A special Lac La Biche County council meeting on Monday, August 21 will include discussion on the municipality's latest multi-million dollar miss on budget projections for large-scale projects.
The most recent budget-miss — and one of several topics at the special council meeting — was seen at the end of July when councillors were shown the latest numbers on the proposed aquatic centre project. In 2021, when Lac La Biche County council voted to move ahead with the 30,000 square foot swimming pool, they limited the budget to $27 million. At that time, the federal and provincial governments had agreed to chip in $9 million and $6 million respectively while the municipal tax base made up the $12 million difference. At a meeting with designers at the end of July, however, project planners dropped a cannonball on those plans, telling council the real number had splashed up to about $46 million.
Council approved $12 million pool increase in April
The almost $20 million miss didn't create as much of a wave for council, however, as municipal reports indicate they had already met on April 24 with the designers, and agreed to up the budget for the project by another $12 million, to $39 million. That decision hasn't been included in any public-facing documents released by the municipality and appears only in the most recent report issued by the pool designers hired by the municipality.
As of August 19, details about the aquatic centre project on the municipal website continue to have the $27 million as the projected budget.
The pool is the latest in a series of budgeting bungles, including the planned $16.5 million Main Street project that continues to roll ahead despite a new $31.5 million price tag, and the McArthur Park upgrades that were initially budgeted at $4.3 million, but are now at $7.4 million.
Going into the upcoming meeting that includes an administrative review of the pool's new design costs, Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov was asked about the budget misses. He tells the Lac La Biche POST newsroom that the rising costs for some recent capital projects can be attributed to inflation, under-budgeting, and late season tendering.
Just numbers, says mayor
When asked about the pool's increased costs specifically, Reutov said that he and five other council members who attended the April meeting with the designers anticipated the higher costs and upped the limit. He also said the budget numbers are just that — numbers — and that nothing has been formally committed to the end result yet.
“At this point in time, no official numbers have been confirmed,” he said. “We are still looking over designs and waiting to see what the final number will be.”
Although the mayor was upfront about the challenges with the budgeting when asked recently, the April meeting with the pool planners wasn’t on county-meeting calendars, and was only referenced briefly, and without description by council members, during a “councillor reports” section of their first meeting in May. All five councillors who attended the meeting claimed their $143 minimum meeting pay rate to attend the three-hour workshop, plus mileage. The mayor, who has a salaried position, claimed only $20 for a meal, $20 for “incidentals” as well as mileage.
In the four months since that meeting, council has not formally announced the increased budget number.
Monday's special meeting comes a day before Lac La Biche County's first regular council meeting after their month-long summer recess. In their final meeting before the break, councillors were shown the design specifics of the proposed new aquatic centre project by David Addison with Ellisdon Construction. The design plan, which includes outdoor patio areas, a water slide, a reduced version of a lazy-river, a six-lane swimming pool and two hot-tub areas will also require several existing features at the entrance area of the Bold Center to be re-developed or moved, including the traffic roundabout and art installation.
With the new design coming in at almost double the original estimate, a new set of plans and a new funding formula is expected to be presented at Monday’s meeting.
While Lac La Biche County residents have seen several examples of budget misses in recent months, the mayor says it is an issue that is happening everywhere. A developer and entrepreneur himself, he blames an erratic global economy.
“The cost of construction has not only been steadily going up, but the trades and labour as well,” he said. “Everything has increased by as much as 20 percent over the past year, which has had a significant impact.”
Despite those challenges, the mayor remains confident the community—growth project will go ahead, with planned construction starting this September. The pool project has a completion date of October 2025.
Budget bungles
While council, administration and planners are expected to present new plans for the pool project, , they are also working through the other massive budget misses.
The current Main Street Revitalization project was initially projected to cost $16 million, but over the two years of project discussions, that price tag ballooned to $31.5 million. When presented in 2021, the McArthur Park revitalization project came with a $4.3 million tag, but since has increased to $7.3 million. More recent projects have missed the mark with budgets as well. The planned pedestrian crossing near the entrance to the Beaver Lake hamlet, missed by more than 400 per cent when tenders were opened in July, coming in at $800,000 on a $200,000 budget project, and a $2 million water and sewer utility replacement project is now looking more like $3.5 million.
Lunch meeting
Most of Monday’s special council meeting is open to the public. Other topics on the agenda include an economic development county profile update, discussion on gravel futures, a report on the use of council chambers and several private discussions including an update on school lands, a Plamondon land matter, progress on the recruitment of a new CAO and a memorandum of understanding that is identified as privileged information. Monday’s meeting begins midway through the lunch-hour at 12:30 pm in council chambers.
Monday’s meeting is followed by council’s regular public meeting on Tuesday, where a delegation from the construction management team working on the new pool project will again go over the design and costs.
*With files from Chris McGarry
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