By Lexi McFarlane, Times Chronicle
Another piece of the Town of Oliver’s 2026-2030 financial puzzle has been fit into place by Council following an hour-long discussion
At a Special Open Council Meeting on Monday, Council discussed the five-year Capital Plan for the Town’s General Fund, the primary source of reserve funding. This comes following discussions last month around the Water and Sewer rate increases, which were set at 5 and 10 per cent respectively.
The draft five-year Capital Plan would see a total of $13.65 million be spent over the next five years on infrastructure projects, averaging approximately $2.7 million annually.
Five projects from 2025 will have carryover into 2026; those include the designs for the Station Street and the vehicle bridge projects, along with an irrigation kiosk at the cemetery, and flood mitigation for Wolf Cub Creek. A grant for Active Transport amenities is also noted. Cumulatively, these projects will require $205,000 in funding in 2026.
A total of twenty-four projects are slated to be complete by the end of 2025. The budgeted cost for these projects had been approximately $1.71 million, but the actual costs have come in at $3.31 million, nearly double that amount. Most of that $1.6 million increase stems from a budget amendment made, to acquire the property of 7057 Meadows Drive at the start of the year.
The five-year Financial Plan sorts all the projects that are to be funded between 2026 and 2030 by category. The categories include Building Projects, Equipment Capital, Land Projects, Road Projects, Vehicle Capital, and Fire Service Capital.
Will have to wait – Despite being “one of the worst roads in town” according to Kelly Mercer, Director of Operations, the project was pulled from the budget due to concerns over depleting reserve funds.
Town of Oliver photo
One of the most significant road projects, discussed in the first five minutes of the special meeting, was the need to reconstruct School Avenue between Highway 97 and Gala Street. Director of Operations Kelly Mercer explained that there’s been a lot of shorter-term fixes to keep the road operating, but that a full rebuild is inevitable.
In describing even the sidewalks along School Avenue, Mercer noted that a portion of them “has got asphalt overlay, because it’s in such bad shape”.
“This is one of the worst roads in town,” Mercer summarized. “It’s in really rough shape… you can see how deteriorated the asphalt is.”
The Financial Plan calls for $1.14 million of 2026 funding is needed for School Avenue reconstruction, split between two sources; the General Reserve, and the BC Growing Communities Fund.
Road Projects as a whole took up the largest share of the Financial Plan, with nearly $10 million allocated over the next five years. In 2026 alone, $3.47 million would go to projects, including the aforementioned School Avenue reconstruction.
The only Building Project that would need 2026 funding is the sprinkler system at the CPR station, slated to cost around $80,000. A project for replacement of the Fire Hall’s HVAC system was included in error, and struck from the Capital Plan right before the meeting, according to Chief Financial Officer John Kurvink.
Equipment Capital, with a budget of $593,000 over the next five years, would see nearly half of that be allocated to 2026 profiles. Among other things, tech upgrades at the Fire Hall and for Council, which were planned a couple of years ago, are about to take place. The largest 2026 project in this category is re-paving of the Oliver Visitor Centre parking lot and Hike ‘N’ Bike trails, estimated to be around $100,000.
Vehicle and Fire Service Capital categories took on similar amounts of funding, with $685,000 and $599,000 respectively in 2026 funding, and approximately $2.75 million and $2.4 million respectively in the overall five-year plan. On the vehicle front, a new Kubota tractor mower required early approval from Council, which was given at the end of the meeting.
Only two Land Projects are mentioned for the next five years, with the upcoming Gala Park redevelopment being the only profile of the two needing to be addressed in 2026. Gala Park would require extra funding to be approved.
Councillor Aimee Grice felt it was worth it just to get the entire project across the finish line. “It makes sense just to complete the project now,” Grice said.
Councillor Petra Veintimilla agreed. “We should see what it looks like, bumping up the Gala Street budget to $100,000,” Veintimilla said. “We’ve been working on Gala Street Park – in different versions – pretty much as long as I’ve been on council, so it’d be nice to just get it done, and not have to talk about it anymore.”
Councillor David Mattes firmly opposed the ask for $500,000 for a bush truck replacement, noting that a lot of money has already gone towards the bush truck fleet, and that the proposed method of funding wouldn’t be of benefit.
“I’m personally debt-averse, (so) have we looked at any other options for the existing truck?” Mattes inquired.
“The first one was two doors, and we were told we needed a four-door, so we bought a four-door. Now we’re being told the four-door isn’t good enough, either.
“Half a million dollars is a lot of money, and I don’t like debt.”
The overall number of projects scheduled to be funded through reserves was what worried several members of Council, including Grice.
“If there is more room to take money out of the BC Growing Communities Fund, I would rather take it out of that, than deplete our General Reserve,” she said. “The closing (end-of-2026 figure) was $153,000; there’s hardly anything left in there.”
Mayor Martin Johansen was the prominent voice of concern for potentially low reserves.
“We need to really be careful with what we move forward with on capital projects,” Johansen stated. “I would rather hold off on (School Avenue) and see if we can get grant funding.”
Because tax increases would be needed to replenish reserve funding, that was what the question became for Johansen.
“How much do you want to take your reserves down (to)?” he said. “Knowing (as well) that a tax increase of even 15 per cent is not going to increase your reserves by a heck of a lot. What I’m saying is, let’s not take our reserves down, just so that we can do some projects. Let’s be smart about how we spend our money.”
In the end, the Gala Park funding increase stayed in, while the new bush truck, and the School Avenue rebuild, were pulled from the budget. Johansen alluded that it was something that had to be done.
“When you only have so many dollars to go around… We don’t have the money to do everything. That’s really the bottom line.”
The rest of the Capital Plan was approved, as presented, by Council. It will now be included in the draft Financial Plan, scheduled to be brought to Council on January 12.
