By Cheryl Jahn

Council Committee set to look at unfunded capital projects

Mar 27, 2024 | 3:34 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The City has identified millions of dollars in capital projects that need to be done this fiscal year. There are two envelopes within the capital budget: funded and unfunded. The funded list is that which Administration has identified as pretty much necessary, while the unfunded list cites things that, ideally, would like to be done. But the money simply isn’t there.

During the budget discussions, however, several Councillors looked to pull items from the unfunded list to be considered. Here’s a partial list: Playground replacement to the tune of $276,000, the same amount for new trails and journey rec improvements at $336,000 and Councilor Trudy Klassen cites one in particular.

“Because these are things that the community has asked for desperately for so long, like that Hart Connector Trail. But I mean, that so that’s sort of a I mean, some people might say, ‘Well, that’s a nice to have.’ But in a lot of ways, especially for young people wanting to move here, it’s sort of necessary.”

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One of the concerns that was raised was the fact that the budgets for some of these projects are very dated.

“And confirm the numbers, what they would be today with the inflation that we’ve had without actually looking at them again,” says Klassen. “So that’s the intention of bringing them forward so that we can sort of begin that process.”

“There are many different funding sources,” explains Cori Ramsay as the Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee. “Some of those are funded by GIR, or General Infrastructure Reinvestment levy, which does impact the tax levy. But a lot of the projects are also funded by other sources that don’t. So we have the capital expenditure reserve, which is funded by the grant money we receive from the casino. We also have the B.C. Growing Communities Fund, which has $12 million in it. It’s a grant from the province. We also have Endowment, which has $8 million, so we have funding sources that are healthy.”

At the most recent council meeting on Monday, Council opted to have a special committee of the whole meeting to take a look at taking some of these projects from the unfunded file and moving them to the funded file.