City share of stimulus goes up

Land costs increased infrastructure expense

Land-purchase costs increased the city’s expenses for infrastructure projects completed under federal and provincial stimulus programs, says a staff report.

Although most of the city’s 131 projects carried out under the multibillion-dollar economic stimulus programs came in under budget, the city faces a $309,000 shortfall for its share of funding due to costs that couldn’t be shared with the other levels of government.

Money in reserve funds is available to cover the deficit, says a report that ties up the financial side of the programs and recommends closing the books on the projects, which include road extensions, Transitway and library improvements, new sidewalks, rural road upgrades and streetscaping.

The overall program was completed for $15.4 million under its total budget of $408.1 million, it says.

Any individual project deficits resulted in part from property and staff costs and minor work done after the stimulus-program deadline of Oct. 31, 2011, the report states. Those things weren’t eligible for the provincial and federal funding under the programs that otherwise covered two-thirds of a project’s costs.

For example, the Terry Fox Drive extension project was completed for $1.9 million below its $47.7-million budget, but “substantial” ineligible costs, mainly for property, pushed the city’s portion of funding up by about $2.5 million, the report says.

The southwest Transitway extension from Fallowfield Station to Jockvale Road, meanwhile, was also completed below its $47.7-million budget, but the city’s share saw an $871,427 increase, mainly because of ineligible property costs.

Other projects were delivered “significantly under budget,” however, typically because of better-than-estimated tender prices, the report states.

They include the reconstruction of Sussex Drive between George and St. Patrick streets ($369,293 under budget), the Baseline Station tunnel ($200,323 under), a widening of Earl Armstrong Road ($1.4 million under), and a widening of Mer Bleue Road ($412,366 under).

Staff are still finalizing settlements on required land purchases for four projects, the report says, and about $165,000 of work is needed on two other projects that are considered finished.

Claims for payment have been submitted to the province for processing, the report says, though there’s an outstanding “issue that requires resolution” with a $20-million extension of Hunt Club Road.

The report doesn’t detail what the issue is and the city didn’t provide an immediate response on Wednesday, but staff wrote in the report that they’ve asked for an extension to March 31 of next year “in order to finalize these issues.”

Overall, the city’s portion of all of the projects is more than $131 million, it says.