The Town of Gibsons is pushing ahead with plans for the construction of a new RCMP station at a much lower cost than previously expected.

Chief administrative officer Paul Gipps informed council Tuesday night (Sept. 7) that cost estimates for construction of the new station in Upper Gibsons, which will replace the 50-year-old building on School Road, have come in at $1.5 to $2.3 million. Previously, the cost was expected to be $4.5 million, based on similar RCMP buildings in other jurisdictions. But Gipps said in recent months, construction bids have been coming in much lower for nearly-identical RCMP buildings.

“This was the initial cost based upon experience the RCMP had pre-Olympics and during the escalation time that they saw. Since that time, they have received a lot more information and had some successful tenders issued for a building of similar size for considerably less,” Gipps said.

Under provincial legislation, a town must pay 70 per cent of its policing costs and 100 per cent of the cost of providing a new building once the town reaches a population of 5,000. Gipps was able to arrange a payment plan whereby the RCMP will pay a lease to the Town for use of the building until it reaches the 5,000 mark, which is expected to happen between now and the 2016 census. Those lease payments will then be used to pay down the mortgage on the building. Gipps said the building will likely be half paid for by the time that happens.

Mayor Barry Janyk said the new building is badly needed for the RCMP, and the timing could not have worked out better.

“I think the stars are kind of aligning in the sense that costs are relatively low. We have good co-operation from the people in the upper part of the Town, we’ve got great support from the RCMP — I just think that if we lose this opportunity now, we’ll be in a deficit situation for a long, long time,” he said.

Gipps also reported that the Town has been approached by some residents who want to help fund the new building through the purchase of municipal bonds. The Town was planning on borrowing money from the municipal finance authority, but the municipal bond option will result in lower interest rates for the Town and offer a higher return-on-investment that can be offered by banks for the bond holders.

In anticipation of a time crunch to get the project completed ahead of the September, 2011 deadline, council passed all the necessary bylaws Tuesday night for the Town to go to an alternate approval process, a sort of reverse referendum to get permission to borrow the money to get the project started.