HALIFAX—Funding for millions of dollars worth of mostly transportation-related projects has been added to the capital budget after the latest meeting of a contentious budget season at Halifax City Hall.

Regional council’s budget committee met Friday to discuss options for funding $21.8 million worth of projects originally left out of the capital budget. About half that value is related to the city’s transformative Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP), designed to get commuters out of their cars.

Among the projects originally left unfunded in the preliminary 2019-2020 capital budget is $6.35 million in active transportation like all-ages-and-abilities cycling lanes and sidewalks, $2.4 million in sidewalk repairs and $3.5 million for a bus lane on Bayers Rd.

Councillor Lisa Blackburn argued the cost of leaving such projects unfunded was too high.

“Full disclosure: I am not a numbers person,” Blackburn said. “But what I do understand is risk.”

Each of the projects on the list is categorized by its risk to the municipality’s “high quality of service delivery that is affordable for the community.” Of the 19 unfunded projects, staff marked 14 “high” or “very high” risk.

“To me it seems a hell of a lot riskier not to do these projects than to do them,” Blackburn said.

The IMP would agree.

The overarching goal of the plan, unanimously approved in December 2017, is to reduce the percentage of Haligonians commuting by car every day. In 2014, Halifax set a goal to reduce that number to a maximum of 70 per cent. Between 2006 and 2011, according to Statistics Canada, that number went up — from 75 to 77 per cent — and it remained high, at 77.7 per cent, in 2016.

The total cost of the IMP will add up to $190 million by the time it’s fully implemented, but the final report on the plan said those projects will save the municipality from having to spend $750 million on roads to accommodate more and more vehicles.

There’s also an environmental risk to having more vehicles on the road at a time when regional council has agreed that climate change “constitutes an emergency’ for Halifax.

After voting in December to defer a discussion on the proposed 2019-2020 capital budget, councillors voted to put it off again at a meeting two weeks ago, pending a report from city staff on where it could find the extra cash.

That report, tabled Friday, offered three options: take the money out of municipal reserve accounts, akin to savings accounts; take on more debt, which would require a tax increase next year to pay the interest; or raise the average property tax bill by 4 per cent, equal to $76.73 on the average bill.

Since councillors are already looking at an increase to the average tax bill of up to 2.9 per cent to pay for the operating budget, staff recommended against the second and third options.

The municipal reserve accounts will be topped up this year with another big budget surplus, currently projected to be $14 million. That’s driven primarily by higher than expected deed-transfer tax revenues — 1.5 per cent paid whenever property changes hands.

“This funding option, although a one-time solution, will enable the additional projects to be funded without an impact to the 2019/20 tax bill,” asset manager Crystal Nowlan wrote in the report to the committee.

While that funding option doesn’t directly raise taxes, some councillors worried it would reduce council’s flexibility to use the surplus money to offset tax increases due to the operating budget.

“I fully understand the rationale, that these are things a good city should have. We are a pretty good city, but I think we have to be really careful,” Mayor Mike Savage said during debate.

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“We need more information, in my view, before we can authorize this kind of spending.”

Savage argued council should hear the rest of the departmental operating budget presentations scheduled over the next few weeks before deciding to use the surplus for the capital budget.

Last year, council considered using its surplus to pay down the operating budget and keep the increase to the average tax bill at 1.6 per cent, as opposed to the 1.975 per cent hike that eventually went through.

Municipal staff recommended against it last year, and did so again this year, warning councillors not to use one-time money to fund ongoing expenses.

Savage said that given council doesn’t appear to be in line to hit its self-imposed goal of keeping the increase to the average property tax bill to 1.9 per cent this year, it should be more restrained on capital spending.

“If we’re going to be spending an extra, what is it, $21 million, on capital, plus we’re blowing 1.9 all to hell, that’s not responsible under any circumstance,” he said.

There’s also a risk that, even with funding, many of the projects on the list won’t be completed.

“Our estimate right now is, of the $21.8 million that’s there, we’re probably going to be able to deliver $3.7 million” in 2019/2020, chief administrative officer Jacques Dubé told councillors on Friday.

Transportation and public works director Brad Anguish wasn’t as certain about what could and could not be competed in the coming year but said his department would prioritize projects that were on the original list, not the one council added Friday.

“Somebody who’s a little cynical could look at this and say, ‘Capital-wise, spending-wise, council wants to spend more money than their staff can even deliver on,’” Councillor Tim Outhit said during debate.

In an attempt to thin the list of such projects, Councillor Shawn Cleary brought forward an amendment to cut $5 million worth of street repaving from the budget. That motion was defeated.

In the end, councillors voted in favour of the staff recommendation to fund the projects using the surplus and reserve money. Council will vote on the final capital budget, now totalling more than $166 million, along with the final operating budget in early April.

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