qathet Regional District’s (qRD) board will consider adopting a bylaw that will provide borrowing of $5 million for City of Powell River’s consolidated wastewater treatment plant.
At the January 11 finance committee meeting, directors voted to recommend to the board that it give first reading through adoption of the borrowing bylaw at the January 25 meeting.
City director George Doubt said this is another portion of the borrowing for the plant and its associated piping and collection systems. Total borrowing that has been authorized by the city is $30 million, he added.
“This is another $5 million of previously approved funding that I believe will bring the total borrowed so far up to $25 million, and there will probably be some more borrowing coming after the end of the project,” said Doubt. “We need this approval to go to the Municipal Finance Authority to go through that process.”
Electoral Area E director and finance committee chair Andrew Fall said the idea is the Municipal Finance Authority will provide $5 million to the approved capital requirements for the city.
“This is a standard procedure; municipalities cannot borrow directly from the Municipal Finance Authority,” said Fall. “qathet Regional District as a whole takes on the debt risk on behalf of the municipality. Through agreements, payments are made by the city to the regional district and there are controls in place by the province to avoid any municipalities taking on too much of a heavy debt burden.
“It’s time sensitive. The application must be received by February 16.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he is the regional district’s representative on the city’s liquid waste advisory committee and is keeping an eye on the project and the cost. He said because of factors such as inflation and delays, due to supply chain issues, the project is costing more.
“The costs are going up and therefore the city, as I understand it, needs to borrow some more money to make the project complete,” said Gisborne. “I believe the municipality and the committee are keeping an eye on the liquid waste management. They are doing their due diligence.”
According to a staff report, municipalities do not have the authority to borrow directly from the Municipal Finance Authority, and must authorize borrowing through loan authorization bylaws, then regional districts borrow the money on behalf of their member municipalities.
