The City of Prince George has some funding available for upgrades at a couple of arenas.
At last night’s (Monday) meeting, Prince George City Council approved accepting inventive offers from FortisBC to help fund upgrades to the CN Centre and Elksentre arenas.
Under the Custom Efficiency Program, FortisBC is offering an incentive of up to $704,288 towards completing the CN Centre’s Boiler, Chiller and Condenser upgrades, which have been identified for replacement.
“The fact that $704,000 is being funded for a project that has a debt funding source, I think we should perhaps prioritize this project over others if there is a project that needs to be cut,” said Councillor Cori Ramsay.
City staff noted the scope of the project is still being developed, and will most likely be entered into the Capital Expenditure for 2026 construction.
Mayor Simon Yu was concerned that accepting the incentive would lock them into the project without knowing the full cost.
It was noted by City Manager Walter Babicz that the overall approval of the project will have to come back to Council.
“Council’s not committing to receiving on it tonight, it would be subject to another vote of Council,” he explained.
FortisBC has indicated the Elksentre Refrigeration Project qualifies for an incentive under the same program.
That application is still being reviewed, and final incentive values will be determined.
Council previously approved the capital budget for the project in 2022 at $2,150,000.
There’s no change required to this amount, and the anticipated funding from FortisBC will provide an alternate funding source for the project, and reduce the use of previously approved Debt Reduction Reserve Funds
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