A new city arena is happening.

City officials say the new facility with a location still to be chosen will be open in 2020.

Community Services Committee chair Mark King says some money has been set aside in next years capital budget.

So with funds going for the arena it leaves council with some tough choices in the capital budget.

Budget Chief Sheldon Forgette says there are a lot of tough choices.

“Are we going to be doing the Waterfront, are we going to be doing the downtown. Are we going to delay those things ? What’s going to happen with Cassellholme, the police building?

All these different things that need to take place, get build and get done. We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do, what we can’t do and what we have to delay.”

Forgette says council has a lot of choices.

“Basically what it means is that we either need to reshuffle the capital budget to make everything fit or we need to cancel or delay projects or increase the levy to be able to come up with money to do the project.”
He says council will have to make decisions on the capital budget before making decisions on the operating budget.

Filed under: arena, Mark King