At least one major project for the City of North Battleford is still on track, for now, despite bad provincial budget news.
Monday, councillors voted to proceed with a grant application to the province for matching funding through the Community Airport Partnership, or CAP, grant for the Cameron McIntosh Airport runway rehabilitation project.
City Manager Jim Puffalt said there was confirmation the CAP grant is still available in the 2017 provincial budget, so administration recommended proceeding with the application.
The airport was included as part of the five-year capital plan approved by council earlier this year. The rehabilitation is a four-year project to address deterioration of the pavement on the main runway.
The grant application would cover the second year of the runway rehabilitation. Last year, the city received matching funding under the CAP program for milling and asphalt surfacing work on the middle portion of the runway.
The work slated for 2017 would complete the next middle section. The work for 2018 and 2019 would be to restore each side of the runway, completing the rehabilitation.
The total value of the work for 2017 is $825,000. If the grant application is successful, the province would provide $275,000 with the City responsible for the other $550,000.
While the province does fund projects up to 50/50, in this case $275,000 is the maximum amount of dollars that could be obtained from the province under the CAP program guidelines.
The approval covers only the grant application. Council will still need to vote on whether to proceed with the project after the grant has been approved.
