The City of Prince George is seeking $10 million of grant funding to support the downtown pool replacement project.
Federal and provincial governments have $134 million up for grabs for the initial intake of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. The grant money, which would come from the British Columbia community, culture, and recreation infrastructure portion of the program, is meant to support infrastructure projects in communities across the province.
The City of Prince George wants a piece of that pie to put toward the cost of the new pool. Council unanimously approved a recommendation to submit an application for the grant at the Dec. 10 council meeting.
“We talked about opportunities to get some support for building this cultural and recreational infrastructure and to finally see it in front of us, of course, I am going to enthusiastically support this,” said Coun. Garth Frizzell.
“I’m eager to see some of the $134 million slated for B.C. coming up to Prince George and, if that goes through, I look forward to the notification at the earliest possible moment.”
A referendum was held on Oct. 28, 2017, asking voters if they would support the replacement of the Four Seasons Leisure Pool. The facility is nearly 50 years old and is nearing the end of its serviceable life (it doesn't meet current building code standards). The electors voted 62.48 per cent in favour of borrowing up to $35 million of the funding required to build the new pool.
Although city staff believed the downtown pool replacement project fits the criteria for the grant, a report from public works general manager Dave Dyer says the city is not likely to receive the maximum eligible amount of grant funding for the project (73.3 per cent of the total budget).
City staff has instead recommended an application for a contribution of $10 million as the current budget for the project is $42 million and is funded by debt and reserves.
The deadline for the grant is Jan. 23, 2019. The city is currently working on the application.
