The story usually goes like this: a municipality needs a new building. Civic leaders decide to raise taxes to pay for it. The public is angry. Meetings are held. Politicians and public servants are blamed. The new building project is delayed or derailed.

It’s a common story - but not in the City of Cambridge. That’s because no new tax dollars are being used to build the New City Hall Administration Building. The entire cost of the $30 million project is being financed through the settlement of a loan with the city’s hydro utility. Not one dime is coming out of the city's treasury.

“We had to take the money,” says Frank Gowman, City Treasurer and Commissioner of Corporate Services. “The loan from the hydro utility had to be called no later than 2010. It made sense to call it now and use most of it for the funding of the new city hall.”

In the late 1990’s, the province privatized local hydro utilities. This left municipalities like Cambridge with some unexpected cash. The sale of the Cambridge hydro utility provided an immediate $35 million dollars in share capital and a loan payable to the city of another $35 million.

“We had this $70 million asset, $35 million of which was a loan that we had to collect,” says Gowman. “And we did.”

“It was a bit of a windfall. The value was there, accumulated over the past 100 years.”

That means citizens won’t have to worry about a tax increase to pay for the new building. In fact, taxpayers will actually be saving money. The city will no longer have to pay leasing costs for offices at Cambridge Place. Those leasing costs are close to a half million dollars a year.

Cambridge has been leasing space for staff offices since the city’s incorporation in 1973. Do the math and prepare to be startled: 34 years of rent at a half million dollars a year equals $17 million dollars. That’s a lot of money going into the pockets of private landlords.

In the future, Cambridge will be saving that money and building equity in its own building.

“I don’t think I’d say (the money) was wasted,” says Gowman. “But you want to own your own house. You don’t want to rent your whole life.”

Cambridge taxpayers should also like the environmental aspects of the New City Hall Administration Building. Innovative, energy saving features affecting lighting, heating, water use and electricity will save the city a substantial amount of money every year.

“A typical OBC building uses about 3 million litres (of water) a year,” says Randy Van Straaten, an environmental consultant. “This one will use less than half of that. So you save $26 hundred a year.”

The water costs are a drop in the bucket compared to the new building’s energy savings. Van Straaten estimates electrical costs will be cut by more than 35-thousand dollars a year. Natural gas costs will go down by 20-thousand dollars annually.

Van Straaten says good air flow will also give managers the option of being less reliant on expensive air conditioning to cool the building.

Most home owners know that energy costs have been rising over the past few years. But as prices go up in the future, Cambridge will not be hit as hard. That’s because utility costs will be lower thanks to the environmentally friendly features of the new building.

“There’s a lot of volatility as far as energy is concerned,” says Van Straaten. “No one knows where these costs are going to go.”

It is safe to say that foresight is an added feature of the new building. You could also say the new civic headquarters is proof that going green puts greenbacks in your wallet.

The Cambridge Chamber of Commerce has been a big supporter of the New City Hall project. President Greg Durocher says the building is a great investment in the city’s future.

“The economies of this project today have never been better. In the late 1980’s a similar
project was presented at a cost of 29 million dollars, and given that over 15 years has
elapsed and a better design and layout has resulted for similar costs, now rather than later
is the Chamber’s official position” (Source: Cambridge Chamber of Commerce).

Building equity and saving taxpayers money. You don’t often hear that from a municipality. But it’s a reality in Cambridge. The New City Hall Administration Building will be a model for the citizens of Cambridge. And when people come to admire their new building, they can be pleased that the city did not reach into their wallets to pay for the project.