{"id":37659,"date":"2026-02-26T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37659"},"modified":"2026-03-05T12:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:15:13","slug":"council-moves-ahead-with-victoria-hall-renovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-moves-ahead-with-victoria-hall-renovations\/","title":{"rendered":"Council moves ahead with Victoria Hall renovations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Council has approved a budget increase to renovate historic Victoria Hall on a vote of 4 \u2013 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future use of Aurora\u2019s historic Victoria Hall was made clearer this week after a proposal to renovate the building at a cost far beyond its original estimate was presented to Council at the Committee level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue was a significant budget increase in the estimated cost to overhaul the building for future use. Originally budgeted at $500,000, the proposed costs now stand at $2.182 million after further studies on the 1870s building found the need for new flooring due to dry rot, and the replacement of an existing addition to the Hall\u2019s south end to make it fully accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No firm decision on a path forward was made at the February Committee of the Whole meeting, with Council voting to simply receive the report for information, but further discussion led to the funding approval on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First to speak out against the rising price tag at the Committee level was Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo who questioned why these updated figures were coming to Council months after local lawmakers approved this year\u2019s municipal budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCouncil\u2019s role is financial stewardship. When we are being asked to more than quadruple a project budget, we must be provided with sufficient clarity and certainty to exercise that duty responsibly,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat is now before us reflects a materially expanded scope, including demolition of the south addition, replacement of flooring systems with a slab-on-grade construction, significant structural remediation, major electrical and mechanical replacement, expanded consultant contracts\u2026 if structural deficiencies such as dry rot and load failures were present, why were they not fully identified during the earlier feasibility work?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outstanding questions, he said, included how the building would be operated, generate revenue for the Town, ongoing maintenance, and return on investment. He also cautioned against the funding model of dipping into municipal reserves in the face of uncertainty related to Development Charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar concerns were raised by Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese who questioned how estimates could be off my more than 300 per cent. Staff contended the rising costs were related to a deeper analysis of the building from original studies which looked primarily at \u201cgeneral improvements.\u201d Work to bring it up to code would be \u201ca lot more intensive,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner said while she believes it\u2019s important to maintain heritage buildings like Victoria Hall, residents she\u2019s heard from have expressed some sticker shock. This was a sentiment echoed by Ward 6 Councillor Harold Kim who said while initial studies were intended to show how Victoria Hall could be made safe for \u201cjust basic activities,\u201d there has to be some leniency when it comes to old buildings that might have hidden issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree with everyone that it\u2019s certainly sticker shock,\u201d he said. \u201cBased on the discussions we\u2019re having right now, it seems that the budget has to be tied to the use [of Victoria Hall in the future] and because we don\u2019t know that yet, I\u2019m in favour of just having this report for receipt only until we get more information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConflicted\u201d was one word used by Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland to summarize her view on the proposal. Victoria Hall matters, she says, and is a \u201chistoric piece of our history\u201d in the downtown core, and it\u2019s worth investing in \u201cproperly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat this report makes clear is essentially staff has gone beyond the surface level and you\u2019ve definitely discovered what the building actually needs in order to have those changes made,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is something that we can [do] kind of helter-skelter. This is something we need to do properly once structural issues, accessibility requirements, as we\u2019ve talked about, the modern building code standards, that\u2019s changed quite a bit. It doesn\u2019t leave much room for shortcuts anywhere in these times. I accept that, and unfortunately when it comes to historic buildings, older structures reveal the truth. Sometimes that truth isn\u2019t always what we want to hear, and unfortunately that\u2019s what costs money \u2013 and the longer you wait, the more and more it is going to cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve heard some Council and maybe some members of the public saying \u2018let’s do what we kind of need to do\u2019 so\u2026you can put lipstick on a pig all day long but then you’re just going to keep doing the same thing over and over again and I just feel like we\u2019ve got do this right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More fulsome support came from Mayor Tom Mrakas who said it came down to three options: \u201crenovate it, sell it, or demolish it,\u201d but stressed a decision had to be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we believe in protecting our heritage, renovation is the only responsible option,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s funded from our reserves that exist to invest in the infrastructure and capital assets. It does not impact the tax rate; this is about investing in our community, period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoing nothing is a neutral choice,\u201d he continued. \u201cDelaying the work is effectively demolition by decay. That is what we accuse developers and builders of doing when they come into our community and allow buildings to rot, yet we\u2019re suggesting we should wait? Allowing a heritage building to deteriorate to the point where demolition becomes inevitable, this is what happens when leadership looks the other way. I will not allow that to happen to one of Aurora\u2019s heritage assets. If people think the cost is high today, absolutely there is sticker shock, but they should ask themselves what it will cost one or two years from now? Construction costs are not going to go down; waiting only makes this more expensive and risks losing the building entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editorial
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council has approved a budget increase to renovate historic Victoria Hall on a vote of 4 \u2013 3. The future use of Aurora\u2019s historic Victoria Hall was made clearer this week after a proposal to renovate the building at a cost far beyond its original estimate was presented to Council at the Committee level. At […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026-02-13-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Np","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 07:03:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37660,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37659\/revisions\/37660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}