Dufferin County got a $5.4-million shot in the arm last Friday to help pay for the proposed courthouse addition, along with formal confirmation of $1.8 million for 15 additional affordable units in the 30-unit seniors complex at 40 Lawrence Ave.

Community Services Director Keith Palmer said in an interview Monday that the grant would bring the total of the building's affordable units to 28. "Affordable" means rent set at 80 per cent of current market rate.

The other two units may be rented at market, at affordable, or at rent geared to income.

The funding does not cover the total cost of construction. Funding for the first 13 affordable units was only about $70,000 per unit, and the new funding is $120,000 per unit. "You can't build for $120,000 a unit," he said.

The seniors complex is already under construction, but the courthouse addition is at the formal drawing stage.

The $5.4-million for the courthouse, shared equally by the federal and provincial governments, was kept under wraps until it was announced by Dufferin-Caledon MP David Tilson and Brampton Springdale's Liberal MPP, Linda Jeffrey, at noon Friday.

The $1.8 million, also a Canada-Ontario initiative, had been applied for last July after county council heard construction costs could rise to as much as $7-million from original estimates of $5.6 million. It had been approved on the day of the sod turning on Lawrence Ave., but too late for a formal announcement at the time.

The courthouse addition, although principally considered a Provincial Offences Act court facility, is a multi-purpose building to house county administration and departments as well as a courtroom and related space, along with a sally port for the safe conduct of prisoners.

CAO Linda Dean said the courtroom would include accommodations for a jury, and could generate additional income for the county.

Original plans for the addition were for about 32,000 square feet — 7,000 for POA and the rest for county purposes.

This was scaled back at the behest of county council to about 26,000 square feet, but the final plan won't be certain until the council has mulled the drawings.

The most recent estimates of construction costs alone have been in the order of $6.2 million, in addition to soft services and other expenses.

Although there had been some controversy at county council over the size of the expansion before it was scaled back, Mr. Tilson Friday congratulated the council and planners for having had the project "shovel-ready" in time to qualify for the stimulus grant.

Mr. Tilson might have been in the best position to speak of the need for the courthouse project. "This was my home for 20 years," he said of the century old Superior Court that doubles as county council chambers.

He practised both civil and criminal law in Orangeville from 1970 to 1990 when he narrowly defeated incumbent Liberal Mavis Wilson in his initial run at provincial politics under the Progressive Conservative banner.

When the schematic design has been received from Parkin Architects Limited it is expected to show square footage of 6,656 for POA court facilities, 4,479 for building and public works departments, 6,800 for storage, and 1,573 for maintenance shops.

Based on design needs, the total floor area is likely to be 26,530 square feet (2,465 square metres), well down from the initially proposed 32,000, according to a September 2009 report.

The addition is expected to enhance the county's services while solving the local backlog in POA cases.