Finance committee having to weigh both community demand and the price tag of each project as it decides which proposal will move on to the next phase when it comes to Capital Improvement Program funding.
Yesterday the committee tentatively put forward $25-million dollars to Exhibition Park redevelopment-money that won’t come from the $68 million allotted for capital improvement projects.
The Committee has already agreed to move ahead with previously approved projects, such as the police headquarters expansion, the Crossings Ice Complex and the North Regional Park.
The first item up for debate Wednesday morning was a full leisure centre, which received harsh reaction from councillors after learning the cost would eat up the entire $68-million budget, plus mean borrowing over $80-million from outside sources.
“To be honest there was no way to be able to support the full build of the leisure centre because it was outside of what we had available in our funding,” said councillor Bridget Mearns. “So because we weren’t able to do the full build out, we would be committing not only that 10 year window of funds, but beyond. So to me, the smarter thing to do was know what we can build, which is the aquatic centre, and in the future look at the next piece.”
A full build out was shot down in a 7-2 vote, but a 43-thousand square foot aquatic centre did receive finance committee support. The project has a price tag of just under $55-million dollars.
The aquatics centre would open in 2017, located alongside the future Crossings Ice Centre.
“I mean there’s community support for a variety of these projects, there’s some community support for all of these projects, each one of them individually, but without a doubt in my mind and as we saw from council, almost unanimous, the community’s been very clear, when prioritizing this one does rise to the top,” said councillor Faron Ellis.
Finance committee also approved a conditional commitment of $10-million dollars from the capital budget spanning from 2018 to 2027. Proposals to relocate the shooting range and to build a down town parking garage were both denied funding by unanimous votes.
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