Final settlement for Christchurch

Christchurch’s financial future will be laid bare today when the remaining costs and responsibilities around the city’s recovery from the earthquake are finally made public.

Details of the global settlement, the final handshake between the Crown and the Christchurch City Council, will determine who owns and runs major assets such as the bus interchange and Te Pae convention centre.

The long-awaited agreement has been more than six months in the making, with negotiators from the council and Crown hammering out the details since late last year. The draft settlement will be released by the council’s lead negotiator, strategy and transformation boss Brendan Anstiss.

Public views given during long-term and annual planning processes have been considered, and residents will have the chance to comment during a special council meeting on August 6.

Councillors will debate the agreement two days later and, once approved by the authority, it will go to Cabinet for final approval.

Mayor Lianne Dalziel has said a decision over the settlement will be ‘‘pretty much a yes or no’’ for the council.

The deal builds on the original cost-sharing agreement of 2013 between then-mayor Bob Parker’s council and Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee.

They agreed on a near$5 billion work package, the council picking up $1.9b of the bill and the Government shouldering the other $2.9b.

This settlement will determine who pays the remaining expenses and paves the way for a transfer of power back to the city – and for the Government to step away.

Depending on the negotiations, the agreement could be liberating for the city financially – or a millstone around its neck.

Among the major issues are the final ownership and liability for running the bus exchange and Te Pae convention centre, which could run to millions of dollars.

The 2013 agreement capped the council’s share of the bus station at $23 million but after the Crown took it over the final project delivered a $79m building.

The annual running costs of $1.5m a year currently fall to the Crown, which still owns and operates it, but that may change. If it is handed over to the council, the question of operating subsidies and expenses over longterm maintenance will arise.

Similar issues will need to be addressed over the $475m convention centre, one of the Government’s key anchor projects which is due to open next year.

The Crown stumped up the money for it but failed to find commercial investors to build and own it.

If it is passed on to the council, depreciation, operating and maintenance could then cost ratepayers in the tens of millions of dollars.

The agreement will also resolve unfinished business over Christchurch’s horizontal infrastructure, such as roads, water pipes and sewers, as well as addressing the major issue of the residential red zone.

Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods said last month the Cabinet and council had worked towards a settlement that was ‘‘fair and equitable, affordable, fiscally responsible and sustainable, and that provides certainty and confidence on how regeneration will be managed in the future’’.