City council Wednesday approved recycling $18 million of a $30-million in surplus stimulus funding for new infrastructure and recreation projects.
The approved projects include road resurfacing, transit and cycling infrastructure, sewer work, and improvements to recreational facilities and parks.
The province notified the city that it would be able to recycle the $30 million in savings from the $401 million approved stimulus funding for the city in August and since then has been working to identify projects that could be completed by the March 31, 2011, deadline.
City staff urged council to approve the projects so that work can be completed before the snow flies.
“We had to be realistic with our ability to operate within the province’s tight deadlines,” said Wayne Newell, general manager of infrastructure services.
Many councillors, however, questioned why they weren’t consulted about projects they would like to see benefit from the extra funds, especially considering that $12 million will remain unspent.
The debate evolved into councillors airing a laundry list of projects they want undertaken in their wards, such as burying overhead wires, playground enhancements, extending sidewalks, new change rooms for arenas, more bus shelters, renovations to social housing, and the list goes on.
“It was a feeding frenzy,” said Barrhaven Ward Coun. Jan Harder.
She said she thought it was best that city staff did not come to city councillors to identify projects because most of the projects were already on the infrastructure list approved by council and that it could tempt electioneering.
Despite its misgivings, council approved the staff list of additional projects in order to get work going as soon as possible.
Council did, however, approve a motion that will give councillors two weeks to come up with ready-to-go projects that can be completed by the March deadline in order to spend the remaining surplus funds.
“This is icing that we weren’t expecting, it’s like the chocolate on the vanilla. Now we have $12 million that we can fight over, over the next two weeks,” said Harder.
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes directed staff to consider investing some of the remaining funds in renewing social housing, which was not considered in the approved project list.
“Staff seem to think that social housing is not considered infrastructure, not a part of this city. We already went through this and the province made it pretty clear that social housing is indeed part of municipal infrastructure,” said Holmes.
The current list doesn’t include any additional recreation investment in Centretown or major infrastructure projects, however Holmes said she will request money for several downtown parks.
Over the next two weeks councillors will draw up their surplus stimulus funds wish-list and vote on proposed projects at the next council meeting on Sept. 22.