Costing for MacCarthy Civic Operations facility spikes

Council members will receive an update on how things
are proceeding for the Operations Department move to the 
old MacCarthy GM location

Tonight's Prince Rupert City Council session brings an update on the plans for the move of the City's Operations Department from Wantage Road to Saskatoon and Portage and the former MacCarthy GM site, with a report to Council that outlines an increase in the anticipated cost towards renovations.

In the report, Richard  Pucci, the Director of Operations and Intergovernmental Relations notes of an increase in the cost from an original estimate of 2-3 million dollars for the work, to a revised number of now 5 million dollars.

The explanation towards the sharp increase is outlined as follows:

Early projections put the completion of this work at approximately $5M exclusive of property purchase. 

The Staff appreciates that this is significantly higher than originally estimated at between $2M & $3M exclusive of property purchase; however, the original estimates were complete pre-Covid. 

Further, this is just an estimate and the Staff will be given a Class B cost estimate to bring to the Council prior to advancing or approving construction.

The Full Report which is also available from the Agenda for tonights Session can be reviewed below:

The item is part of City Council's Consent Agenda, which means it will only come up for discussion for Council should one of the members flag it for a follow conversation or questions.

It could also come up as an item of note as part of the Public Comment period at the start of tonight's Session, which offers those in attendance in the public gallery to comment on items listed on the Agenda for the night.

The move to the McCarthy lot was first proposed by then Mayor Lee Brain and the Director of Operations back in March of 2022.

You can follow up on some of the past conversations towards it from our Civic Operations archive page.

More notes related to tonight's City Council Session can be reviewed from our Council Preview page.