2. Grant will reduce City’s portion of funding for a project and creates opportunity for the project to be completed immediately where it may have otherwise been delayed, built in smaller sections over a longer period of time and/or not been pursued.
The Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF) created the opportunity for the City to pull forward over $90M in sewer project work. While the City was required to develop a funding source for their portion of the project, the ability to leverage $32.1M in grant funding made it possible for these projects to proceed for the full scope of work recommended in the Sewer Master Plan. Work which may have otherwise been completed over a longer period of time, or if pursued would have limited the City’s ability to complete any other sewer master plan recommendations. As a further example there is a seperate report before City Council on June 15th requesting submission to the DMAF Targeting Success Intake program. If awarded funding of $27M the City will be able to proceed with a project estimated at $80M and targeted at addressing flooding challenges.
3. Grant will reduce City’s portion of funding for a project such that the City can redirect funding to other capital projects and / or help mitigate pandemic costs
There are situations whereby grant funding being awarded will result in City funding no longer being required and therefore becoming available to be redirected. These funds may be able to be redirected to other capital initiatives and/or become available to help offset pandemic costs if the funding type is appropriate. A recent example is the ICIP Public Transit grant submission in May 2019. The City matching funding of $5.7M came from the Transit Fleet replacement project and leveraged $20.3M in total project funding to not only increase the number of buses replaced but to also fund the Customer Stop Amenities and TW Master Plan Implementation projects.
Capital project surpluses and deficits
Administration is continually monitoring and managing capital project surpluses and deficits. A comprehensive review of all active capital projects, currently 530, is completed twice a year. It is based on March 31 and September 30th month ends and reported to City Council via the Semi-Annual Capital Variance report. The Semi-Annual Capital Variance report outlines the overall position of the capital projects in terms of expenditures as well as identifying project surpluses and or deficits. Projects with surpluses or deficits are detailed in the Semi-Annual Capital Variance report, and additional information is provided on the reason for the surplus or deficit. Also included are recommendations on where to direct surpluses and how to address deficits for City Council’s approval.
As a result of the pandemic, and as approved by City Council, the Semi-Annual Capital Variance report based on March 31, 2020 month end close will be based on May 31, 2020. The report is scheduled to be presented in July as an accompanying report to the COVID 19 pandemic financial update which will be presented to City Council. The focus of the report will be on capital projects which can be closed and recommendations on how those project surpluses and deficits could be addressed.
The guidelines below reflect the high-level practices currently in place to address and report project deficits and surpluses to City Council, additionally it proposed that the