CARLETON PLACE – Carleton Place council has unanimously removed $21,066.68 from the 2025 draft budget, ending consideration of a proposed fire training facility for this year.
On Nov. 20, the town got into its second round of discussions for the 2026 budget.
Mayor Toby Randell pointed to an existing provincial training centre in Almonte as a key factor. “As luck would have it, this morning I was reading about the Almonte training centre and how people from all over the province come down to use that centre. We have one next door,” he said.
Randell stressed that the decision was not about withholding support from the fire department. “We have an excellent fire crew. I respect them all. I just want them to drive seven minutes down the road.”
He said any future project should be regional. “Every member of the county should get in a room, put per-capita funding into a new one that we all can use, and then bring people from all over the place to also utilize,” he said. “If somebody wants to put that proposal together, I’m glad to listen to it, and I’d probably be in some form a favour of it as well, just not one singularly (centre) for here when there’s already one that we can use nearby.”
CAO Diane Smithson reminded council that when the project appeared in earlier budgets, staff were directed to bring back a business plan outlining who would use the facility, why it was needed and what cost-sharing might look like. “And we have not seen that yet,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Andrew Tennant said Carleton Place is not the ideal location. “The land value in Carleton Place is too high to put one of these things,” he said. “We don’t have square inches worth nothing to put something like this, whereas surrounding us there are lots of places with appropriate zoning and cheaper land, more rural.”
Coun. Mark Hinton, who chaired the meeting, said he agreed with the points raised by Randell and Tennant.
Council unanimously supported shelving the project, shaving nearly $22,000 from the budget.
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