By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

More time needed for city budget talks

Nov 18, 2022 | 6:00 AM

Budget talks at Grande Prairie City Hall are going into overtime.

The deliberations were scheduled to run for three days but will go into a fourth day today (Friday, November 18).

Council made some changes on Day 3 Thursday.

Council decided not to fund $500,000 set aside in 2023 for the playground replacement program. Councillor Chris Thiessen made the motion, saying he felt the city tended to baby its playgrounds. Administration says none of the work planned for next year was needed to deal with safety concerns.

Council also approved moving some grant funding that was put aside to fix pedestrian links to fixing roads. This is $500,000 for 2023, 2024, and 2025. This move means at least part of that money will go to roads, meaning fewer road repairs being funded by capital tax. More discussion on roads is coming. Council did approve using $45,000 of that grant money to build a pedestrian linkage from 108 Street to Maskwoteh Park.

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Council also approved moving a $500,000 budget item for sound buffering at the Eastlink Centre aquatics area from 2023 to 2024.

Council will put $50,000 from its Large-Scale Tourism funding towards a $400,000 item in the 2023 budget for hosting the 2024 Alberta Winter Games. Council also voted to fund the remaining $350,000 from capital tax rather than a reserve fund.

A $200,000 item for concession upgrades at the Dave Barr has been pushed from 2023 to 2024.

Funding for work on the O’Brien boardwalk bridges has been put off until 2025.

Council is looking at its budgets for 2023 through 2026 during these discussions.