Mayor Dan Curtis has unveiled plans that could see the city spend up to $23.8 million in 2019 on projects largely focused on replacing, renovating and upgrading infrastructure to keep local services running.

On Tuesday evening, council unanimously approved first reading of the 2019 capital budget after it was brought forward.

“The proposed budget advances key projects that continue to make the City of Whitehorse a great place to live, work and play,” Curtis said during his budget speech.

“It makes significant investments in our city’s aging infrastructure.”

A total of $8.9 million would be guaranteed through city reserves.

The remaining $14.9 million would come from potential funding from the federal and Yukon governments. Whether those projects go ahead will depend on funding approval.

Along with the plans for 2019 are provisional plans for each year until 2022.

Between 2020 and 2022, the city would spend a further $20.6 million from its reserves and $63.74 million from potential federal and territorial funding for projects.

“It’s pretty impressive, and pretty exciting for a lot of the infrastructure concerns that we have,” Curtis told reporters following the vote.

As the city moves toward completion of its new operations building set to open next summer, it will begin construction to replace its downtown fire hall with a new facility on the former Motorways trucking site near the waterfront.

Charles McLaren Architects was awarded the nearly $300,000 design contract earlier this year.

A total of $3.3 million is budgeted for the effort in 2019.

As Curtis pointed out, the building of the new fire hall is a major priority for the coming year.

“The current fire hall (beside city hall) is old, energy-inefficient, and too small to meet the needs of staff, equipment and vehicles storage,” he pointed out.

Once the new fire hall is open, the current downtown firehall will be demolished.

The city will then plan a new services building on the site. The current Municipal Services Building on Fourth Avene would then be razed.

“These plans are all recommendations from the Building Consolidation Study,” Curtis said.

“In the long term, the costs associated with constructing new buildings pale in comparison to the operation and maintenance costs of the old buildings.”

He went on to highlight infrastructure plans outlined for the coming years.

Those include potentially spending nearly $300,000 to replace traffic signals at Fourth Avenue and Main Street and at Quartz Road and Chilkoot Way.

Those projects are part of the city’s “commitment to address safety concerns and improve traffic flow.”

Another $200,000 would go toward fire-smarting next year, $200,000 on security upgrades and city hall, with $500,000 proposed to replace aging city vehicles.

“Replacing aged vehicles and equipment enables all city departments to maintain or enhance their current level of service as well as reduce repair costs and downtime,” Curtis said.

Parks and trails would also see investments of $270,000 next year for downtown trails, parks and playgrounds, including the resurfacing of paved trails.

A further $30,000 would go toward expanding the Grey Mountain Cemetery.

“The cemetery has seen the sizable growth that comes along with our city’s increasing population,” Curtis said.

“The expansion project would consider including new options such as natural burials and scattering gardens as well as culturally relevant burial options.”

The city’s recreational facilities would also benefit from capital investments, including the estimated $185,000 replacement of a dasher board system for the Takhini Arena, and $40,000 to replace wellness centre equipment at the Canada Games Centre.

Officials are also looking toward 2020.

“The City of Whitehorse has committed to hosting the Arctic Winter Games in 2020 and will be working on completing many relevant projects in time for this significant circumpolar event,” Curtis said. He then outlined projects proposed under external funding.

They would include downtown water main improvements, asphalt overlay work; replacement of transit buses and offering real-time passenger information and electronic payment.

Also envisioned are the expansion of the city’s compost facility; downtown reconstruction; and the proposed services building.

“This is only a small sample of some of the important projects awaiting external funding,” the mayor noted.

“We value and appreciate the funding we receive from senior governments, and we continue to work hand-in-hand with our territorial and federal funding partners,” Curtis added.

“Without the funding, we wouldn’t be able to move forward on important community projects.”

Speaking to reporters, Curtis emphasized the city’s efforts to have the budget adopted before the end of the year in order to give contractors as much notice so they can begin preparing for the coming construction season.

“It really does inflict a lot of resources into local businesses and contractors,” Curtis said.

“That’s why we try so hard to get (the budget) out before Christmas, is so those contractors and businesses can work on the bids, and we have enough time for the business community, and residents to go through it.”

He went on to encourage the public, business community and anyone interested to review the budget and provide their input.

The budget documents are available at whitehorse.ca/budget

A public input session is set for the Nov. 26 council meeting, where anyone can address council on the plans. Written submissions can also be made to budgetinput@whitehorse.ca

A report on the input provided will come forward to council at its Dec. 3 meeting, a week before second and third readings are scheduled to be voted on by council members.