Charlottetown council approves $109M capital budget

With a number of large projects on the go, the City of Charlottetown is facing a big year of spending.

Council approved a $109-million capital budget Monday night, one of the largest capital budgets in the city's history.

Projects for the 2023-24 fiscal year include

• The Simmons sports centre: $30 million.
• Redeveloping University Avenue, Phase 1: $5.5 million.
• The Eastern Gateway plan: $5.2 million.
• 7 electric buses for transit: $8.5 million.

The budget includes $5 million more than anticipated for the new Simmons sports centre project, previously budgeted at $25 million.

"Lack of availability of workers and increase in building supplies it's taken its toll," said Coun. Mitchell Tweel.

"That's why we've gone through this second round of tenders and increases in the expenditures."

Work at the sport centre site on North River Road began this winter, and is expected to take about 18 months to complete.

While capital spending in the city is at historic highs, the money being spent by the city itself is little changed from the year before, because of an influx of infrastructure funding from the federal and provincial governments.

"Somewhere around 50 per cent of it is funded with our funding partners, in collaboration with the province and the feds, so we're very fortunate to have that level of funding," said finance committee chair Coun. John McAleer.

The city's share of the $109 million in spending will be$65.7 million, up only about two per cent from last year's budget.