Councillors were due to vote Wednesday night (after Coast Reporter’s deadline) on using an alternate approval process to allow a long-term loan of up to $4 million for the construction of the proposed Public Works Operations Centre.
The new building would replace the former public works building that was torn down to make way for the Water Resource Centre.
Although originally estimated to cost around $2 million, the budget for the Operation Centre has risen to $4.8 million.
A report from director of finance Doug Stewart recommended using $800,000 from reserves, with a loan of up to $4 million to cover the balance. The property tax impact would amount to a 2.8 per cent increase phased in over three years, which would add a total of $38.89 to the bill for a single-family home valued at $611,198.
When the loan authorization bylaw was discussed at the June 13 meeting of the finance committee, Mayor Bruce Milne said the cost increase is mainly the result of poor estimates early on.
The Public Works department is currently operating out of temporary structures on a district-owned property off Dusty Road. In earlier reports on the need for a new building, district staff pointed out that the temporary location can’t meet the same workplace health and safety standards as the proposed building.
At one point in the meeting Milne described it as “a couple of old portables, a rented trailer and some open sheds.”
Coun. Doug Wright said he’s not satisfied with the price and believes the proposal calls for a building that is far beyond what the district actually needs. “I think that we’re building a building that is over-built, and I’m not talking about in terms of growth – it’s just plain over-built in many aspects.”
That said, Wright agreed to “reluctantly” support going forward. “I think you could have got a building a whole lot cheaper than this that would have been warm and safe,” he said.
Coun. Noel Muller, however, said he couldn’t support it.
“When we’re asking for this kind of money from the community we’re going to need a rock-solid business case, one that we can go to election on and say to the community that we dealt with all the options and that we looked at and explored them fully… I just don’t see that with this business case.”
Milne said the project is necessary, the cost is reasonable and the price of providing local government services at the level residents of Sechelt expect.
“It’s just sticker shock,” he said. “The fact [is] that we’re a government and we have to provide basic infrastructure and operations centres, and operations buildings are part of that infrastructure.”
Muller was the only councillor to vote against drafting a loan authorization bylaw.
It was also noted during the committee meeting that if the alternative approval process is not successful, a referendum question on the loan authorization could be added to the ballot in October.
