Two words no politician wants to hear on a major project but that message was delivered to the North Cariboo Joint Planning Committee at a special meeting on the new arena in Quesnel last (Jan 26) night.
The new price tag, thanks mainly to the struggles of the Canadian dollar, is now 20.9 million dollars.
It was 18.8 million back in April.
Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson says the project is still going ahead.
He says they’ve given a maximum budget ceiling for the all-in costs of the arena of 20.6 million dollars to their project manager and staff to negotiate with the contractor with a view to looking at all of the cost reduction opportunities that are available.
That said, Simpson says they won’t make cuts if it compromises the final product.
He says they can make up the budget shortfall without impacting taxpayers by emptying the cookie jar in the form of using up all of Sub Regional Recreation’s capital reserves and surpluses as of the end of 2015.
Vic Van Isle Construction out of Revelstoke is the company that they will be dealing with.
Simpson says one of the reasons they chose them is that they plan to use local sub-contractors.
Construction on the new West Fraser Centre is scheduled to begin in the spring.