The federal government will put more than $15.2 million into the city’s mammoth building consolidation project.

The commitment came at a press conference held this morning at the city’s Municipal Services Building on Fourth Avenue.

Yukon MP Larry Bagnell and Mayor Dan Curtis took to the mic along with Trent Egglestone, the city’s equipment supervisor.

The funding Bagnell announced will go toward planning and site preparation for the first phase of the proposed operations building off Range Road near Two Mile Hill.

The overall project would ultimately see a large new operations centre there as well as a service building – for day to day services used by the public – downtown at the city hall site on Second Avenue.

The two sites would take in many city functions now scattered at various spots.

The entire project had initially been estimated to cost around $55 million.

As officials have looked at it further though, those costs have soared considerably.

Just the operations site is now estimated to cost a total of $73 million once all the services for that site have been built, said city manager Christine Smith.

The services building is anticipated to cost another $15 million.

For now, officials are focused on getting the first phase of the operations building planned and built before it looks at future phases for the site, such as moving the transit base up there.

As officials noted this morning, the focus for the first phase will be moving the departments and staff who currently work in the Municipal Services Building to the new site once it is built.

The funding announcement from the federal government will go a long way to getting that done, Curtis said, stressing the urgency of the project.

“We have no more time to waste,” he said.

The Municipal Services Building is inefficient, doesn’t fit the neighbourhood (it’s viewed as a non-conforming use under the zoning bylaw) and isn’t in a good condition, he said.

Some staff, Curtis pointed out, have worked in the substandard building for more than 30 years.

“And it was a piece of garbage back then,” he commented.

With the city moving ahead with a lease for Yukon government land where the new building will go and federal funding now confirmed, he said, the city can begin formalizing its plans for the structure.

It will also free up space in the downtown on the site of the Municipal Services Building for developments more suitable to the neighbourhood, he said.

Egglestone, who’s worked out of the building for more than a decade, described having to “shuffle and juggle” vehicles in and around the garage there as the city’s fleet has grown with the rising population.

“The current building is beyond its useful life,” he said.

A new building that can accommodate the city’s fleet well into the future will mean city’s mechanical staff can be more productive and efficient as they have the space to work on vehicles without have to shuffle them around.

“This is a very exciting announcement,” Egglestone said, noting city staff have been waiting for it for some time.

Bagnell, meanwhile, stressed the federal government’s commitment to improving municipal infrastructure across the country and giving communities the ability to determine how infrastructure funding can be best spent.

“Ultimately, it’s about building stronger communities,” he said.

The federal government will begin a new round of consultations with communities around the country to determine its second phase of federal infrastructure funding.

Over the next month, he said, Ottawa is asking municipalities to tell it what kind of communities they want in 10 years, and what type of new infrastructure projects would help it in working toward becoming that community.

Speaking specifically to the Municipal Services Building, Bagnell noted the structure creates some difficult working conditions for staff.

Its replacement will save operational costs, as it will be a much more energy-efficient structure, he pointed out.

Along with the $15 million the federal government has committed is $5 million the city has outlined for spending on it this year.

Provisional budgets in future years propose spending of $49.7 million in 2017 and a further $1.8 million in 2018.