Borrowing bylaw moves Whitehorse operations building closer to breaking ground

Officials with the City of Whitehorse hope work will begin at the site of a new operations building by the end of the summer.

On Monday night, council tentatively approved a bylaw allowing the city to borrow almost $19 million to help cover the cost of the $55 million dollar project off Range Road.

The majority of the funding is coming from city reserves and federal gas tax revenue.

Whitehorse mayor Dan Curtis says the building has been a long time coming.

"It's a very exciting day that's been worked on for literally decades, and councils and councils and councils before us so everything seems to have finally lined up and it's very, very proud to see it moving forward." 

Peter O'Blenes, the city's infrastructure and operations director, says bids from interested contractors are due next week.

"We're very optimistic, we're very hopeful we'll get some competitive bids coming in. This will be a big project so there's a lot of work to go around." 

O'Blenes says staff should be able to make a recommendation on the building contract by the end of the month.

He says it's possible excavation at the site could begin in August, with the project finishing in the late spring of 2019.

Councillor Samson Hartland was the only councillor to vote against the borrowing bylaw.

He says he's concerned about the amount of the debt the city is taking on.