Project Funding Summary

Total Estimate Project Budget - $75,330,000

Town of Bracebridge and Community Fundraising - more than $58 million

Province of Ontario – up to $16,862,234

• The Town intends to issue debentures of approximately $50,000,000 to fund the Muskoka Lumber Community Centre. The Town could support nearly half of this debenture requirement using its existing $1,190,000 annual transfer to the Major Infrastructure Reserve. The Town has prudently increased the size of this transfer over the past several years in anticipation of ultimately leveraging it to finance the construction of the Muskoka Lumber Community Centre.
• At existing debenture rates on a 30-year repayment period, the $1,190,000 annual transfer could be redirected to operations in order to support approximately $23,000,000 in debentures without increasing the tax levy.
• In addition, the Town’s annual recurring Muskoka Lumber Community Centre sponsorship payments secured to date, equal to approximately $130,000 per year, would support principal and interest payments on approximately $2,400,000 of debentures over a 30-year repayment term (assuming the sponsors exercise their renewal options at the end of their 10-20 year agreements).
• To support the remaining $24,600,000 in anticipated debentures needed to fund the current Muskoka Lumber Community Centre construction budget, the Town would need an additional annual debt repayment capacity of approximately $1,282,000. This equates to around 8% of the 2021 general levy.
• To obtain most of this annual debt repayment capacity, the Town intends to utilize the Lakeland dividend that historically has been transferred to capital reserves each year. Typically, the Town has allocated 75% of its annual Lakeland dividend to capital reserves, which equated to $824,550 in 2021. The Town will seek to phase-out any use of the dividend to support annual debt repayments over no more than five years. The Town intends to accomplish this using a combination of incremental revenues from assessment growth, dedicated levy increases, and operational efficiencies.
• In order to fund the remaining annual debt repayment requirement of approximately $457,450, the Town would expect to undertake moderate, phased increases to the capital component of the levy.

We will provide further updates regarding the Town’s funding strategy as the project evolves.

Project Contact: Paul Judson, Director of Finance/Treasurer 705-645-6319 ext. 3300 pjudson@bracebridge.ca

Project Contact: Cindy O’Regan, Director of Recreation 705-645-1921 ext. 3700 or coregan@bracebridge.ca