Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau says 2022 was a year of growth for Saugeen Shores and 2023 will be a big year for construction.
“It was a busy year,” says Charbonneau, adding, “We continue to be the fastest growing community in our region, (Bruce County) one of the top ten per cent of the fastest growing communities in Ontario and I think the big story is, some of the things we’ve been able to do as a result of that growth.”
He continues, “It was a big year for the Lamont Sports Park. The fundraising committee raised $1.7 million dollars for phase two and we were able to approve construction of phase two, so that’s going to get underway in the spring.”
Charbonneau says council also recently approved the town’s new aquatic and wellness centre, which he says is a major project that’s been in the works for the last 20 years. “We’ve finally gotten to the place where we can afford to build it because we’ve been able to put the money together as a result of growth and as a result of increased tax revenues driven by growth,” says Charbonneau.
Growth, or not, communities have their challenges, and Charbonneau says Saugeen Shores faced a lot of the same challenges other municipalities have faced, “Obviously affordable and attainable housing is a big issue that we have, one we’ve been working on. We’ve been able to approve over 800 new rental apartment units for construction in our community.”
He says, “Now the key thing is to get those under construction,” adding, “It’s a pressing issue though, because it affects everything about our community, it affects the availability of people to work in our stores and able to work in our healthcare system.”
He says the Town has also been trying to ensure there is enough space in local schools to accommodate population growth. He sent a letter to the ministry of education earlier in the year about the issue.
Like most rural municipalities, the local healthcare system is under stress, says Charbonneau, “Making sure that our ERs stay open and making sure we have the resources we need to look after the people of our community, has been a major issue. We’ve had some good success on physician recruitment, and of course we’re looking to continue that success in 2023 and going forward.”
He adds, “I think that staffing is an issue everywhere in the system. It’s particularly an issue in rural Ontario, but it’s an issue everywhere in our healthcare system and Southampton and Grey Bruce Health Services is certainly not immune. We’ve seen the issue become more acute in a place like Chesley, but we should not assume that our local hospital is not subject to those same pressures. We have great staff in those hospitals that are under great pressure day after day to deliver those services and sometimes they’re short staffed. That’s an issue the Ministry of Health has primary responsibility to deal with, but I think the municipalities can provide assistance by again, addressing the affordable housing issue and trying to recruit physicians and also making sure that we’re getting the equipment in the those that staff need to make their jobs easier. Things like CT scanners. We’re soon to have one of hose in the Southampton hospital which has come about as a result of community effort.”
Looking ahead, Charbonneau says 2023 is going to be a big year for construction of municipal projects, noting, “We’re going to get this new aquatic and wellness centre under construction, starting in about June. In the spring, phase two of the Lamont Sports Park is going to come under construction and we’re going to start playing on phase one of it this year.”
He adds, “We’re also going to start constructing our new innovation park on the south end of Port Elgin which is a new industrial park we hope is going to house innovative companies like the nuclear supplier companies.”