By Dan Singleton
MVP Staff
Mountain View County councillors have passed motions in support of Mountain View Seniors' Housing authority (MVSH) plans to borrow $2.6 million, including $1.2 million to finance the purchase of land for a new lodge in Sundre.
During the regularly scheduled Sept. 25 council meeting, councillors passed the following motions:
• One motion gave council approval in principle for the borrowing of $2,652,000 over 15 years from the Alberta Capital Finance Authority.
• One motion gave council approval in principle for the lending to MVSH of $1.4 million over 15 years to provide funds to replace the MVSH's current operating line of credit.
• One motion gave council approval in principle for the lending to MVSH over 15 years of $1,252,000 to finance the purchase of the Sundre land.
“The way it works is we will borrow the money from Capital Finance, which is the provincial government lending agency, and then subsequently lend those dollars to seniors' housing,” said Reeve Bruce Beattie.
Councillors instructed administration to prepare proposed borrowing and lending bylaws related to the $1.4 million and bring those back to the Oct. 9 council meeting.
As regards the $1.2 million, administration was instructed to wait until the confirmation of provincial grant funding for the Sundre lodge project before moving forward with the preparation of a proposed lending bylaw.
“That is contingent on the approval of the grant and on the board of seniors' housing going ahead with the progress. That bylaw won't start until the new year when there will likely be new members on the board. That won't go forward until the board approves going ahead with the Sundre project,” he said.
Beattie is the vice-chairman on the MVSH board.
“We've come a long way from where we started three years ago. We think we have a good handle on the financial side of things,” he said.
Councillors Kevin Good and Bob Orr did not attend last week's votes.
