Whitehorse revokes city hall reconstruction project

Key takeaways: 

• ‘We are not comfortable moving on on this project precisely,’ says the mayor.
• The city chose to withdraw its reconstruction project after the lowest offer of at least $10 million over funding late last month. 

There’ll be no significant renovation happening at city hall this summer.

The City of Whitehorse is withdrawing its intent to rebuild city hall after the lowest bid it got late last month was almost $10 million over funding, Mayor Laura Cabott said Thursday.

Standing on the city hall steps, Cabott said that would have told the city would have had to donate $19 million to the plan instead of $9 million, as it had budgeted. The rest of the budget would have come from federal and territorial sources.

The city initially calculated the project would cost $22 million.

“We know that with the fluctuation of the existing world market and the increasing cost of items such as steel, rebar, wood, copper, oil, aluminum, we are not comfortable moving ahead on this project at this particular time,” she said.

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She added the city decided before this week.

The city declared plans in June 2021 to pull down the old fire hall and original city hall building, both of which date back to the 1960s, and renovate the expansion built-in 1987.

It said the reconstruction plan was a merger of several downtown construction projects and had made a transit hub, relocated the cenotaph, and upgraded the current city hall facility.

Looking at alternatives

Cabott said the city is now looking at various options as some work that would have been a portion of the reconstruction project still ought to be done.

She said the city hall construction requires upgrades to be brought up to standard. These have, among others, replaced the roof, managed the mechanical, heating, and electrical systems, and done some work on the facade of the building.

Source – cbc.ca