The city is going ahead with a plan to borrow about $7 million for infrastructure repairs and new vehicles after it failed to receive enough counter petitions for the loan.
Any time the city needs to take out a loan from the Municipal Finance Authority for a term longer than five years, it requires constituent permission.
The city is going to borrow $1 million over a 20-year term to make repairs to Foreman Road, widening it to allow for two-way traffic and address landslide areas above the CN Rail train crossing.
Another two loans with 10-year terms, worth a combined $6 million, will be taken out to cover replacement of vehicles in the city's fleet.
Using the alternate approval process, residents had 30 days to submit counter petitions to city hall.
If 10 per cent or more of eligible voters returned forms (5,120 people) by Oct. 28 indicating their opposition, council couldn't authorize applying for the loan unless they got approval via referendum.
However only 17 petitions were returned to oppose the fleet replacement loan and only 15 were returned opposing borrowing for the Foreman Road project.
Council approved the two loan authorization bylaws by a vote of 6-1, with Coun. Albert Koehler in opposition.
Repayment of the Foreman Road loan would begin in 2017 with annual payments of about $61,500.
Repayment of the two fleet loans would start next year, with annual payments of $245,000 and $420,700, respectively.
