Money for Massey Theatre is back in the City of New Westminster’s 2015 budget.
During recent budget deliberations, council members asked staff to remove money for a new Massey Theatre from this year’s capital plan, as it was unlikely the project would proceed in 2015 and the budget should reflect realistic timeframes for projects getting underway.
At the following council meeting, Mayor Jonathan Cote suggested it would be “premature” to remove funding for Massey Theatre from the capital plan. He said there are some “unknowns” about the project and recommended the city stick with the original plan considered by council.
“I would think it would be prudent for the city to have flexibility with this,” Cote said.
Some council members, however, were uncomfortable about including funds for Massey Theatre in this year’s capital plan, which prompted Cote to suggest council may need to go back into closed session to discuss the matter.
Gary Holowatiuk, the city’s director of finance and information technology, said there’s “no harm” in reinstating money in the plan, as the money stays in reserves if it doesn’t get spent.
Coun. Marry Trentatue said she’s comfortable leaving the money in the 2015 capital plan.
“I don’t want us to be caught without the funds we need to cover it,” she said.
In a 4-3 vote, council voted in favour of including funds for Massey Theatre in this year’s capital plan.
According to budget documents, the city will be partnering with the New Westminster School District to reconstruct Massey Theatre as part of the New Westminster Secondary School replacement project.
“The city’s contribution to the project is about $10 million, with most of the costs likely to occur in the 2017/18 time frame,” stated budget documents. “The 2015 budget allocation has been reduced from $1 million to $0.4 million to fund the city’s design consultants. The balance of the funds have been reallocated to 2017/18 to cover the city’s contribution to construction costs.”
