On Monday evening, council approved a staff recommendation to request reallocation of approximately $1.4 million dollars of funding from an airport resurfacing project to the Hillside Drive North reconstruction project.
A written staff report provided in the council’s agenda package explained that the funding agreement with the province was entered into by the previous council on February 28th, 2022.
The report informed, “The funding allocated to Elliot Lake was $279,958.21 per year for five years, totalling $1,399,791.”
“This funding can be spent in-year or deferred to a later time within the program window. The city has been holding these annually distributed funds in reserve since the program began in anticipation of completing the airport renewal,” the report read.
During a verbal overview to council, Special Projects Manager, Bill Goulding, explained that the project completion date is March 31, 2025.
And he noted, “Our previous budgeting for that type of endeavour was in the range of a million and a half dollars. And since that time, we've rerun the numbers and it's considerably more than that.”
The staff report recommended “that council authorize the reallocation of the existing NORDS funding for the City to the Hillside Dr. N. Renewal Project.”
Councillor Norman Mann asked, “If approved tonight, what type of timeline until you hear that it’s approved from their end?”
That answer will assist budget planning for 2025 - typically a four-step process concluding with the capital budget. The first step, determining user fees, begins with the Ad Hoc Budget Committee meeting scheduled for today.
Councillor Charles Flintoff asked if the funding would be lost if the airport resurfacing project was not completed before March 31, 2025. Goulding responded, “That’s not entirely clear right now. I think I could have asked for an extension in time.”
Goulding later added, “I think, quite frankly, staff’s capacity and our finances right now would be the limiting factors in realizing a project like that at the airport right now.”
“We’ve had emergent work coming up at all of our other facilities.”
Councillor Helen Lefebvre observed, “Unfortunately, Hillside Drive probably came up a little higher than what we had anticipated so this funding is welcome news.”
When reached for comment on costs for the Hillside Drive North project, Goulding responded, "I have not been administering that project recently, but my understanding is that it is either on or under budget. I anticipate that we will be reporting to Council on the project at some appropriate point in the future."
Council approved the recommendation to reallocate the funding.