THUNDER BAY -- City administration is asking council to increase the previously approved 2011 budget in order to complete Phase 1 of the waterfront development project.
Council will receive a report Monday on recommendations to finish work at Prince Arthur’s Landing. If approved the final two projects will signal the end of Phase 1 of the waterfront development project.
Greg Alexander, general manager of Community and Emergency Services for the City of Thunder Bay, said the funds will help put the final touches on the project’s first phase.
Work includes landscaping, streetscaping and road improvements as well as an aquatic habitat compensation project.
To be able to accomplish this, administration is asking for an adjusted increase to the 2011 budget of 0.8 per cent, or about $453,000. The variance will be covered through the city’s Land Development Reserve account, if approved by council.
The main reasons for the adjustment were related to contract settlements and allowing the city to receive the $29.3 million from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.
“We’re proposing to council that we take the money to cover these two features right from the Land Development account,” he said.
“The previously approved budget was $57.9 million. Originally, we had 16 tenders that were going out and there was a budget for the whole thing. We’re almost there but we’re just short a bit.”
The increase will not impact any of the other city budgets because administration isn’t going for tax dollars, as it will be covered by reserved funds.
Alexander said the city has an obligation to the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to have the water habitat in place. Originally, the project was supposed to be in Phase 2, but because of deadlines, it was moved up to Phase 1.
Alexander said they have to have it finished by this year.
The city will pay half of the $400,000 project with the rest being covered by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
In 2007, administration gave an estimate of $44 million with a construction schedule spread out over five years. Instead of spreading out the work over years, the city had to complete the 16 tenders within 18 months.
Alexander said that estimate was a ballpark number that consultants gave in order to give council an idea of the costs.
“It wasn’t a budget it was an estimate,” he said. “As we refine the variance documents and plans for the construction, we’re able to develop a budget. The budget that was ultimately approved by council in February 2011 was the $57.9 million.
“Those are also estimates in 2007 dollars. Construction and inflation over these last six years has been reasonably high. They would make those numbers essentially meaningless from a budget point of view.”
He added that the Waterfront Development Committee is looking at Phase 2.
The landscaping and road work will start once the private development of the condominiums and hotels have finished.
