City council will be keeping close tabs on a new construction project downtown, slated to be completed late next year.
The city received $3.98 million in funding from the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund and a Union of B.C. Municipalities grant program to build an 85-space childcare centre downtown. The centre will be operated by the YMCA of Northern B.C. and will be built at 1075 Sixth Ave. as part of the city parkade/Park House condominium development.
On Monday, city council approved adding the project to the city's 2020-2024 financial plan, with the intent that the construction would be completed by the end of 2021.
"This sounds like a great opportunity for the downtown, more spaces (are) certainly needed for this type of program," Coun. Kyle Sampson said. "I'm just wondering what our plan is to ensure we don't run into any cost overruns? (To) make sure we do stay in line with the grants that were awarded."
Acting deputy city manager Ian Wells said the city will be looking for a guaranteed-price contract to prevent cost overruns. A 15 per cent contingency amount has been built into the project budget, and city council will be updated regularly as the project proceeds.
"Before we go, the project will be tendered as part of the contract," Wells said. "So we'll know the price before we proceed."
The city has seen multi-million-dollar cost overruns on several major project this year, including the Sixth Avenue parkade and new fire hall.
According to information released by the YMCA of Northern B.C. the new childcare centre will have room for 42 pre-school children and 48 for school-age children.
