Completing Phase 1

City council has agreed to spend a little more to finish Phase 1 of the waterfront development project.

Council voted 10-one in favour of increasing the previously approved 2011 budget to complete the final two projects and signal the end of Phase 1. The work includes landscaping, streetscaping and road improvements as well as an aquatic habitat compensation project.

The city will pay half of the $400,000 aquatic habitat project with the rest being covered by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.

At-large Coun. Larry Hebert voted against the recommendation while councillors Linda Rydholm and Rebecca Johnson didn’t vote.

Johnson said she was disappointed that they were still working on Phase 1 projects.

“I thought it was kind of finished,” she said at Monday night’s meeting. “This is supposedly the finish but it was supposedly finished a year ago. I guess I’m asking if this really is the finish.”

Administration requested 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 and won’t require new money.

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.

The total amount requested by administration was about $616,000.

Mayor Keith Hobbs also voiced his disappointment but then highlighted some of the benefits of having the waterfront.

“We have a private development that’s going to us an excess of one million dollars in taxes plus revenues to the CN station and market buildings,” he said. “We’ve created over 200 construction jobs and visitor spending is estimated to increase by approximately $14 million per year.”

City manager Tim Commisso admitted the waterfront development was a challenging project but at the end, he said they wanted to make sure they were in a position to claim all the FedNor funding that was available before the due date.

“I don’t like it but it was in the best interest of the city,” he said. “This project had to be completely by Oct.31.

Greg Alexander, general manager of Community and Emergency Services, said the city could have come under budget but that could have put the millions of dollars of grant money at risk.

In the long-term it was better for the city to spend more than what was in the budget to meet those tight deadlines, he said.

“There are no outstanding legal challenges… and from my point of view it was worth it,” he said. “I understand you’re disappointed about the extra money that is coming but I believe it is money well spent.”

He added that Phase 2 has less than a million dollars for the project and the city will have to reexamine the plans.