Saint John's capital spending over the next two years proposed at $62.5M
2023 and 2024 draft capital budgets approved Monday much different from budgets during tough times
The City of Saint John has approved draft capital budgets for 2023 and 2024 that would see $62.5 million in infrastructure spending over the next two years.
City staff hopes more than half that money can come from other levels of government or other sources.
"I love this budget," Mayor Donna Reardon said Monday night.
"I like the new investments in it, the asset renewal in it, it covers a lot of your priorities, but the opening line's my favourite," she said, pointing out the city's share was $29.9 million, less than half the total of the two budgets.
Some of the projects Saint Johners can expect for 2023 include work on the refurbishment of Loyalist Plaza-Fundy Quay, with the city fully funding the work.
The area will get new seawall railings at a cost of $500,000.
The city will also begin work on the outdoor patio and will purchase a Zamboni for the proposed outdoor rink as part of the Fundy Quay project.
The 2023 budget has more than $1.5 million for six electric buses for Saint John Transit.
An additional $230,000 will be needed to build four charging stations and to renovate the transit building to provide for fast-charging.
Those transit projects all depend on funding approval under the federal zero emission transit fund.
The city is setting aside $1.5 million toward building protected bike lanes along Main Street in 2023.
It is also putting almost $1.5 million to realign the Ashburn Lake Road/Retail Drive intersections on Rothesay Avenue.
Coun. Gary Sullivan, who heads up the finance committee, said most of the budget is aimed at fixing older infrastructure.
"You know, we have 80 per cent renewal in this budget and only 20 per cent is new items," he told council.
"We gotta make sure we take care of the roof before we buy the couch."
He said the city is also borrowing less money than it had to in the past to pay for capital projects.
Less borrowing
"Our financial plan has us reducing the need to borrow more and more money by — we do capital every year — so it makes sense to have some [extra] in our operating budget," Sullivan said.
"We do that to save on the interest expenses, and gosh, where interest rates are right now, aren't we glad that we've been doing that the last couple of years."
It's a far cry from the tough financial times the city faced in recent years.
In 2016, council approved a $21 million budget. It cut about $15 million in capital requests to make the budget work, including a new Paratransit bus.
As well, city councillors of the day worried that more than half of the money, $11.7 million, was being borrowed.