The City of Prince George will start the Alternate Approval Process (AAP) for the Aquatic Centre upgrade funding on Friday.
At their April 22nd meeting, Prince George City Council approved funding for the upgrades, which come with a price tag of about $37 million.
$14.88 million of that total is already accounted for, the rest ($22.15 million) will have to be borrowed.
“The need for these enhancements has not been due to a lack of ongoing maintenance on the facility, it simply comes down to the age of the building and doing the work required to ensure the building will be in great shape long into the future,” said Director of Civic Facilities Andy Beesley.
“This means that it has now gone from the regular maintenance phase and into the ‘infrastructure replacement’ phase which is the normal life cycle for all buildings.”
The City of Prince George requires approval of the electors before City Council can consider adopting a long-term loan authorization bylaw.
At their May 6th, meeting, City Council voted to use the AAP to gain approval from eligible voters in Prince George.
“The approval process is we put out notice, and we receive ten per cent of the electors or more saying that they don’t want us to go ahead with it, we have to bring it back to council for a decision,” City Corporate Officer Ethan Anderson explained at the May 6th meeting.
According to Elections BC, there are 55,126 registered voters within the City of Prince George, which means approval would be obtained if the City receives less than 5,512 elector response forms.
Starting at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, elector response will be available for download from the City’s website, or for pick up from City Hall.
Completed forms can be submitted in person, by email ([email protected]) or fax. (250-561-0183)
The AAP will remain open until August 19th.
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