Councillors have cut out a number of projects from this year’s budget to balance the books, making up for revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The total amount of spending cut is $7.27 million, which was made on a series of votes.
Council is deferring $755,000 in taxpayer-funded spending, which will directly result in the property tax increase dropping by 0.68 per cent, to 2.29 per cent. Before the pandemic, council had voted for a tax increase of 2.97 per cent.
Council has also deferred more than $5.1 million worth of spending that would’ve been used with grant revenues and operating revenues that are no longer expected to come in.
A project to study potential renovation at the Kamloops RCMP detachment has also been deferred. It would’ve cost up to $750,000 to do it this year, paid for out of reserve funds.
Furthermore, council has deferred $600,000 in spending to replace the track at Hillside Stadium, which was supposed to happen this year as part of a larger project at the Tournament Capital Centre. That money would’ve also come out of reserves.
Finance director Kathy Humphrey says deferring that money won’t mean extra budget pressure for next year.
“The intent of deferring the projects is not to add them to 2021, it basically is to push them to 2021. So 2021 moves to 2022, and 2022 moves to 2023. So it basically shuffles everything out a year.”
As part of the $7.2 million in spending that has been deferred, more than $1.6 million was for active transportation, $750,000 was to upgrade Victoria Street between 5th and 6th avenues, and $368,000 was to upgrade the Kamloops Museum facility.
There were more than 25 budget items that were part of what was deferred. Other smaller-value projects that are shelved included Phase 2 of the MacArthur Island Community Park Project ($210,000), renovating the Old Courthouse ($141,229), and expanding service to BC Transit ($82,000).
Councillors also had back-and-forth dialogue about potentially deferring the Canada Games Pool project, worth $13.5 million, after a motion was brought forward by councillor Mike O’Reilly to put it off.
That vote was defeated 7-2, with councillors in favor saying that the cost could go up if the work happens at a later date, and that it’s less disruptive to carry on as planned while the facility is already closed for the foreseeable future because of the pandemic.
The changes Kamloops council voted on today will be adopted at a later date, before May 15, when the final budget for 2020 has to be approved.
