County of Brant Council approved a request to address the budget shortfall for the design and tendering phases of the Bawcutt Centre Main Brain Library project during its regular council meeting on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
Discussions surrounding the need for a new library in Paris have been ongoing since 2013, and in 2021, after looking at five potential sites, plans were announced to restore the Bawcutt Centre and repurpose it as the County’s new main branch library.
The project eventually went through several stages of approval and designs, and while there were several delays along the way, Council went into its January 28 meeting with a recommendation from County staff to officially accept a tender bid for $35,413,096.
Approval of the construction contract hinged on whether council would vote in favour of a by-law amendment to allow for fewer than the required parking spots needed for the site. After much deliberation, the amendment to the by-law failed and the proposed library project was scrapped altogether.
While additional fees for the construction phase are no longer necessary, DPAI Architecture Inc. (the design firm hired for the Main Branch Library project) said that a shortfall remains for the design and tendering phase of the project, and requested $143,039 from the County to address said shortfall.
A report submitted to Council explains that the additional fees are related to the increased scale of the project from the original 25,000 sq. ft. facility that was described in the County’s call for proposals, and recommended that the request be approved as it was fair and reasonable.
As part of the report, it was also said that DPAI is requesting additional fees for work performed by their subconsultant for sustainability studies, as well as the termination of the design contract.
Given that staff were still waiting for documentation from the firm to support such requests, once that comes in, staff will be reviewing it alongside the County’s legal counsel before anything is paid.
During the meeting, Councillor John Peirce asked staff when the $143,039 would have been due had the project not been scrapped and went to tender.
Mark Maxwell, the County’s Director of Engineering and Infrastructure Planning, explained that when there’s a change in the scope of a project, the fees for extra work typically come forward and are approved in and around the time a change occurs.
“In this case, I think going back to 2023, we knew that there was a change in the project scope, but the project team and the architect were willing to wait until the tender was brought forward to council to make that request [for the fees],” said Maxwell. “So normally it is earlier than tonight.”
Peirce then brought up that in Maxwell’s report, it was mentioned that “DPAI noted that the design budget shortfall of $143,039 is causing financial hardship for their firm.”
“I take offense to that comment because, as you just pointed out, they were the ones that said that they would wait until the tender was brought forward,” said Peirce. “I understand that’s money we have to pay, I get that, but I don’t feel that comment was necessary because that wasn’t us holding out; that was them saying, ‘hey, we’ll wait till that’s done.’”
Given that the County has already paid DPAI $1.388 million (which includes the construction phase allotment to complete the design) Councillor David Miller made a comment saying “but this [$143,039] is causing them financial hardship? weird.”
Council then voted to approve the payment, and as part of the evening’s recommendation, staff also requested that Alison Newton, the County’s CAO, be authorized to approve any reasonable costs related to sustainability studies, as well as the termination of the design contract.
The item was then carried on a vote of 10-1.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
