Unspent funds for projects to be used to fix potholes
Maybe it’s because 2018 is a municipal election year, or maybe there just happens to be a big pile of money suddenly available for fixing potholes in Ottawa.
The city has found $1 million more to pay for repairs to roads damaged over the winter, thanks to an annual process where projects are closed and leftover money is returned to city hall coffers.
A report on the budget transfers is scheduled for consideration Tuesday by council’s finance and economic development committee.
The city says it has $32.4 million of unspent money from $618.7-million worth of completed projects. The money would be returned to the sources the funds originally came from, such as reserve accounts and development charge holdings, and reduce any debt that was originally planned for the work.
On top of that, the city is saving $39.2 million on planned projects, largely thanks to updated cost estimates.
Council continues to come across oodles of money for repairs. During the 2018 budget process last December, the city announced a big surplus for 2017, prompting council to direct $10 million to fix assets such as buildings and roads.
Council also permanently beefed up the pothole repair program by $400,000 starting in 2018, but apparently that still wasn’t enough to cover road damage from this past winter. The city was budgeting to spend $8 million on repairing potholes in 2018.
The city also wants to transfer $300,000 from the project savings to help create a test track for autonomous vehicles on land owned by the National Capital Commission.
The project closeout process gives staff a chance to propose moving money around between accounts and projects outside the annual budget process.
For example, the report says the city wants to use $210,000 for a project at Confederation Field, next to the Nepean Sportsplex. The city has been eyeing the land for another sports field, possibly to complement the artificial turf surface at Minto Field. The city didn’t buy the right surface for Minto Field initially, leading to a costly turf replacement program.
Speaking of that Minto Field turf replacement, the report reveals the final cost for the work: $880,000. Councillors Jan Harder and Keith Egli have signed off on using $110,000 from each of their ward parkland funds. The remaining money will come from a citywide parkland fund.