(Submitted photo/City of Prince Albert)

By Susan McNeil

Arena and pool project

Council passes arena borrowing motion, construction to start in weeks

Jun 14, 2022 | 8:41 AM

With five members of council in favour, the motion to borrow $30 million in order to start construction of the new twin pad hockey arena and aquatic centre passed.

While all councillors spoke on the subject, Don Cody was given the last word at Monday’s council meeting.

“I think we have an opportunity here to build something that is good for the community, its good for all of us and it will attract people into the community,” he said.

Councillors Ted Zurakowski, Blake Edwards, Don Cody and Dawn Kilmer all voted in favour, along with Mayor Greg Dionne.

Opposition was strong and included a vote opposed to the extra borrowing from Dennis Ogrodnick, who said he supports the project, just not the extra costs. He has previously always voted for every motion, he said.

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Tony Head said that he has heard from multiple residents that don’t support the costs associated with the project.

“At what point do we say the cost is too great. It’s too much for our residents to live here. The taxes are too much and that’s what I’ve been hearing,” said Tony Head.

While tax money will help pay for the additional costs, it was pointed out that it is not new tax money.

In order to afford the costs, which increased from an estimated $60 million to the current price of $113 million, some parts of the project were changed to be more affordable and staff came up with a solution to pay for the loan that uses a mix of existing budgeted dollars and new revenue from development.

That should add up to $2.5 million, the amount needed for annual loan payments.

Mayor Greg Dionne said that the city borrows money from the province at a lower interest rate than is available by borrowing from financial institutions.

The city will get $44 million in grant money from the province and federal government and will be asking both to consider more given the inflation rate.

Lennox-Zepp said that diverting the $1.5 million from the facilities fund still impacts the budget as council will now have to find ways to replace it.

She also doubted the claims there would be no tax increases to pay for the extra funding, saying the facilities levy has been spent on facilities that still exist.

“That is $1.5 million going towards this project and we don’t have a plan to be backfilling that so of course, there will be tax increases,” Lennox-Zepp said.

The extra $30 in borrowing needed will be paid back over the next 35 years at a rate of $2.5 million annually, a move that required the city to increase its borrowing limit.

The four councillors that opposed the borrowing motion included Tony Head, Tara Lennox-Zepp, Dennis Ogrodnick and Charlene Miller.

After the borrowing motion passed, a second motion to award the construction contract to Graham Construction of Saskatoon also passed.

Dionne said he expects equipment will be on-site in 10 days or less as the contractor has said they can complete the project in 24 months.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow