The regional district developed a financing strategy based on redirecting the current lease amount and reserve fund contribution towards the debt repayment. Instead of paying rent with no building asset, the regional district would be paying debt repayments with ownership of a community asset at the end of the term.
The project is estimated to cost 11.7 million dollars based on Class D estimates. It will be funded through a combination of 2 million dollars from reserve funds, 1.5 million dollars of grant funding from the electoral area community works funds, and the remaining 8.2 million through long term borrowing. The 8.2 million would be funded through a loan authorization bylaw approval process with long term debt borrowing for a maximum 30 years to ensure affordability for residents.
From July 6 until August 18, 2017 the Alternative Approval Process ran for this project. At the close of the process, 828 eligible elector response forms were received in the service area. On August 29, 2017 the regional district board adopted the borrowing bylaw based on the Alternative Approval Process results.
On April 24, 2018 the CVRD board approved moving forward with the tendering process to receive actual construction costs on the detailed design. The next step will be for the CVRD board to consider award of contact based on review of the tender results and full financial analysis. The tendering process is expected to be completed by July 2018.