Finance Director Margarita Pena discusses the proposed 2024 budget for city operations at Thursday's meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Budget 2024

Plans for new North Battleford arena part of city budget talks

Nov 24, 2023 | 5:05 PM

North Battleford council heard the city is looking at completing a study for the new arena to replace the aging Access Communications Centre site at Thursday’s budget deliberations session.

Deputy Mayor Kelli Hawtin chaired the committee meeting that covered Police Services, Fire and Protective Services, and Water and Sanitary Sewer departments. The meeting also included Engineering and Infrastructure, including Underground Pipe and Asphalt Replacement (UPAR) work.

City administration proposed $150,000 for the project with the hope of finding a grant to support the effort. The scope of the work would be to look at a location for the site as well as the number of ice rinks the facility would hold.

The “shovel-ready plan” is to prepare the project to go for Request for Proposals.

Mayor David Gillan said the new study will be focused on engaging a consultant.

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“Of course, we’re going to look at how we’re going to fund it, to get an idea of how much it would cost,” he added.

Gillan noted in the meantime the city still needs to ensure the existing venue is well maintained.

“We recognize we had a recent study done on our facility there, the Access Communication Centre, looking at what does it take to keep it going because it’s an aged facility,” he said. “Even if we were deciding to build a new arena tomorrow, it would be years away. So we needed to make sure that the Access Communications Centre continues to provide the service it’s providing in the community. It means we have to invest some money in it.”

Administration is recommending a 5.12 per cent property tax increase for 2024. Council heard a large part of that is related to police increases of 3.47 per cent due to contract increases the municipality has no control over.

“It’s part of the cost of doing business in the city,” Gillan said. “We know that our police are an important part of the city. It’s something we can’t really sit here and say: ‘Can you reduce?’ It’s really almost out of our hands.”

City administration is also suggesting increases for water services at 4.5 per cent and for sanitary sewer services at 4 per cent.

“We’ve put in a very large force main in our sanitary sewer line in the last few years,” Gillan said. “It’s all increased a lot of costs but there is a lot more investment in the city now. There is a lot more infrastructure in the city, and the city can now properly grow.”

Inflation is also a factor in the proposed increases.

Gillan noted the 2024 budget is still only a proposal at this stage. Council won’t vote on it until their regular meeting in December.

The next budget deliberation session covering Third Party Grant requests will take place Thursday, Nov. 30 starting at 5 p.m.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow