Northern Bruce Peninsula council is submitting a request for provincial funding to support the installation of playground equipment in Tobermory and Lion’s Head.
During a meeting on Dec. 19, council received a report by CAO Peggy Van Mierlo-West. It recommended council approve submitting to the Rural Economic Development (RED) program, which provides cost-share funding, to install playground equipment at the Tobermory Community Centre and the Lion’s Head Beach.
The report says RED provides funding assistance to address barriers to economic development to attract and retain jobs and investment, and enhance economic growth.
Eligible projects for RED include the rehabilitation and minor capital projects of cultural, heritage or tourism attractions.
This comes as council recently approved its Parks and Recreation Masterplan and Lion’s Head Waterfront Masterplan, which both identify the importance of playground structures and the need for replacements and renewals of both structures.
The report says administration is proposing removing the wooden structures and replacing them with up to date structures for children between the ages of three to 12.
There are two streams available in the RED program, the economic diversification and competitiveness stream, and the strategic economic infrastructure stream.
By applying to the later stream, it will fund up to 30 per cent of eligible project costs, to a max of $250,000. Staff have proposed $70,000 to replace each of the playgrounds, for a total of $140,000.
Mierlo-West says the deadline to apply for funding is January and will take about three months to see if the municipality receives the funding.
