Revenues from digital signs will help fund Canada Games Pool and Massey Theatre projects.
On Monday, New Westminster city council considered a staff report concerning the use of revenues from digital signs that were erected in the spring.
As part of the city's agreement with Allvision, the City of New Westminster anticipates receiving $25 million in guaranteed revenue and funding if revenue targets are reached during the 23-year term of the contract.
Coun. Bill Harper put forward a motion that the city put 50 per cent of the digital sign revenues into a reserve for future rehabilitation/replacement of Canada Games Pool, 40 per cent into a reserve for the city's portion of replacement of Massey Theatre, when the new high school is built, and 10 per cent into an affordable housing fund.
Harper believes the direction is a "real move forward" by the city to build reserves to fund these major projects.
If the revenues generated by the eight screens at four sites in the city exceed the revenue targets, council will consider how to use those additional revenues.
Coun. Jonathan Cote said the city will have some "pretty significant" capital projects to fund in the coming years. He said the decision should give the community comfort that financial resources will be in place so these projects can move forward.
A staff report outlined potential uses for digital signage revenues.
These included debt repaying for projects like Westminster Pier Park, capital projects (Anvil Centre, Fourth Street pedestrian railway overpass to Westminster Pier Park, Front Street parkade rehabilitation project, Queensborough/down-town pedestrian and bike bridge, relocation of the skateboard park, city hall renovations, replacement of the animal shelter and towing perations facility, replacement or pgrade of Canada Games Pool, and contribution toward the replacement of Massey Theatre), strategic initiatives and special projects (work to address the goals of the master transportation plan, official community plan, Intelligent City initiative, etc.).
Other ideas included a capital/special purpose reserves for future strategic initiatives and special projects.
Coun. Betty McIntosh was concerned that council was choosing not to fund any of the strategic initiatives that have been identified by council and staff.
"I personally can't support that," she said of council's decision. "We always have strategic directions we are putting forward. I don't know how you can ignore those."
McIntosh also pointed out that the city already agreed to allocate funds from the 2013 budget toward reserves for the Massey Theatre and Canada Games Pool projects.
Finance director Gary Holowatiuk said council allocated $500,000 toward Canada Games Pool and $250,000 toward the Massey Theatre project in this year's budget, and the digital sign revenues would supplement those contributions.
Coun. Jaimie McEvoy supported the decision on the basis that those are projects that will be costly.
According to a staff report, the digital signage guarantees minimum annual revenue between $1 million to $1.6 million, or about $25 million over the term of the agreement.
Based on the revenue-sharing rate and project advertising revenues, the city believes it could receive an additional $23 million during the life of the agreement with Allvision.
Using revenues from the digital signage to fund the modernization of Canada Games Pool is a prudent move by the city, said Coun. Chuck Puchmayr.
"We need to put this money aside," he said. "We need to build that pool."
Puchmayr said he'd prefer to use the digital sign revenues to build a new pool facility, rather than use it toward paying down the debt for projects like Anvil Centre, for which the city gets a "low interest" rate when borrowing funds.
An online survey conducted by the city about the use of digital media signage found that 45 per cent of respondents would like to see some funds allocated to street amenities.
Other popular choices were: debt repayment - 43 per cent; parks - 41 per cent; city infrastructure - 39 per cent; and events and festivals - 37 per cent.
The 2013 budget survey found that the most supported use of digital fund revenues was to help pay down the city's debt (24 per cent of respondents), followed by infrastructure (14 per cent), moderate taxes (13 per cent) and other (11 per cent).
Facilities, parks, events and festivals, and special projects garnered less support from the 64 people who completed the online budget survey.
