Quinte West council has approved a loan of up to $1 million to assist the Quinte Humane Society in building its new facility.
Representatives of QHS made the request at Monday’s council meeting for an interest free loan of up to $1 million in order to secure their contract with TaskForce Engineering in Belleville to begin moving on the sorely needed new facility.
While councillors were all in agreement that they wanted to support QHS in its goals for the new facility Councillor David O’Neil raised the idea of adding interest to the loan with support from other councillors.
QHS Executive Director Marilyn Lawrie explained that they aren’t expecting to need more than $350,000 of the $1 million loan. She said they’ve already raised $3,167,000 and that they would only access money from the loan once their own funds run out.
After further discussion, the initial motion of approving the loan without any interest failed in a recorded vote with nine opposed and three in favour. Councillor O’Neil motioned to approve the loan with an interest rate of 2.0%.
Lawrie explained that a 2.0% interest rate would result in significantly larger annual payments than they had planned for depending upon how much of the loan that they actually use and that the repayment would come largely from donations to the shelter in order to make up the difference.
Councillor Lynda Reid suggested that since the City of Quinte West is currently making 0.78% on its funds that they adjust the motion to 0.78% interest instead of 2.0%.
Councillor Leslie Roseblade was in agreement.
“I agree with councillor Reid in regards to that we would be making money off the Humane Society and people that are donating to the project by charging two per cent. If we just recoup what we could’ve made in the bank I’m okay with that, the 0.78, but I’m not okay with making money off people that are donating their money to the project.”
Councillor O’Neil agreed to change his motion to approving the loan with 0.78% interest and it passed unanimously.
Representatives of QHS will make the same loan request of the City of Belleville in the coming weeks.
The new QHS building is set to be built on land already owned by QHS at Wallbridge-Loyalist Road north of Dundas Street. Lawrie explained that it will be a phased construction with the first phase being an animal care and adoption centre with the subsequent two phases adding a community centre and an on-site medical clinic.
To date, Quinte West has already granted $250,000 and the City of Belleville has granted $400,000. The projected cost of the project is approximately $5 million.
