The mayor of Huron East says one of the things he's most pleased about over the past year is the way the municipality's three recreation centres are working together to maximize public use of their facilities.
Bernie MacLellan says the cost of running the three facilities in Brussels, Vanastra and Seaforth had become a major expense to the municipality. He says while no one wanted to see them close, it was difficult to continue spending money on them if they weren't being used.
MacLellan says all three facilities are working with OMAFRA on programs that will help bring more people through the doors and make sure they're being used. Looking ahead to 2017, MacLellan says the biggest challenge is going to be the budget and in particular, infrastructure projects that have been put off for the past few years.
He recognizes that can only be done for so long and council is going to have to take a hard look at some of those projects this year.
MacLellan says another problem that all lower-tier municipalities are facing is the reduction on funding from the provincial government, which is looking very hard for new revenue.
One of his concerns is that the new provincial cap and trade program that comes into effect on January 1. MacLellan suggests it's really just an extra tax and questions how much impact it will have on reducing carbon emissions.