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New South Bruce Peninsula town hall site in Wiarton's demolition phase over half done

Published Apr 21, 2026  •  Last updated Apr 21, 2026  •  2 minute read

The site of South Bruce Peninsula's new town hall in Wiarton on Saturday, April 4, 2026. (Rob Gowan The Sun Times)

The demolition phase of the former Foodland store building in Wiarton, which is to become a new South Bruce Peninsula town hall, is about 65 per cent complete.

The next step is for the exterior walls to come down, Jamie Hastings of Allen Hastings Ltd. said in a video update.

“We’re cutting the main floor trenches for plumbing rough-ins. Shop drawings and all the ordering is well underway for this project and things are looking great,” Hastings said in the update, which was posted by the town Monday.

The town expects construction to take approximately 52 weeks, with occupancy at the site at 370 Williams St., overlooking Bluewater Park, beginning in 2027.

Town council awarded the construction contract to Allen Hastings Limited in January for $9,639,000 plus HST. The contractor had the lowest of eight bids the town received for the project, at almost $10.7 million, still close to $1.7 million above the original project budget of $9 million. The town’s architect and the contractor then agreed on some changes to reduce the overall construction cost.

The current town hall would have required extensive work, town officials have said in the past. It is too small and is not fully accessible.

About 12,000 square feet of the new 26,000-square-foot town hall building would be vacant space available for uses other than town business under current construction plans.

Members of the South Bruce Peninsula Family Health Organization appeared before council in March and proposed that family doctors and other health-care professionals relocate to an expanded medical clinic in an 8,000-square-foot section of the former grocery store. They said a new medical facility at the new town hall location would increase capacity for up to 14 additional allied health professionals, which could result in openings to serve 2,500 people without a family physician, while reducing ER visits and avoidable acute care. The delegates also suggested a new facility would improve recruitment prospects and physician retention.

Council voted April 7 to approve further negotiations with the doctors’ group.

Foodland moved to a larger store at 416 Berford St. in March 2016.