3532 Community Events Town receives Ministerial letter on borrowing limit extension At their Mar. 25 Council Meeting, Devon Council was presented with a letter from the Minister of Municipal Affairs informing them that he was not able to make a decision at this time regarding an increase to the Town’s borrowing limit. This extension would allow the Town to bring utility services and develop the land west of HWY 60 and build a recreation facility that would act as an anchor tenant which would spur quick commercial development of the surrounding land. In his letter, the Minister states that at this time, he is unwilling to make a decision on the Town’s borrowing limit for a few reasons. The federal government has not yet determined its allocation of funding towards the project and the Town’s community engagement efforts revealing a divided community in relation to the support of the Town’s request to extend their borrowing limit. The Minister also states that he recognizes the Town has applied for funding for the recreation facility under the Government of Canada’s Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program and if successful, these funds would reduce the financial ask of the Minister and would mitigate any significant risk to the Town’s borrowing capacity. "While we are disappointed with this news regarding the Town’s borrowing limit, we are still hopeful we can start bringing some level of servicing to the west of HWY 60 land within the next year,” said Mayor Ralph. “Our Council believes that developing this land is vital to the future growth of Devon and we will continue to look at all options for bringing on the much-needed stimulation to our community.” In the meantime, Council is not standing by waiting to hear on funding and has completed preliminary engineering for the area to provide more in-depth cost estimates to service the land. Council will review all options regarding development of the lands which includes solely bringing services to the land or completely developing the land, including servicing, and selling off the subdivided parcels. The construction of a recreation facility is on hold until additional Federal Government funding can be confirmed. Learn more about the proposed development of the land west of Highway 60 at devon.ca/westof60. -30- For more information contact: Tony Kulbisky Chief Administrative Officer Town of Devon P: 780-987-8301 E: TKulbisky@devon.ca Justin Janke Communications Coordinator Town of Devon P: 780-987-8302 E: JJanke@devon.ca Share Print