) after approval at last Thursday's meeting.

WOODSTOCK - Woodstock City council has applied through the Canada Infrastructure Program Culture & Recreational Stream (ICIP) for three grants.

Among them are renovations on the 4th floor of the Woodstock Art Gallery and reconstruction of a Cowan Fields Community Centre.

Mayor Trevor Birtch says the projects are a part of their capital plan.

"If we're successful in these applications it will be a great benefit to have funding from the federal government go towards to these projects, it would be a percentage basis."

He adds if the projects were approved, it'd allow council and staff to begin working on them much sooner than originally anticipated.

Through the ICIP, the federal government is providing $11.8 billion dollars in federal infrastructure funding to cost share projects.

According to council's report, the projects fall under four streams: Public Transit, Green Infrastructure, Community Culture and Recreation, and Rural and Northern Communities.

In addition to the two previous projects, Mayor Birtch says the other one is redevelopment for the South Gate Centre.

"The South Gate Centre redevelopment, there will be more discussions coming up in the community about fundraising opportunities and council will be looking to partner and bolster community support for that."

Their report says the renovations on the WAG's 4th floor fall under the Rehabilitation and Renovation stream with a cap hit of under $5,000,000, which would increase the program space and revenue generation through additional program registration and rentals.

The report also says the two other projects fall under the Multi-Purpose stream with a cap hit of $50,000,000. The redevelopment of the South Gate Centre would increase the facility in order to meet the growing space needs of seniors, along with providing more recreational indoor space to the community.

Meanwhile, the Cowan Fields Community Centre would see the first phase of a new ice pad arena and a community program room. The new arena, which would replace the Civic Centre on 895 Nellis Street, would be designed to accommodate a second ice pad arena when it's required.

Mayor Birtch says they'll be discussing more about the long-term funding of these projects as they get into the capital budget process.