County of Brant Council received an overview of Downtown Dig initiatives during its Administration and Operations Committee meeting on Tuesday, June 16, 2026.
An extensive multi-year project, the Downtown Dig is working to replace critical, major infrastructure throughout downtown Paris.
Some of the work surrounds aging water and sewer lines, upgrades to gas and electrical utilities, new widened sidewalks, reconstructing roads, improving streetscape and accessibility features, adding digital features and enhancing climate resiliency.
Major construction began in April 2025 and continued on through to November, restarting this year on April 7.
Throughout the process, residents, and business owners in particular, have taken to social media to express their concerns around reduced foot-traffic and customer access to downtown, ongoing road closures and detours
Recently, a petition was started calling for the County of Brant to provide relief measures for downtown businesses and has gained over 1,500 signatures.
The petition asks the municipality to provide temporary property tax relief, suspend or offset Business Improvement Association (BIA) levies, establish an non-repayable emergency downtown business grant program for affected businesses, and to publish a coordinated downtown impact recovery strategy.
During the meeting, Adam Crozier, General Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Zach Gable, Director of Economic Development and Tourism, presented a report outlining support measures that have been created in response to disruptions caused by the Downtown Dig.
According to the report, County staff, among other things, secured a provincial Rural Economic Development grant of $112,500, and approved $142,500 in tax-supported funding to match the provincial contribution, and provide a one-time $30,000 grant to the Downtown Paris BIA to support business mitigation efforts.
Acknowledging community concerns around the situation, Councillor Steve Howes thanked Crozier for the report, and asked him to speak about why the County could not directly compensate individual businesses as requested in the petition.
Crozier explained that while other provinces like Alberta and Quebec may have tools to be able to provide direct financial support to individual businesses, Ontario municipalities are prohibited under Section 106 of the Municipal Act.
“We have searched and there are no other examples where a municipality directly compensates, and I think part of our hesitation as staff in recommending any significant measures was setting the precedent for any sort of construction-related compensation, whether it be residential, commercial, or industrial. In short, we are prohibited from providing any sort of compensation for business loss, so our strategy, as we started planning back in 2024, was focused more on mitigation as opposed to compensation. We’ve been encouraging people to shop local, encouraging businesses to reach out to Enterprise Brand or the Brantford-Brant Business Resource Centre, which have loan programs or even grant programs from the federal and provincial government which don’t have those same restrictions.”
Howes said that while it would be wonderful if the County could provide financial compensation to businesses, what they really need is for people to shop in downtown Paris.
The Ward 2 Councillor also referenced an upcoming promenade area along Grand River Street North that has been described as “a cornerstone of the 2026 impact mitigation strategy.”
The pedestrian-focused space is being designed for gathering, relaxing and experiencing the heart of downtown Paris.
“Throughout the summer of 2026, the promenade will feature extensive programming for all ages, including live music, craft activities, and community events,” the report states. “In addition, select businesses will have opportunities to utilize the space for activations and events, further enhancing downtown vibrancy.”
Howes said that if the promenade, which will be home to this year’s weekend-long Paris Block Party festival, was up and running now rather than at the beginning of July, the morale of everybody involved would likely be much higher.
Councillor Ella Haley asked if any local businesses have been lost since construction began, and Gable said he was aware of one retirement, and two within a bigger market space that have closed, likely due to “a difficult economic situation where the act of going out and eating, or discretionary spending is something people don’t get to do as often as they’d like to.”
After some further discussion surrounding the BIA levy, and communicating details of the report in a more user-friendly way, Council voted to receive the report as information before Howes moved a new motion.
“Having listened to all of the information and understanding that we cannot financially compensate individual business, but also listening to Zach talk about marketing, I patched together a motion for consideration,” he said. “I move that we approve $30,000 to be injected to the BIA specifically for media buying to increase traffic for downtown Paris. …There’s a petition rolling around that might have 1,500 signatures on it, but what we really need is for 1,500 people to come shop in downtown Paris. I think the best thing we can do right now, knowing that we can’t financially compensate, and knowing how complicated that would be even if we tried to attempt it, is we need to get more people shopping in downtown Paris.”
Howes explained that the $30,000 should come from the County’s contingency fund, and will effectively match what the BIA generates a year from its membership levy ($325 plus HST per year, per member).
“There are about 92 members of the BIA, and that generates about $30,000 altogether, and that’s what the BIA runs on. Those funds get used for marketing, special events and promotions, and if we were to approve an additional $30,000 injection into the BIA, we would essentially be matching the funds raised by their membership levy,” he said. “I’m confident that the BIA, with some extra funds specifically for media buying, could do some good in driving more people to shop in downtown Paris during this challenging time.”
Council later supported the motion unanimously, and will vote on its approval during its Tuesday, June 23, Council meeting. At the time, Howes will also bring more details about the $30,000 and what it will be used for.
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.
