Bruce County Warden Luke Charbonneau, wearing the Warden's Chain of Office, in his official photograph for Bruce County. (image via Bruce County)
Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau says it was a very busy 2025 and it promises to be a busy 2026.
“We started in January signing our friendship accord with Saugeen First Nation which was a huge milestone for us. It’s a great agreement covering tourism, business development and cultural understanding between the communities so that was a great way to start the year,” says Charbonneau.
“We had a lot of success on housing this year. We had our $3.2 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund from the federal government which ultimately led us to be able to support a new 140 unit affordable housing project which we approved to get going partway the through the year.” Charbonneau says that development will be located on Bruce Street in the south end of Port Elgin.
He notes, “That will be 140 truly affordable units built on town-owned land. The public gets to retain ownership and because of that housing accelerator fund, we have federal money to build the servicing and make it all possible. So we’ll get a bunch of new affordable housing built within the next couple of year without costing the property taxpayer any money so that’s a great thing.”
“We also advanced our Habitat for Humanity project which is a couple of dozen more affordable units on the north end of Port Elgin, so it was a great year for progress on affordable housing in Saugeen Shores,” says Charbonneau.
With regard to other projects, he says, “We’ve received more than $25 million in provincial grants for infrastructure improvements, and that enabled us this year to resurface Highway 21 through Port Elgin which was a great project. We were able to preserve the beautiful maple leaves in the intersections as part of that project and get it done before the high tourist season.”
Charbonneau notes, “We also got $18 million for upgrades to the sewage treatment plant in Southampton which is really a critical project to make sure we maintain our service level there and also got funding for work that we’re going to do next year to resurface Highway 21 through Southampton and also to put in a roundabout at Highway 21 and Turner Street near Foodland in Southampton.”
He explains, “That’s a much needed upgrade, so we were very successful this year with provincial grants and a lot of that is because of our ten year capital plan. We know the things we need as a community. We have planned about $250 million worth of projects over that 10 year period, and they’re good projects and the Province has seen that, and they’re investing in those projects which ultimately helps keep the cost down for our taxpayers.”
On parks and recreation, he says, “We did our work in North Shore Park, restored it and did a lot of great work there on the playground and the trails. In Jubilee Park, big upgrade to the trail there and the sports courts.” Charbonneau says the Town also opened the second phase of the Lamont Sports Park with a new hardball diamond. “I got to watch my sons play hardball there which was pretty cool. Great new facility.”
He says construction continues on the roughly $49 million Pryde Aquatic and Wellness Centre which he notes is very near completion. “We’re going to open it early in the new year. It’s got a beautiful pool and basketball court, pickleball, it’s got a fitness centre of course. Just can’t wait for people to get into it because they’re going to love it.”
Passes for the facility are already available.
Meanwhile, Charbonneau says housing is a challenge the Town continues to work to address. “Being a fast-growing community comes with challenges. We want to make sure we’re able to accommodate that growth, and we have more growth on the horizon with the possibility of new build nuclear at Bruce Power, (Bruce C). That’s a huge opportunity, one that we need to win for our community, but it’s also one we need to prepare for and make sure that as new people come to our community, we have the facilities to accommodate them. We have to make sure that we maintain the quality of life that people in our community have come to expect, at the same time as we grow.”
Charbonneau says, “As we end the year, I think it’s always worth reminding ourselves that the challenges we face in the best town in the best country on the face of the Earth are pretty small compared to challenges that are faced by a lot of people. We have the means and the ability to deal with them and we are dealing with them. We’ll just keep doing that work, remembering always that we live in the best place in the world.”
Looking forward to 2026 Charbonneau says, “Very excited to open the Aquatics and Wellness Centre early in the year, so I can’t wait for that to happen.”
He says, “We expect in the spring to complete the work we’re doing on Helliwell Park’s soccer fields in Southampton. We’re going to have some lit soccer fields there and there’s a fundraising campaign for that going on right now, but the work is already underway. It’s going to include some washrooms there and it’s just great new soccer facility.”
He adds, “We’ve made investments in swimming, made investments in baseball, we renovated the Southampton Coliseum a couple of years ago and made the investments in hockey. Now we’re making investments in soccer. That just rounds out the whole offering and it’s going to make us an even greater community for recreation.”
The Town is also starting the 10,000 tree initiative next year, planting 1,000 trees a year in Saugeen Shores for the next 10 years. They also plan to add more public art to the communities. “We had two beautiful pieces of public art launched in 2025. One in Southampton and one in Port Elgin and we’re going to have more of that,” says Charbonneau.
Work is planned on Highway 21 in Southampton, phase two of the High Street reconstruction project from Grosvenor Street down to the lake. “That’s an important project that we want to get finished,” says Charbonneau, adding the Town will also continue work on the Southampton wastewater treatment plant.
He says, “A lot of meat and potatoes kind of construction work and infrastructure work that we’re doing and we also have some fun stuff for recreation and sports that is going to all around add to the quality of life in our community.”