Prince George city councillors approved a $250,000 increase to the budget for the replacement of the skylight at the Bob Harkins Branch of the Prince George Public Library at their Monday, May 5 meeting.
After hearing from staff that steel tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump were one of the factors leading to the higher-than-expected costs, council also voted for administration to provide a complete cost breakdown once the project is complete.
While the project is described in documentation as a skylight replacement, city staff said at the meeting that because of the size of the skylight, the project is essentially a replacement of the building's entire roof.
City administration came to the meeting asking for the project’s budget to be increased by $250,000 to a total of $1.125 million, with $50,000 coming from the general infrastructure reinvestment fund and $200,000 coming from the Canada Community Building Fund.
A full replacement of the skylight was determined to be necessary as it leaks during storms, causing damage to both the building and to books. The skylight is original to the building from when it first opened in the early 1980s.
Despite it being described as a skylight replacement, Beasley said that it’s more like a roof replacement given how much of the building’s roof it comprises. The new skylight would be expected to last 30 to 40 years.
“This project was originally part of a much bigger all-in-one project we were trying to do for the library over the next few years,” Beasley said.
“There’s some building envelope issues and some other things that we obviously want to package together. It’s more efficient to do it all at once.
“However, the problem with this current situation is that this 45-year-old skylight is leaking and is simply not sustainable for another winter without serious disruption and probably damage to the library if we don’t repair it this summer.”
Local contractors, he said, won’t do any further work because the skylight is already comprised over mashed up layers of silicone.
Beasley said that the city had three options for carrying out the work and chose the least expensive one. When city staff reviewed bids for the project in early April, all came in above the existing budget of $875,000.
The price estimate for the project was developed last summer, before the current market conditions, including steel tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration last month.
If the city was to put the project back out for tender, Beasley said volatile market conditions would likely mean it ends up even more expensive.
Project manager Dale Martens told council that staff discussed did research to see if the work could be downsized, but it was determined that the city was already pursuing the most cost-effective repair solution.
“The increasing cost for construction can be attributed to uncertainty on the anticipated trade policy changes, resulting in increases in construction costs as well as revised strategies identified during the tender process to ensure the facility remains open to the public with minimal disruptions during the construction.”
Martens further explained that the project would essentially see the skylight removed and replaced with a roof, with only side windows remaining to provide natural light. This, he said, was the least expensive option.
In response to a question from Coun. Cori Ramsay, director of finance and IT services Kris Dalio said both reserves being used to fund the project are healthy enough to absorb these expenses without increasing next year’s tax levy, though he cautioned that it might affect the city’s ability to find a project in 2026.
He said the funding is coming from two sources because there are some limitations on what money from the Canada Community Building Fund can be spent on.
Coun. Garth Frizzell said he didn’t want to see a similar situation to the library’s Nechako Branch, where the roof was constantly breaking down and leaking. He also said he doesn’t want a similar situation to that of the Prince George Playhouse a few years ago, where hundreds of thousands of dollars of emergency repairs were needed.
Frizzell moved approval of the extra spending, saying he would prefer to spend cents now than dollars later should the roof further deteriorate.
Coun. Susan Scott said that she had experience in dealing with water and leak issues from 20 years of running a university bookstore. She said mould can form on books from water that falls 30 feet away and it can be time intensive to deal with.
Coun. Brian Skakun asked what the actual impact of tariffs on the project were.
Dalio said the city doesn’t like to outline details for procurement line-by-line in public, as it could put it in a disadvantage in the bidding process. If a bidder knows a true budget, they’ll likely bid very close to it.
Responding, Skakun said he understood that but one of his duties as an elected official is to ask difficult questions. He said he was supportive of this issue, but he has a problem with having to vote on tariff-related price hikes going forward without knowing all the details.
Skakun said the Standing Committee on Finance and Audit might want to review some of the city’s procurement policies due to the tariff situation.
Coun. Trudy Klassen said she wanted to do due diligence on a financial decision of this scope, especially one coming between budget cycles. If council can’t get all the information on the issue, she asked how council can do its job and scrutinize the figures.
City manager Walter Babicz said that as staff explained, other options were sought to reduce the costs, but they weren’t feasible.
“Administration does not enjoy coming to council and asking for budget increases,” Babicz said.
He said council has the discretion to ask for more information and administration will follow through on their direction, but they have heard from the city’s professional staff that there are risks involved with divulging it.
“It may result in putting the taxpayers and the municipality at a disadvantage,” Babicz said.
Klassen moved to defer the decision on the skylight until the May 26 council meeting.
It was defeated, with only Skakun and Klassen voting in favour of the motion.
Coun. Kyle Sampson said he has concerns with any project not anticipated by the budget, though he understands that market conditions led to this price increase.
He said he fully supports the library, saying his previous concerns over the library’s finances were misconstrued, but this project represents another significant investment by the city in the facility after a new entrance was opened in late 2020.
Under provincial legislation, he said it wasn’t his impression that it’s the city’s sole responsibility to fund the library and its capital costs.
Sampson asked whether administration could review library funding and whether the city can review its funding and whether the provincial government is contributing enough.
Babicz said under provincial law, the city had the option to create a library, which it did. After that, the library is independent and asks for a budget each year though in Prince George’s case, the city both owns and maintains the building.
The city manager said that isn’t on administration’s workplan and asked whether a high-level review would be sufficient.
Ramsay said looking under the Library Act, a municipal government must approve or deny a budget submitted by a library with or without amendment, which is why she brought up the idea of implementing a five-year funding plan so that the city has predictable costs for funding the library over a longer period.
She said city staff get harsh scrutiny for projects that go over budget, but she knows they don’t come forward unless it’s a last resort.
While she agrees with Dalio about the risks of outlining budgetary details ahead of procurement, she asked if it would be possible for administration to give a report on the costs after it is public.
This, she said, would help build trust with the public.
Beasley said it would likely be possible to provide those answers after the fact, adding that finding the right amount of detail to provide council with is a difficult question staff are faced with answering.
Dalio also said he had no problem providing those answers after the fact. He said a similar amount of detail is provided by administrations at other municipalities for the same reasons.
The motion approving the extra spending was approved by a margin of seven to one, with only Klassen voting against. Mayor Simon Yu was not present at the meeting, Scott chaired the meeting as acting mayor.
Ramsay then moved for staff to return a full cost breakdown report on the project once it is complete. It passed unanimously.
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