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After about a year of questions to B.C. Transit about the cost to build Whistler’s new transit yard, it was finally revealed this week the facility cost $23.2 million.
Whistler is on the hook for about 53 per cent of the cost, or about $12.3 million, which will be paid to B.C. Transit over a 30-year lease.
Mayor Ken Melamed released the $23.2 million figure during Tuesday’s (Dec. 15) regular council meeting and said the total cost was $2 million under B.C. Transit’s budget of $25.2 million.
The controversial new facility, which is located near Nesters, was fully operational as of Wednesday (Dec. 16), said Joanna Morton, B.C. Transit spokesperson.
B.C. Transit officials were trying to organize a public event at the new facility in November, and were planning to release the budget at the event, she said. The open house didn’t come together, and is now planned for sometime in January. Because the facility is now “more or less” complete and operating, the decision was made to release the cost, Morton said.
The $23.2 million price tag was not previously released because the project team was “being very conservative” and still looking to find cost savings, she said. Because the final number wasn’t known, the team wanted to wait until the project was done, Morton added.
“It really is a no-frills facility, but it’s intended to last for at least 40 years,” she said.
Though the municipality’s annual lease cost for the new facility will be adjusted to reflect the $2 million savings from the project budget, the lease cost is about $500,000 higher than the previous transit yard at Function Junction, said Emma Dal Santo, the municipality’s transportation demand management coordinator. Just comparing the lease costs for the two transit yards, the Function location cost the municipality about $345,000 per year and the new location is pegged at $845,000.
The new location is expected to save fuel and staff costs because of fewer buses travelling back and forth to Function, Dal Santo said.
Councillor Eckhard Zeidler, who recently called the new facility the “garage mahal,” has been pushing to have the cost of the new facility released. He said on Wednesday that he’s glad the number is now in the public domain.
“It’s the public’s money. They have a right to know in a timely manner how much is being spent,” Zeidler said.
He said he’s still troubled by the fact that the municipality had “no power or influence or anything to say about what this facility would be in the end.”
“I can’t be the judge as to whether that investment will be financially beneficial to the taxpayers of Whistler in the long run. Time will tell,” Zeidler said. “They’ve built a state-of-the-art facility that I’m not entirely sure we would have made the same decision had we had any influence on the site, the design, or the method of construction.”
Melamed said the original cost estimates for the project were upwards of $36 million, but a consultant helped reduce the scope by $11 million. Morton said the $23.2 million total does not include the hydrogen components at the new facility.
Council was first advised of the budget back in March, Melamed said.
“I think it’s a tremendous facility and something that we should be very proud of,” he said.
Morton said Whistler’s is the first new transit facility B.C. Transit has built in the past 12 years and it will serve as a model for future projects.
