Proposed rec centre in Dawson City, Yukon, $30M over budget, forcing council to rethink plans
CBC
Five steps forward, seven steps back.
That's how many Dawson City, Yukon, residents feel when it comes to the town's proposed new recreation centre.
At Tuesday's town council meeting, acting chief administrative officer Paul Robitaille dropped some unfortunate news: the project is coming in way over the set budget of $65 million.
"The estimates came in around $95 million on the capital side," he explained to council. "And around $1.5 million on the [operations and maintenance] side."
Right now, the Yukon government has committed $65 million to the proposed facility, and some of that money is expected to come from the federal government's Investing in Canada's Infrastructure Program (ICIP.)
The schematic design of the proposed recreation centre includes an ice hockey arena, a two-lane curling arena, concession facilities, and recreation programming space.
Robitaille requested confirmation from council that administration could work within the $65-million budget and continue the planning work that has already been done up to this point. He said a decision should be made by the end of January.
"The ICIP funding ..will be expiring at some point in the near future," he said. "Our opportunity to utilize the $65 million could expire if we don't pursue this project."
"At this stage we believe the best course of action is to work within that budget which we have been provided by the Yukon Government and we're happy to do that good work."
The town's Mayor Bill Kendrick was first to call the process frustrating.
"I know there's some frustration in the room," he said. "We want to have faith in a process because there's been a lot of confusion as to why, for many months, something went down a trail that proved to be beyond the realm of available funds. The first step is acknowledging that we want to move forward."
Kendrick said administration has until next September to have the complete funding application submitted to the government.
"That's the window in which we are redesigning or reorienting the facility."
Coun. Julia Spriggs also expressed her support to keep the project on track.
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