THUNDER BAY – The City of Thunder Bay is hoping the province will chip in up to $2 million to support renewal of its Centennial Botanical Conservatory and adjacent production greenhouses, a project that’s set to cost over $7 million.
Just how much of that tab the city itself will pick up remains to be seen, with a separate funding application for $2.5 million in federal dollars for the facility still outstanding.
Administration will seek endorsement of an application to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) from city council on Monday.
The process is essentially a formality – council already voted unanimously to approve the renewal project in June.
The city has previously disclosed it was seeking NOHFC funding, but the amount sought was not known. The application was submitted in the spring, said parks manager Cory Halvorsen, and the city was notified in June it had successfully moved to Stage 2 in the review process.
Halvorsen was optimistic the city could receive an answer by the end of the year, but said there was no guaranteed timeline.
Another $2.5 million in funding sought from the federal Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF) is in similar limbo. An answer on that application was initially expected in September, but Halvorsen said an announcement is now unlikely until after the federal election.
Estimated costs for the project have risen from an initial $5 million to the current $7.1 million figure.
The revamp will replace the conservatory’s glass panels and its aging boiler system, make the facility more accessible, and reopen its long-shuttered side wings, converting one to a multi-purpose event room.
The project also includes replacement of two adjacent production greenhouses that supply plants for the conservatory, municipal planting beds, and the city’s low-impact development program, which helps manage stormwater.
The changes are expected to save the city upwards of $100,000 a year in energy costs, also steeply reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Work on the greenhouses is expected to take place in 2022, with conservatory renewal slated for 2023, Halvorsen said.
