Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire
200 million is a drop in the bucket the way the City spends money. I hope Nenshi and city council don't act like cheapskates when the time comes.
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The question is where to find say $200m capital. The city will need to extend the infamous $52m tax room to 30 years to pay for its 1/3 share of Green Line LRT now that the Feds stepped up. Beyond that, remember that the vast majority of capital funding comes from levies (for specific infrastructure) utility rates (for utilities) and especially grants from the Province and the Feds. MSI in this 10 year program is completely spoken for, gas taxes can only be used for Transportation. For recreational and community infrastructure, the City had no sources until in 2011 when it took $42m in tax room to create the Community Investment Fund. It's spoken for over the next 10 years I believe for projects like the Central Library, the 4 major rec centres under construction and a bunch of lifecycle maintenance of pools and stuff.
It's easy to say don't be cheapskates, it's another to actually come up with that amount of cash when all the current money is totally spoken for. I think the best hope is whatever the NDP replace MSI with for a general ongoing municipal grant program for capital projects. The current MSI program expires in 2017 I believe.
Not straight forward.