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Prince George residents say yes to new fire hall, pool in referendum

Voters in Prince George have said yes to borrowing up to $35M to build a new pool and borrowing up to $15M for a new fire hall.

City says repairing buildings not cost-effective

Andrew Kurjata · CBC News ·
Brown brick building with words "City Hall"
City staff say millions of dollars in upgrades are needed for public buildings in Prince George. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

Voters in Prince George have approved a $50 million plan to build a new downtown pool and fire hall.

The results come after months of public meetings and consultations in which Mayor Lyn Hall offered to visit people's homes in order to convince them of the need for the projects.

Some modern fire trucks are too large to fit into the current downtown fire hall. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

Council unanimously endorsed plans to borrow the funds, which will see the city apply for the money from the Municipal Finance Authority to be repaid over up to twenty years.

The cost for the fire hall to taxpayers is estimated at $8.45 per $100,000 of assessed property value per year, and the cost of the swimming pool is estimated at $19.71 per $100,000 of assessed value per year.

City staff said the long-term costs of repairing and maintaining each building exceeds the cost of new facilities.

By building a new fire hall on city-owned land along Massey Drive, the city says it will increase the number of emergencies crews can respond to within eight minutes by 50 per cent. Studies show that when fires go unattended for more than eight minutes, they are much more likely to result in fatalities or major damage. (City of Prince George)

For the fire hall, 6520 people or 82.70 per cent of those who cast a ballot voted in favour of the project while 1355 or 17.21 per cent of voters voted no.

As for the pool, 4923 or 62.48 per cent voted in favour, while 2956 or 37.52 per cent voted against it.

Full results from the city can be found here.

Sport architect Doug Wournell says it's a matter of time before caustic chemicals eat away at the infrastructure of the Four Seasons Leisure Pool, making it too costly to replace. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

Now that both plans have taxpayer approval, council must approve a bylaw or bylaws to borrow the funds. Preliminary work on the replacement project is expected to begin in 2018 with major construction to get undeway by 2019.

Hall will join CBC's Daybreak North Oct. 30 at 7:10 a.m. PT for a live discussion of the results and next steps.

The city wants to build a pool in a new downtown location rather than on the existing site of the Four Seasons, so it can continue to serve visitors while the new pool is under construction. The new pool would also come with parking along Sixth Avenue. (City of Prince George)

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