Jasper Municipal Council is staring down a request for an extra $6.4 million to fund ballooning renovation costs at the Jasper Activity Centre.
The request to approve a 45 per cent cost increase to the ongoing project came to the June 13 committee of the whole meeting via Christopher Read, the town’s Director of Community Development. Also in attendance was Chris Timmins, project manager for WSP, the consulting company leading the build.
Jasper’s Director of Community and Development, Christopher Read. // Jasper Local file
Timmins and Read explained the increased price tag of construction—a result of general cost increases in all categories, across the board—took project leaders aback when they received the latest figures.
“It was a shocker, for sure,” Timmins said.
The Jasper Activity Centre Renovation Project’s major theme is increased accessibility—new family-friendly change rooms, inclusive and accessible dressing rooms in the arena, an elevator, a made-over plaza and new front desk, for example. There are also changing pertaining to building code and life safety deficiencies and “life cycle renewal and maintenance,” administration has explained.
The changing face of hockey has implications for facility design and management. // Bob Covey photo
Funding for the project was to come from a variety of sources including capital reserves ($541,000), debentures ($4.4 million) and federal and provincial grants ($5.2 million).
Tourism Jasper, Jasper’s Destination Marketing Organization, has gone on the record in favour of the project.
“Jasper’s Activity Centre is an important venue that drives material visitation to Jasper in critical need periods” Tourism Jasper’s CEO, James Jackson, wrote to council last spring.
But now council is being asked to dig deeper into its debentures. The requested $6.4 million will add an additional $500,000 of borrowing to the budget for the next 20 years, according to Jasper’s Chief Administrative Officer, Bill Given.
“This is well within Jasper’s provincially-mandated debt limits,” Given pointed out.
Upon hearing the new cost estimate, councillor Scott Wilson was looking for a more detailed cost breakdown of the Jasper Activity Centre renovation project. // Jasper Local file photo
Faced with the news of the 45 per cent price jump, councillors were looking for any way to shave costs. Councillor Scott Wilson made a motion for administration to come back with a more detailed breakdown of the project. The motion passed, but Director Read indicated the work of “value engineering” had already found as many efficiencies as possible, within the project’s current scope.
Read suggested council’s options were to “add the additional funding, reduce the scope or do a combination of both.”
He warned that reducing the scope, or delaying needed-upgrades to the facilities, would only cost more down the line.
“While significant, administration recommends funding the whole scope to maximize efficiencies and protect against inflation and rising interest rates,” Read said.
He noted that other communities’ major projects also suffered from overruns recently.
“It’s a product of province-wide labour shortages,” Read said.
In Jasper, a large part of the cost increase is not being able to hire local contractors. Out-of-towners’ living-out-allowances make up a big part of the spike, he reported.
Councillor Rico Damota suggested the full scope of renovations are important to the community.
“We could talk about finances but I think we have to trust administration. As frustrating as it seems, I think the horse has already left the barn,” Damota said.
Council elected to take more time to decide on the requested funding. The item will come back to a future council meeting.
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
