West Kelowna city hall build goes over budget, city vows to do better

West Kelowna city council is vowing to do better after its new city hall build went way over budget.

The new city hall opened last May and, according to city staff, West Kelowna’s bill is $24.17 million. That’s up from an estimated $18 million in 2021, a difference of $6.17 million.

The city said that despite the overrun taxpayers will be unaffected.

“We’re using some money from various sources to make up the difference of the $6.17 million overage. So, in a way, we’re using some of our reserves and over time we will have to replenish,” said West Kelowna Mayor Gord Milsom.

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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) applauded the city for not passing the costs onto taxpayers.

“It’s good that the city is looking for other savings to make up for that cost overrun rather than saddling taxpayers with even more unaffordable tax hikes,” said CTF B.C. director Carson Binda.

Moving forward staff and council will work to establish protocols for new projects, which include:

• Budgeting using engineering standard protocols, such as fixed-price design/build or design/bid/build contracts and adequate contingency planning and budgeting.
• Confirming scope before project startup.
• Using industry-standard project management best practices and trained professionals.
• Establishing procedures for managing projects during unprecedented conditions such as high inflation, global supply chain disruptions, and more frequent climate-related emergencies.
• Regular reports to council and the public throughout the project.

“We’re a young community, we’re building infrastructure we have a limited amount of financial resources, so we have to make sure we’re careful with the amount we’re spending on projects,” said Milsom.

The CTF emphasized how important transparency with taxpayers is when it comes to city spending.

“Municipalities, regional districts, every level of government owes transparency to taxpayers and that means letting us know how our money is spent and when and where we’re seeing these big cost overruns,” said Binda.

The mayor says the overages come from design changes, supply chain issues, and building during two wildfires that shut down the highway.