Council launches new capital prioritization plan

SaultStar.com
Sept. 8, 2017
Elaine Della-Mattia

City council will be asked to approve or amend the ranking of various projects and needs to be incorporated in the 2018 capital budget Monday.

It will be the official launch of the city’s new capital prioritization plan, approved earlier this year.

The discussion, set for Monday, is set to proceed into the Committee of the Whole, offering city council a much more relaxed and frank setting for the discussion.

The corporate capital prioritization process is designed to prioritize the city’s capital needs and develop a ranking system as to where its limited resources should be spent annually.

City staff have developed a two-page list and used specific criteria to rank the projects in the order they feel appropriate.

Council will review and either affirm or alter the list in preparation for its 2018 budget deliberations.

“I think this is a positive development,” said Mayor Christian Provenzano. “It’s really the beginning of our budgeting process and city council has never really set aside time to discuss capital priorities. We get the list and on we go but this is how we spend a bulk of money that’s in our budget.”

Provenzano said he believes that more thought and input from council needs to be put into the capital prioritization project list. The idea was precipitated after he questioned why the city would spend $5 million for a proposed Sackville Road extension project that he didn’t feel was necessary. That project has since been put on hold.

Prioritization rankings are based on legislated or mandates required by law, including health and safety items. It will also focus on maintaining the city’s assets and extending their life. A third priority will focus on service enhancement and growth, considering the need to increase infrastructure capacity to meet deficiencies in service, attract new economies and improve quality of life.

City staff also recommends that city council consider the city’s asset management plan, which provides staff direction for the capital maintenance of assets. Department leaders have ranked the corporate projects according to specific evaluation criteria to ensure consistency. Considerations for the various projects to be discussed include notations as to whether they are legislated health and safety requirements, grant eligible, maintaining an existing asset, essential mandated service or part of the city’s strategic plan.

Provenzano is hoping that once the list and its rankings are approved by council, they can then proceed and not be concerned about them not being supported.

“I certainly hope it will result in council taking a more thorough and active role in deciding how taxpayer money is spent,” he said. “The goal is to make sure council’s goals are achieved by determining where money is spent and having a better discussion on that.”

The list provided to council includes all capital projects, including road and sewer work.

Dollar figures of expected costs for each project are estimated but a total capital budget has not been allocated.

“This is a new approach. We want council to budget the plan rather than plan around the budget,” said city treasurer Shelley Schell.

Legislated requirements are highlighted as necessary and priorities but council may choose to change the ranking of other projects on the list, she said.

“This will get us to thinking outside the box. We focus on what needs to be done versus a budget allocation and then it goes back to finance to present various options to council on how to get there.

In future years, longer term forecasts will be added to help budget for multi-years, she said. Various master plans, their priorities and strategies will be incorporated into the larger plan, creating a true corporate capital budget instead of smaller individual departmental budgets, Schell said.

In 2017, city council’s capital works budget was about $41 million, focusing mostly on road work. But all that is to change with the new global capital project prioritization plan.

Council will be required to rank all the project submissions during their discussion Monday night. The finance department will take their priorities and develop a budget plan based on the rankings.

Staff is recommending a number of the projects from one to 16, which is the inclusion point of all the legislated/mandated projects, be reviewed for potential funding options in the 2018 capital budget, the report to council states.

About eight projects are considered mandatory or legislated health and safety spends that must be completed. They include replacing the self-contained breathing apparatus for fire services, purchasing all personnel structural firefighting year and adding CO monitoring devices to the John Rhodes and McMeeken Centre ($35,000).

Other legislated or mandatory projects to be discussed include replacing an ice resurfacer, installing automated ventilation and fire alarm system in the household hazardous waste depot and upgrading a fire dispatch and incident management centre.

The OHL also requires player tunnels for the 2017-18 season.

All those items are expected to cost slightly more than $1 million.

Other projects considered priorities include the purchase of a city bus, truck and corporate data server.

Capital road reconstruction projects make up the bulk – and most expensive – items identified with a 2018 plan totalling almost $28 million, culvert work at $250,000 and required engineering work for 2019 roads estimated at $200,000.

Establishing a snow dump to serve the city’s east end is pegged at $650,000.

A number of other projects are considered a lower priority by city staff and recommended to be deferred.

They include replacing the Greco Pool water filtration system, replacing a fire services tanker, making capital improvements to the PWT centre, replacing emerald ash borer infested trees, adding to the Bellevue Marina and adding a park on the Gateway site, among others.

“Council may choose to prioritize other projects that are not on the list. It’s up to them to develop the plan. Once they have that plan, then we’ll work at developing options they can look at to fund them,” Schell said.

The council meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. Monday.