Stouffville moves forward with $8.2M skating trail as inflation drives cost upward

The original budget for the skating trail was $5.5M

yorkregion.com
Simon Martin
March 27, 2023

Stouffville is one step closer to getting a skating trail at Memorial Park but the price tag is a lot more than the originally budgeted of $5.5 million. Council awarded the contract for the skating trail to Pine Valley Corporation for $8.2 million at meeting in March.

The town funded the additional $2.6 million from internal reserves.

Last April, both the federal and provincial governments contributed $4 million to the project through grants. At the time the project was thought to be $5.5 million.

But inflation pressures have changed dramatically and the cost of construction for the project have sky rocketed from initial estimates.

“I think we were all sticker shocked,” Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt said. Lovatt said he is fairly confident the town can work with its federal and provincial partners to help get additional grant funding.

Ward 6 Coun. Sue Sherban was the lone dissenter on council on the decision citing grave concerns about costs spiralling out of control. “I can’t support the project in the format that it is being presented,” she said.

Sherban also cited annual operation costs for the trail between $300,000 and $400,000 for use a third or the year as problematic.

The 275-metre refrigerated accessible skating trail will also include accessible washrooms and change rooms and storage for an ice re-surfacer.