Referendum may include more borrowing

The second phase of funding for the firehall will also appear in a North Saanich referendum.

Council decided last month to ask the residents if they agree to borrowing $1.2 million for renovations on the Wain Road fire hall.

District of North Saanich staff offered council two options for borrowing the funds to rebuild the fire hall. With a Section 85 assent of the electors, the district will hold a referendum. That takes a minimum three months and roughly $10,000 estimated municipal staff. The other option was Section 86, a counter petition process where the district advertises that the project will proceed, unless 10 per cent of the electorate in the area indicates they disagree with the project. Municipal staff recommended the Section 86 a less costly process in both time and money. Council opted for the referendum option seeing it as a way to more fully engage the public.

The plan is to augment the North Saanich Volunteer Fire Department’s Wain Road fire hall with a training tower and vehicle bays. A $1.2 million budget was approved by council. Once complete, a separate building will house the fire vehicles and a training tower next to the existing building. In phase two, the original building will be converted into offices and training rooms.

The next phase has a $400,000 budget, and will include primarily internal work to alter 30 per cent of the building, said Gary Wilton, chief of the North Saanich Volunteer Fire Department.

“We will work within that budget,” he said.

The district will also proceed with a seismic review of the building, a detailed design for phase two, and a building permit review of phase one.

reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com

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