In times of economic uncertainty, St. Albert may be expediting work to get land for a new community recreation centre shovel-ready while also stimulating the local economy.
The city will be deferring an estimated $36.1 million worth of capital projects to help manage its cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic, after city council gave approval during a special meeting on Monday.
Some of that freed-up cash could be reallocated to servicing the site of St. Albert’s future recreation centre on the west side of the city. That would put the city in good stead to apply for any stimulus packages that may be announced from other levels of government, chief administrative officer Kevin Scoble told council.
No stimulus packages encompassing municipal capital projects have been formally announced yet, but Scoble said all levels of government have been talking about options.
In January, city council approved the location of a future St. Albert recreation centre west of Ray Gibbon Drive, with Rohit Land Development donating the land. No land title agreements have been reached yet, and the city has not committed any dollars to servicing the site.
Scoble said initial estimates to extend items like water and sewer lines to the site are around $4.5 million in net cost to the city, and pre-design work could be expedited in as little as four months.
“My experience with these situations and significant economic downturns and that is you can really get a lot done quickly,” he said. “Everybody’s going to be hungry to generate some cashflow (and) you can really fast track some projects.”
Coun. Wes Brodhead advanced the initiative, saying while it may be years before conversations about actually building the recreation centre materialize, the site first needs to be serviced.
“I think we’ve got an opportunity with a little bit of effort here to advance something that’s important to our community,” Brodhead said. “Yeah we can get scared and say no, or we can be brave and say, 'Let’s see if we can get this done.'”
Council voted 6-1 for administration to prioritize accelerating design of servicing the Range Road 260 (Rohit land) parcel, and to bring back additional information on or before April 6, including any necessary borrowing bylaws.
Coun. Ray Watkins voted against the motion, saying he thinks it will take “quite a bit longer” to get all the necessary approvals to get the site shovel ready to apply to any stimulus program.
Deferred capital projects
Dollars for securing land for Fire Hall #4 will not be spent this year, after city council approved a draft list compiled by staff of 49 capital projects that can be deferred, many of them until later this year.
While not a comprehensive list yet, council approved deferring $36.1 million worth of capital projects. The Fire Hall #4 project, along with sports field rehabilitation, were the only two projects that will be deferred into future years. Otherwise, most of the projects are being deferred until the end of May. An additional 59 projects will still go ahead, valued at $56.1 million.
City staff will bring back a “deeper dive” of options for deferral on April 30.
