City Launches Alternate Approval Process On Four Projects
City Hall will be accepting Elector Response Forms 250News photo
Prince George, BC – It will be up to residents to lodge their opposition to borrowing plans for three infrastructure upgrades and a financing plan that would allow the replacement of aging city mobile equipment. Otherwise, City Council will adopt the necessary bylaws in early November.
All four bylaws are for terms longer than five years and, therefore, require elector support – this would normally require referendums. However, after receiving approval from the Inspector of Municipalities, Councillors directed staff to move forward with four alternate approval processes at Monday night’s meeting, which, instead, require a percentage of the electorate to register their opposition.
In this case, 5,075 eligible voters (10-percent of the electorate) must submit Elector Response Forms to City Hall by 5pm, October 26th.
Barring an outcry from residents wanting to force a referendum on one or more of the projects, Council hopes to adopt the following at its November 7th meeting:
| Project | Length of Loan | Amount of Loan | Annual Debt Servicing Cost |
| Mobile equipment replacement | Max 10 years | $4,570,279.00 | $504,633.00 (General Op. Fund |
| 2nd Ave Parkade Upgrade | 20 years | $2,725,000.00 | $179,348.00 (from Off Street Parking fund) |
| Plaza Parkade | 20 years | $1,170,000.00 | $ 77,004.00 (from Off Street Parking fund) |
| Kin 3 Arena Floor Replacement | 20 years | $1,050,000.00 | $ 69,106.00 (General Op. Fund) |
Starting tomorrow, the Elector Response Forms will be available at City Hall and on the City’s website. They can be handed in, faxed, or emailed as a PDF document to cityclerk@princegeorge.ca
Comments
Interest on the borrowing for the above over 10/20 years would be in the area of $2 Million dollars.
Its to bad we cant get some of this work done without borrowing money, or at the very least borrow it internally from other funds.
I do believe that the city has a reasonable credit rating, and is borrowing money thru the municipal group rate. I would be surprised if they are paying more than 2.25%.
As a private investor, our concern is rate of return on investment. It is hard for a public entity to look at the rate of return. However, the value of investment keeps going up, if maintained.
An example of this is CN Center, was built for 25 million dollars over twenty years ago, the replacement cost on that will be well over 50 million dollars, as well, it has created how many dollars into the community in the past 20 years.
I thought the reason we increased user fees to the parkades was so they pay for their own upkeep by 2016? Were we told a lie again?
ht tp://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/news/local-news/council-attempts-to-shift-parking-fee-hikes-1.1034662
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