Lethbridge City Hall. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

City delays decisions on “discontinuing” four major capital projects

Feb 26, 2020 | 10:09 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge City Council is considering canceling a series of community capital projects, but will not be making their decisions just yet.

With the provincial government tightening the belt on funding for the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) and other funding streams, Mayor Chris Spearman says some tough decisions might have to be made.

“In the current fiscal environment, we’re just trying to make prudent decisions which end up not wasting money, but we want to make sure that we can continue with those projects that we can and whether there’s some discretion involved and where savings can be made, we’ll certainly make a careful review before spending new money.”

The four projects, which were approved in the 2018-2027 Capital Improvement Program, are as follows, with the savings identified from potentially canceling each project in brackets:

• D-11 Pathway System Connections and Extension ($2+ million)
• D-25 Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden Programming and Community Facility ($3 million)
• D-34 Performing Arts Centre ($6.5 million)
• D-39 Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAGG) Facility Enhancements ($2+ million)

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If all four were to be discontinued, at least for the time being, the mayor told LNN that they would total approximately $15-million in savings for the city.

“We’re gonna have to do some re-juggling of the funds in order to continue the projects that were previously approved and then we’re going to have to make an assessment as to, what are the risks with continuing and what are the risks if we don’t continue?”

He said decisions on the Pathway and Nikka Yuko projects will happen at the next regular council meeting on March 9.

“We were hearing that people weren’t given enough notice, that this was a surprise, that information was only public last Thursday at one o’clock and people were surprised to see these motions coming before council, so to alleviate those concerns, we have extended two weeks before we make a final decision.”

A review of the performing arts centre project is still ongoing and is expected to be completed by June. Council will hold off on making a decision on this until that can be presented to them.

As for improvements to the SAGG, Spearman says the scope of it is changing and that what officials are now looking at is fairly different from was approved in 2018. Once the details have been completed, this project will be presented to council again as a new initiative.

Another issue at hand is of prioritizing resources. Renovations to the Lethbridge Airport are seen as a high priority for the city as council, at the same meeting this week, approved approximately $7.5-million for the first phase. More details here.

The provincial government is expected to release is new budget Thursday, February 27. Since the province gives money to municipalities through the MSI stream, Spearman said they wanted to see what the budget will mean for the City of Lethbridge before they give firm answers on major capital projects.