Charlottetown council passes $11.26M capital budget

Charlottetown council passed its $11.26-million 2016 capital budget on Monday night.

Some of the highlights include close to $700,000 for parks and recreation, over $2 million for fire and emergency services and $1.5 million for four new transit buses.  

Many of the projects are continuing from last year, said Coun. Melissa Hilton, chair of the city's finance committee.

"When you look at parks and recreation, there's continuous playground equipment that needs to be installed or new equipment put into the new playgrounds," said Hilton.

"There is some work that needs to be done at the civic centre and we are responsible for half of the capital cost for that. Public works, for example, there's the usual street resurfacing. There's ditch infilling, there's pedestrian signals, there's traffic signals."

The capital program also included close to $12 million for public works and almost $11 million for water and sewer, both dependent on partner funding.

Many of the projects outlined in the budget will have to wait until federal infrastructure money is rolled out, said Hilton.

She wouldn't comment on the specific projects the city plans to put federal money toward.