Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/1/2015 (2075 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Work is proceeding on the design of the second phase of the bus rapid transit corridor but city hall still has no idea how it’s going to pay the financing charges on the project.

Coun. John Orlikow, a member of Mayor Bowman’s executive policy committee, said no decision has been reached on where the city will find the $20 million in annual payments it needs to pay for its share of the $590-million project.

"We haven’t even talked about this one yet," Orlikow said.

City hall will have to begin making annual $20-million payments to pay off the $225 million it’s borrowing for the project in 2020 – but the source of the money has to be identified in the 2015 budget.

Bowman and members of his EPC have met on the city’s 2015 budget but Orlikow said they still haven’t found a funding source for the annual $20-million payments.

"Unfortunately the previous council abdicated responsibility and didn’t do it," Orlikow said, referring to former mayor Sam Katz and his EPC team. "Now, we’re at the last minute where we have to decide how we’re going to fund this commitment."

Orlikow said the councillors elected in October and appointed to EPC are shocked that the project has proceeded to this point without determining its funding.

"They would have assumed that you build a project like this, you know how you’re going to pay for it."

The $20-million tab was often cited in the recent election campaign and used by some mayoral candidates as a reason to argue for cancelling the BRT project. But the two biggest supporters of the project – Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Bowman – never did explain where they would find the money to pay for the $20 million.

The administration had suggested the funds could be found by raising transit fares or a property tax increase, or a combination of both.

The $20-million is the equivalent of 4 to 5 per cent property tax increase.

The problem for Bowman is that he campaigned not only to complete this BRT route but build another five corridors by 2030, yet he promised to limit a property tax increase to the same amount as the rise in the Consumer Price Index, this year at 2.3 per cent.

Orlikow said city staff are hoping that $20-million bill might be shrunk as detailed design work is developed for the BRT route with more accurate costs.

Orlikow said the city remains committed to the controversial dog-leg route through the Parker lands – a westward detour through a vast tract of vacant land adjacent to Pembina Highway that’s hoped will be developed as the new corridor opens up.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca