Mayor Simon Yu was not the only city council member who voted against borrowing $22.15 million to refurbish the Prince George Aquatic Centre.
Coun. Brian Skakun confirmed Tuesday that he also opposed the motion when council considered the matter during their regular meeting on Monday and, like Yu, voted against taking the matter to counter-petition.
Skakun said he needed more information on what it would cost to build a new pool.
At council's April 22 meeting, Andy Beesley, the city director of civic facilities and events, said the price tag for a new aquatic centre built from scratch would be more than $100 million.
The $22.15 million would come on top of $14.9 million already earmarked for the first phase that is now underway.
Despite the significantly-lower price tag for the refurbishment, Skakun said he would have liked to have seen a report from staff comparing the lifespans of a new pool versus a renovated version.
"They're going to redo most of the envelope but the building itself is still going to be older," Skakun said.
On Monday, Yu said he wanted more information on exactly what staff had planned for the $22.15 million.
In the end, council voted 6-2 to pass a bylaw to borrow the money through the first three readings and then to seek voter consent through counter-petition.
Like Yu, Skakun also opposed taking the matter to counter-petition.
Skakun said he is no fan of counter-petitions because the threshold for one to succeed is too high. As least 10 per cent of registered voters must express their opposition in order to stop council from finally adopting the bylaw without taking the matter to a full-blown referendum.
In the more-than 20 years he has been on council, Skakun said he has seen only one borrowing bylaw defeated through the process.
The process, in this instance, begins on July 7 and ends August 9.
Skakun said he refrained from expressing his opinions on the matter during the meeting on Monday because it was already running late. Council was more than 2 1/2 hours into what turned out to be a more-than 4 1/2-hour meeting before the item started to be considered.
All the other council members who were at the meeting on Monday voted in favour of the motions.
Coun. Trudy Klassen was absent but at the April 22 meeting voted against pursuing the work.
