OLDS — Council has approved the Town of Olds' multi-year capital plan for the years 2023-32 and it comes with a big price tag if everything envisioned in it were to become reality: $46,384,500.
The long-term capital plan is a rolling plan. It’s altered or updated every year.
Among the projects listed currently are $1.5 million to reline the south reservoir in 2024, $4.6 million to replace the north reservoir in 2029, $500,000 for town hall life cycle in 2026 and $200,000 for engineering design of a civic centre in 2031.
The town hall life cycle money would include things replacing windows or heating and air conditioning equipment to keep the building functioning.
“This is just a place holder at this time as we know this is an aging building and will need money put into in the coming years to keep it running,” finance director Sheena Linderman wrote in an email to The Albertan.
The $200,000 in 2031 is for coming up with a concept and/or design for a civic centre, which would house the new Town of Olds administration building plus possibly other facilities like the Mountain View Museum or the library. So far, no location has been determined for the facility.
The big question is how some projects in the plan would be paid for.
As she brought the plan to council for approval on Dec. 13, Linderman noted that the Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding provided by the province ends in 2023.
The provincial government plans to bring in a new funding program in 2024 called the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF).
However, “at this time, no guidelines or funding models have been set for this program,” Linderman said, so it’s uncertain what that might mean for funding – or partially funding – proposed Town projects.
“We have no idea what the LGFF allocations will look like,” she said.
Coun. Darren Wilson said as a result, the municipality may have to “look at reprioritizing projects and/or finding funding somewhere else.”
“Exactly,” Linderman said.
In the end, councillors voted to approve the plan as information.
