City of Penticton staff are busy ensuring projects are shovel ready for when the federal government’s promise of infrastructure money comes through. Mayor Dan Ashton said council has been talking to representatives both provincially and federally to let them know they have projects that are ready to move forward with construction when details come forward of the $4 billion Federal Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. “We are doing our best to be front and forward to make sure that we will be getting a good opportunity to garner some of those grants, however, if the funding is 50-50 or (split three ways), we as a municipality have to be able to step forward also,” said Ashton. Projects such as water storage, sewer and water infrastructure are a few that are ready to go-ahead in the near future. “We have had discussions with our MP’s aide in Penticton and as soon as all the details are worked out we will certainly be bringing forward recommendations to council on possible projects. In the meantime, staff are looking at potential projects so that we would be ahead of the curve should that occur,” said city administrator Leo den Boer.
The announcement of the federal infrastructure stimulus has some municipal financial officers scratching their heads. “When it was first announced, I did some digging,” said Warren Everton, Oliver’s chief financial officer. “Often these things are announced and they don’t give you much for details. It would be somewhat on the heels of another grant system that’s already in place called the Building Canada Fund.” He said the town has not applied for the fund, but is considering making a bid in the next round of funding this spring. “I am seriously looking at that because of roads, and water and sewer and we do have a big road project we want to do.” The town wants to resurface 350 Avenue from Highway 97 up to the high school — about three blocks. It’s estimated to cost about $1.6 million and would include sidewalk upgrading, a boulevard and installing underground services.
Everton is trying to compare the Building Canada Fund and the federal Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. The BCF works 50/50 with the federal government paying half and the town paying half. However, the ISF might include funds from the province, he said. “We’ll have to see if we qualify and it still might be something that would have to go to referendum. There isn’t really any info on this Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. It might look like this Building Canada Fund. It’ll be months before it’s really fully taking shape,” he said. “They come up with the idea, they announce we’re going to do this and then they take two or three months to figure out what it will look like exactly.”
Summerland would like to tap in on a much larger scale. It has made an application under the Building Canada Fund. Municipalities are allowed to apply for only one federal program, said Summerland’s director of finance Ken Ostraat. The district is looking at a roughly $5 million project to build sidewalks on both sides of Prairie Valley Road and repave it from Highway 97 to the four-way stop at Rosedale Avenue where a roundabout would be installed. Rosedale would also have a sidewalk installed on its east side. “We have budgeted $2 million towards the project,” said Ostraat, adding the district has not applied for any other federal grants. “It’s hard to say exactly what’s new money and what’s old money,” he said. “There’s bound to be other announcements as it trickles down to the municipal level. We’ll wait with bated breath to hear what they have in store for us.”
Osoyoos chief administrative officer Barry Romanko said the town is waiting to see what all the conditions and program criteria are. “We haven’t received any information from the federal government yet that outlines to us the details of the program. We do have a five-year capital plan than includes infrastructure items, so we would take a look at how we can allocate those funds in our capital planning process.”
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