Skip to content

City of Prince Rupert to cover remaining $2.7 million of Hays Creek Sewer Project

The City of Prince Rupert will be on the hook to fund the remaining $2.7 million needed to complete the final phase of the Hays Creek Trunk Sewer line replacement.
Web-icons_finals-revised
Only online.

The City of Prince Rupert will be on the hook to fund the remaining $2.7 million needed to complete the final phase of the Hays Creek Trunk Sewer line replacement.

Already the City received $2.7 million through a combined provincial and federal grant, and had applied for more funding, but learned in June it had not been successful.

“The City has to fund the balance of the project itself. We do have the money in our sewer operating fund, but it’s being brought to council’s attention because we hadn’t planned on using this funding in our 2011 Financial Plan,” Chief Financial Officer Dan Rodin told City Council Monday evening.

Initially the total cost of the project was estimated at $4 million, but in 2010 it became apparent an additional lift station was needed and that pushed the costs up an additional $1.7 million.

A table Rodin provided showed the monies for the final phase of the project will be derived by using $320,000 from 2010 funding, $200,000 from the Capital Sewer Budget, and $1.8 million from the 2011 Budgeted Surplus Allocation.

When Councillor Joy Thorkelson asked how the spending will impact the sewer budget Rodin said in the end it will mean spending an additional $380,000.

“We should not go into deficit, providing nothing happens to the rest of our sewer lines for the rest of the year,” Rodin said.

Looking to the future however, he said fee increases will be required over the coming years to fund ongoing sewer projects out of the sewer operating budget.

Council passed the resolution unanimously that the monies be taken from the sewer operating fund, although councillors Kathy Bedard, Sheila Gordon-Payne and Anna Ashley were not present at the meeting.