Prince George city council celebrates provincial budget increase for College Heights daycare project

City council is pleased the province has agreed to a 71 per cent increase in the budget for an 83-space Daycare centre in College Heights.

The budget for the project, which is fully funded from the provinces’ ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund, has increased from nearly $3 million to nearly $5.14 million.

“This is good news for the daycare shortage problem in the community,” said city manager Walter Babicz, during Monday night’s council meeting.

He explained that preliminary estimates for construction costs are soaring in our region and throughout the province and the cost of construction came back significantly higher than the original estimates which were made two years ago.

“Rather than abandoning this project we did quite a bit of work with the Ministry of Children and Family Development and worked with the province to explain the construction costs that were increasing, we were advised we were not alone in that regard, and accordingly the province came back and approved an increase to the funding envelop which enabled this project to proceed,” added Babicz.

However, Coun. Brian Skakun questioned why the original estimate for the daycare construction was so far off from the actual costs and if it was only related to escalating construction costs.

Chris Bone, the city’s manager of social development, explained that when the city applied for the grant it was required to submit an application in a very short period of time and the requirements of that application focused mainly on demonstrating the need for childcare spaces in the city and not detailed design work. 

“I really want to flag this is less about a mistake in the original project estimates and more about an application process that has some requirements associated with it that are very difficult for cities to deliver on when they are not able to use any of what might be an approved budget to hire someone to do the design work that allows for an accurate estimate,” said Bone.

In terms of providing a project budget during the grant application process, Bone said without development funding municipalities have to provide their best estimates relying on the goodwill of third-party contractors.

“The province very much recognizes this is a difficult process for municipalities and I think this is a good news story that they recognized through nothing that we could have controlled the cost of this project escalated as a result of a number of factors,” added Bone.

“This is not a cost overrun and another screw up of the city of Prince George, this is now we are getting down to business and going to build it, in a time when you need to take out a line of credit to build a fence,” said Coun. Terri McConnnachie.

“I don’t mean to be flip I just want to make it very clear that this is a good news story and that the province is investing to fill a demonstrated need and they are covering the cost for it.”

Coun. Kyle Sampson said the province stepping up to cover the additional costs, demonstrates they were are the projects they awarded might have additional costs once they saw the final design.

“It is not an overbudget story as I have seen out there,” added Sampson.  

Mayor Lyn Hall said he was comfortable the city did its due diligence on this project and worked well with the provincial government to make it a reality.

“We are making a big dent in this and everyone around the table has said what a difference this will make to young families.”

The project is located on city-owned land, located at 8008 Malaspina Ave and once completed, the centre will be operated by Kool Cats Kid Care program, run by the College Heights Community Association.

The city was informed on Feb. 17, 2022, that Ministry of Children and Family Development who administers the ChildcareBC New Spaces Fund that additional funding would be provided to address cost escalations.

A modified contract has since been issued by the Province that notes its agreement to pay the City a maximum of $5,135,298.58 to complete the Malaspina project.

City council unanimously approved the budget increase, which is fully-funded by the province.

The provincial government announced funding for the project and a 60-space daycare centre at 677 Dagg Rd. in the Hart in June 2021. The province initially allocated $5.38 million to build both projects.

- with files from Arthur Williams.