Whitehorse awards operations building contract to local company

The City of Whitehorse is awarding its operations building construction contract to Ketza Group for $39 million. 

The contract was approved at city council on Monday night. 

Mayor Dan Curtis says the four bids the city received were very competitive. 

"They came [in] $3.8 million less than our own experts suggested it might cost." 

The majority of the funding for the estimated $55 million project is coming from city reserves and the federal government. City council also passed a bylaw Monday night to increase its borrowing limit to nearly $19 million, removing one of the last barriers to getting the project rolling. 

The operations building will house the city's fleet maintenance, waste and water services, transit and engineering departments. 

Betty Irwin, city councillor, says she is happy the project is finally going ahead.

"It has been in the works for at least 10 years or more, so to see it finally happening to me is really satisfying, and I'm really thrilled with it."

Councillor Samson Hartland voted against awarding the contract. He has expressed concerns about the amount of debt the city is taking on. 

Construction on the operations buliding could start next month and be completed by the spring of 2019.