‘Better days ahead’: Bayham set to pay off debt from HMCS Ojibwa in Port Burwell, Ont.

13 years after council guaranteed $6 million debt, Bayham finally has the chance to finish its business with the HMCS Ojibwa, CTV London's Brent Lale explains.

It was a gamble which didn’t pay off.

The decision to bring a Canadian Cold War submarine sunk the Municipality of Bayham.

Thirteen years after council voted 3-2 in March 2012 to guarantee a $6 million debt from the Elgin Military Museum on the HMCS Ojibwa, the current council finally has the chance to rid themselves of the burden.

“We have made a concerted effort over the course of the last ten years to put money aside, and council directed some surplus money last Thursday to our guarantor ship reserve,” said Thomas Thayer, Bayham CEO.

“That put us over the remaining principal amount we need to pay off the Ojibwa.”

The municipality has been paying $330,000 a year to service the debt.

Council can decide Thursday to use reserves to pay off the remaining $4.1 million.

“Once the debt is paid off, we’ll have that $330,000 that we can potentially use to service debt for capital projects like water, wastewater and stormwater,” said Thayer.

Back on March 15, 2012, hundreds packed a community hall in Port Burwell, Ont.

Then Mayor Lynn Acre believed the beach community would see a tourist boom like Rimouski, Quebec, who brought the sister-sub HMCS Onondaga.

“If you can get 90,000 visitors in the middle of nowhere, I’m positive we’ll surpass the 100,000 visitors,” Acre told CTV News in 2010.

That was a pipe dream.

Then Councillor Ed Ketchabaw, who is now the mayor of Bayham, told CTV after that fateful meeting in 2012 that he voted against the idea of guaranteeing the debt.

“The problem is I have not seen a debt-retirement schedule from the military museum,” Ketchabaw told CTV’s Priya Mann.

“It scares the living bejesus out of me. The ratepayers in my end say, ‘Bring a submarine, but stay out of my pockets.’ I can’t guarantee that.”

The other councillor who voted against was Wayne Casier.

“I guess time will tell,” Casier told CTV News’ Daryl Newcome when asked if ratepayers should be worried.

Newcombe followed by asking if he was worried: “I’m concerned,” he said.

Three years later in 2015 when the loan went into default, Ketchabaw and Casier were proven right.

Bayham and its ratepayers were on the hook for the money.

“We haven’t any communications with the Elgin Military Museum since March of 2015, when they defaulted on the loan,” said Ketchabaw, who is encouraging council to vote in favour of paying down the debt on Thursday.

“We are looking at large projects looming on the horizon, and we need that debt capacity in order to accommodate some of the growth that needs to happen.”

Some of those projects are a $21 million water line, $35 million of stormwater work which needs done, and future wastewater projects.

“If council is agreeable and follows the plan that’s being suggested, we will retire this debt this year. If not, it will be renegotiated.”

The debt was a $6 million fee required to satisfy the Department of National Defense that resources were available should they have to dispose of the sub.

When you add in legal costs and interest, the cost to Bayham will have totaled close to $8 million to bring the HMCS Ojibwa to Port Burwell.

“It’s a piece of infrastructure that we don’t even own,” said Ketchabaw. “It’s important that we reach out and we thank the ratepayers - the residents - for the patience and fortitude that got us here and made this possible. We can look forward to better days ahead in Bayham.”