Owen Sound City Council has decided the city’s upcoming firehall renovation and expansion project will be managed directly by staff, rather than through a separate ad hoc committee.
The decision came during Monday night’s council meeting, following a staff report that presented two options for project oversight: either the creation of a three-member ad hoc committee or regular reporting from city staff.
Council chose the staff-led approach to move forward with the renovation and expansion as part of the City’s 2026–2030 Multi-Year Capital Plan.
"Information sharing and then connecting with though regular updates through the city's project management team," explained Corporate Services Manager Bradey Carbert.
Carbert will serve as the project manager, supported by a diverse team.
"Including the Fire Chief and our facilities project coordinator. Earlier in this project, we already engaged planning and building staff to work through a lot of those approvals," he added. "So this project is not just going to sit on one person's desk throughout. We're going to make sure that we're looking at it at multiple levels. And it's obviously going to be supported by our senior leadership team as well."
Carbert said relying on staff project management is consistent with how the City has handled similar major infrastructure projects, such as the Alpha Street reconstruction and River Precinct revitalization.
"During the design process, a lot of that work is not necessarily on a month-to-month basis, so we would look at something like bi-monthly or quarterly reports," he explained. "But then once construction is started, we would bring monthly reports, similar to what the Director of Public Works and Engineering did with those two large projects last year. So Council can continue to see the project schedule, budget adherence, potential changes to the scope and or budget, and what's coming up over the next month, and other important stakeholder feedback."
The approach is expected to streamline decision-making and reduce administrative time compared to forming a new committee. All updates on the firehall project will be shared publicly through standing committee reports and posted on the City’s website.
In June, Owen Sound council supported the $5.1 million renovation and expansion budget for the 52-year-old fire hall. The project is expected to modernize the facility to better support fire and emergency services.
