By Troy Gillard

$3 million trimmed

City council passes Capital Budget

Nov 19, 2019 | 5:23 PM

After two days of deliberations, Red Deer city council has passed the 2020 Capital Budget.

With one item tabled for discussion at a future date, council whittled the proposed $180.4 million budget down to $177.5 million.

The 2021-2029 Capital Plan has also been approved in principle. Over $700 million in projects have either been cancelled or deferred beyond the life of the plan.

“Administration did an excellent job in preparing a budget that essentially looks after the infrastructure assets that the community has. It certainly is not a growth or expansion budget,” explained Mayor Tara Veer. “It was very much a ‘need to have’ as opposed to a ‘nice to have’ budget.”

Budget items approved by council on Tuesday include:

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– Just under $29 million for the Northland Drive project. The project includes upgrading Hwy 11A to four lanes between Taylor Drive and Gaetz Ave, 11A/Gaetz Ave intersection upgrades and building a railway overpass.

– $24.9 million over six years (2020-2025) to replace aging infrastructure in Riverside Meadows, including concrete repairs, sanitation system upgrades and storm infrastructure replacement.

– $5.6 million over 4 years for City Hall infrastructure maintenance, including window and insulation replacement officials say will improve heating efficiency

– $5 million for purchase and implementation of a new Human Resources Information System to streamline staff and labour management and replace the current system which is more than 15 years old,

– $5 million for site servicing for the G.H. Dawe Centre enhancement project,

– $6.5 million for Transit improvements as part of the Multimodal Transportation Plan, initially focusing on a Gaetz Ave Rapid Bus Route,

– $2.5 million (including some existing grant funds) for the purchase of five smaller 30-foot CNG Transit buses to replace old 40-foot diesel buses,

– $2.1 million for the bridge maintenance program which sees all City bridges inspected on a three year cycle, as well as repairs to multiple structures.

“While I know there will be some disappointment (in the community) over projects that have not yet transpired, we continue to navigate a new economic normal and our community’s ability to absorb significant costs is highly limited,” Veer said. “Overall, I think this budget really does respect the new economic reality.”

Funding changes included in the recent provincial budget affected about $200 million worth of city projects, Veer estimates, an impact she says they were prepared for.

“Even though there were significant cuts, we’d been preparing for them over the past year. We certainly weren’t scrambling over the past couple weeks because, really, what we had predicted came to pass.”

One of the most talked about budget items among members of city council was the railway overpass for Highway 11A between Taylor Drive and Gaetz Avenue, which comes with a price tag of more than $10 million.

Councillor Ken Johnston argued that the overpass isn’t needed until the North Highway Connector, which is currently not in the 10-year plan, is built first.

“Why invest in that overpass now when the need for it, in my view, wouldn’t be there until 2030 or later,” he said.

Veer noted, however, that the project has already been delayed for many years and they risked losing out on provincial funding if the project was delayed even further.

“We do have approval in principle from the provincial government to cover approximately a third of the cost. If we were to defer that project and were subject to competitive grants in future years of austerity, we may not have been in as strong of a financial position.”