Sechelt’s finance, culture and economic development committee has tabled a decision on borrowing approximately $3.7 million to build a new operations centre.
The operations centre is needed to replace the former public works building that was on the site of the new Water Resource Centre.
District staff presented the latest estimates for the project, along with a recommendation that it be funded through a 25-year loan, at the committee’s May 9 meeting.
Such a loan would require voter approval through either a referendum or alternate approval process (AAP).
After reviewing the report, Coun. Doug Wright questioned the need to build the operations centre to design standards now estimated to cost between $4.2 and $4.5 million.
Wright said a lower cost option “may not have some of the architectural features that are built into this building, but we would have a building that was sufficient for the people to work in.”
Mayor Bruce Milne said he wouldn’t support cost-cutting that would lead to a cheaper building that doesn’t meet the district’s needs.
The estimated cost to an average homeowner of servicing the debt was estimated at $35 per year.
“For an operations centre that’s been needed for exactly four years since they were moved out of the Ebbtide site and will last for another 25 years minimum, I think put in that perspective I have no qualms whatsoever about going to the community and asking for $35 a year so we can actually put staff in an operational building. And the efficiencies that will come from that are quite significant,” Milne said.
Milne said he is, however, concerned about how the process has been handled so far, in particular the earlier estimates that put the potential cost of the building closer to $2 million.
Coun. Alice Lutes touched on the same issue. “I am in sticker shock, but I also have an awful lot of disappointment in our previous staff, council, mayor that we only put aside a million dollars when we tore down the existing building,” she said. “I think that we need to build for the future and we should have looked at that five years ago or more.”
Coun. Darren Inkster, meanwhile, said council should look at other ways to fund the project to avoid passing the cost on in taxes, such as grants, the rent payments that will begin to accrue once the debt on the Justice Building is retired, or even Community Forest dividends.
“If we don’t look at options going forward, what I see in future councils every year, which is going to be frustrating to me and we might as well put robots in charge, is we don’t have any money to do anything else.”
In the end the committee agreed to table the staff recommendations to allow time for staff to draft a full business case that can be put to the public during an AAP or referendum.
“I think this needs to go back [to staff] with some more detailed information to come back [to council] to show all of that is covered so we can ensure that the number we actually go out to the public for is going to cover off what we need,” said Coun. Darnelda Siegers.
Coun. Noel Muller added that he felt it would be up to the current council to move the project forward. “It’s tough the way the timing all lined up to make it so close to an election, and I think our guiding principle should be that we de-politicize this as much as possible,” he told the committee. “If we were to postpone this decision and allow a new council to take it forward then that new council might feel a lot of pressure to either cancel or change when it’s really just an operation decision. Regardless of who gets elected, we need a public works building.”
The committee motion to table was due to go before full council at the May 16 meeting, after Coast Reporter deadline.
