qathet Regional District (qRD) directors have given first three readings to a borrowing bylaw amendment to finalize funding for the resource recovery centre and waste transfer station.
At the March 11 regional board meeting, directors voted to revise the borrowing bylaw, which was originally for $6.4 million, to $8.9 million, to integrate $2.5 million in additional borrowing required to fully finance the project. The borrowing must be approved by the provincial inspector of municipalities before it can be adopted.
The need for additional borrowing came about after City of Powell River chose not to allocate community works funds to the project instead of borrowing. qRD had corresponded with the city, requesting that it provide $1,298,535 from community works funding and the regional district provide $1,201,465, also from community works funding, to avoid borrowing for the $2.5 million overrun. The city has chosen not to allocate community works funds to pay off the debt.
Regional district directors at the March 11 meeting recommended that the board approve a budget increase of up to $2.5 million to the project, for a 25-year term, and that the loan authorization amendment bylaw be given first three readings.
During discussion on the loan, Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he recalled that qRD had another long-term borrowing to consider and the regional board settled on a 20-year term rather than a 25-year term.
“I recall you pay more per year, but you don’t spend as much on the long-term borrowing costs,” said Gisborne. “My question for staff is, what would be the impact of going with the 25-year term versus a 20-year term?”
General manager of financial administration Linda Greenan said the additional cost would be $25,000 a year to go with the shorter term.
Gisborne asked how much money would be saved by the shorter term. Greenan said it would be $631,000. The term, however, remained at 25 years.
The regional board unanimously carried a motion to send it for the first three readings during the bylaws segment of the agenda, which also passed unanimously.
At the March 11 finance committee meeting, which preceded the board meeting, Electoral Area E director and committee chair Andrew Fall said directors had some animated discussions last autumn about how to fund the $2.5 million needed to complete the resource recovery centre. He said the original staff recommendation was to fund the $2.5 million with borrowing, but former city director George Doubt put forward an alternate motion to fund the $2.5 million using $1.4 million from qRD community works funds and $1.1 million from borrowing.
“After discussion, this motion was tabled at the September 25, 2024 board meeting, and the board chose to write to the city to request matching community works funds based on two factors,” said Fall. “First was that the waste management service is a regional service that benefits the entire population and is funded by all properties in the qRD. Second was that community works funds in the qRD are based on rural population levels, while community works funds in the city are based on municipal population levels.
“We received a letter from the City of Powell River declining our request, which brings us back to the original question of how we fund the $2.5 million.”
Fall said the item could be referred to that day’s regional board meeting, or could make alternate recommendations to the board.
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick made a motion to go with the original motion that the $2.5 million be covered exclusively by borrowing. She said she wanted to see community works funds go to electoral area use, rather than the resource recovery centre.
McCormick’s motion carried unanimously. The matter was referred to that afternoon’s board meeting for first three readings, where it also passed unanimously.
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