Brampton council voted Wednesday to adopt a staff recommendation to cancel a tender for much-needed utility works by the Region of Peel in the city’s downtown, putting a major downtown rejuvenation initiative on hold indefinitely.

Director of capital works Jayne Holmes told the city's freshly elected council in a report at its regular meeting on Dec. 12 that project cost estimates had already ballooned far beyond the original estimate of $28.9 million approved by the previous council in 2017 — and could grow even higher.

“It’s not just the unknown costs, it’s all the projects that are moving around. Intersections that might be realigned. Those are big change orders. So, if you commit to this tender you’re committing to a scope of work that was based on some things aren’t valid anymore,” Holmes told council.

The multi-year project, which would have involved major road closures in downtown Brampton for at least two years starting in the spring, was broken down into two parts.

Wednesday's vote was to cancel the tender for the region’s portion of the work, which included much-needed aging water main, sewer and other utility infrastructure upgrades.

In addition to the city-funded streetscaping element with cost estimates growing to more than $30 million, the city was also on the hook for half of the regional infrastructure costs. Holmes told council the original estimate of $10 million in 2017 had grown to up to $25 million.

Cancelled provincial funding for a Ryerson University campus and the decision by this council to restore plans to run a planned LRT line along Hurontario/Main Street — this time with a tunnel option — had also changed the original design and scope of work significantly.

Part of the problem, she added, is the previous council's decision to forgo a Main Street LRT in 2015 in favour of exploring alternative routes on Kennedy and McLaughlin roads. As a result, none of the design work for Downtown Reimagined included plans for one.

Holmes said it could be a couple of years before the project is rebooted.

“I don’t think today is about us supporting the downtown project or not. We certainly, last council were unanimous to support it. I think what today is that we have a report before us which raises some questions regarding the costing. That’s new information that we’ve received,” said wards 3 and 4 Coun. Martin Medeiros, adding he still supports the Downtown Reimagined concept moving forward.