Prince George City Council approved a budget amendment to replace the skylight at the Prince George Public Library’s Bob Harkins Branch at tonight’s (Monday) meeting.
“A skylight replacement is not really accurate, we’re putting in a roof, not a new skylight,” Director of Civic Facilities and Events Andy Beesley told Council.
Beesley also said the report is a “last resort” as they’ve run out of options on the project.
“This project was originally part of a much bigger all-in-one project we were trying to do for the library over the next few years, there’s some building envelope issues and some other things that we want to package together, it’s more efficient to do it all at once,” he said.
“However, the problem with this current situation is that this 45-year-old skylight is leaking and is simply not sustainable for another winter without serious disruption and probably damage to the library if we don’t repair it this summer.”
Beesley also said many roofing companies have worked on the skylight, and are at the point where they can’t or won’t do any more work on it.
“It’s very patched up with layer upon layer of silicone, etcetera, to the point where they just can’t deal with it anymore,” he explained.
Beesley said the City went to tender, with the lowest bidder’s bid coming in more than the City budgeted for.
He said things such as steel tariffs, complexity of the project regarding cranes, and other inflationary causes had an impact on the cost.
The original budget for the project was $875,000, Beesley’s report requested an additional $250,000 to bring the total to $1,125,000.
Director of Finance and IT Services Kris Dalio noted that the addition of the funds wouldn’t have an impact on next year’s tax levy.
“We wouldn’t put in an extra increase beyond what’s in the sustainable finance policy, but the money does get spent here,” he explained.
“It may hamper our ability to fund another project down the road in 2026, but I honestly can’t speak to whether or not that’s a factor at this point.”
Councillor Garth Frizzell said Beesley made a good case.
“It is awful to have to spend additional money, but I don’t want to be penny-smart and then down the road, have to spend dollars where we could have spent pennies now,” Frizzell said.
“This is a wise one, and with winter coming on in Prince George, this is timely. Unfortunately, we need to do this.”
Councillor Brian Skakun asked about the increased cost.
“I do think, Mr. Beesley said moving cranes is going to cost more, additional scaffolding is going to cost more, the tariffs are going to cost more, so we put it out to tender, they come back with $250,000ish more in costs, but did they break down those costs? Do we actually know what the actual tariff costs are for this expansion?” he inquired.
Dalio responded by saying the City doesn’t like to get into details line-by-line of a project when taking bids.
“It actually puts us at a really big disadvantage in procurement with our bidders,” he explained.
“You don’t like to tell your bidders exactly what your budget is, because then you’re probably going to get bids right up to your budget. When we go to procurement, they of course know the total capital project, it’s here in plain English, but there are consulting costs, there’s internal costs that we could have in our budget that they don’t know about, so they don’t ever really know what our true budget is That’s an important thing to keep a handle on, and I would say that the further you go into detail breaking down what’s your materials and supplies, what’s your contractors, what’s your internal labour, the more information you give out like that, puts you at a disadvantage in the actual bidding process, as the municipality. I firmly believe it would cost the City more in the long run if you did that.”
Councillor Trudy Klassen asked for the line-by-line break down.
“I’m not opposed to this work happening, but I really feel that I need to do due diligence, especially for an item that’s coming to us between budgets,” she explained.
“If you don’t like to give us a line-by-line description, which my motion, and to defer, will include, however that will work, how do we do our jobs? We are accountable for every penny, every dollar that is spent of taxpayer money, how do we properly govern and be accountable to our voters if we cannot see the line-by-line items?”
Klassen’s motion to postpone until the information was received was defeated.
Councillor Cori Ramsay responded by saying she’s confident in staff bringing forward the best option possible.
“Quite frankly, they are taxpayers too,” she said.
“The scrutiny that our staff get when projects are over budget is really harsh, they don’t bring this forward unless this is an absolute must. That being said, I know that people struggle with trust, and trust isn’t always given, it has to be built.”
Ramsay also asked about having a financial report come back following the completion of the project.
“I feel that would really help the public, as well as Council, understand those cost drivers,” she said.
“It would build trust with the public, build trust between Council and Admin, and really highlight without really folding our hand.”
The motion to approve the funding increase was passed with a 7-1 vote, with only Klassen opposed.
A motion to return the report following the completion of the project also passed.
Mayor Simon Yu was absent from the meeting tonight as he attended the Modular Housing Summit in Penticton. Councillor Susan Scott served as Acting Mayor.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
