Squamish council has approved about $14 million worth of borrowing for various municipal projects throughout town.
Elected officials voted unanimously in favour of this motion on June 16.
As a result, the total debt will rise to $38 million in 2020, said Heather Boxrud, the municipality's chief financial officer.
It will increase the total debt servicing by $1.6 million per year.
As a result, this year, the total debt servicing will be $4.8 million.
That's about 9% of tax revenue in 2020, which is within the province-mandated limit requiring that debt servicing is capped at 25% of tax revenue in a year.
Debt servicing refers to the money required to pay back interest and principal on a debt for a particular period.
The spending for these loans was approved by council as a result of the budget earlier this year and has been given the green light by the province's inspector of municipalities, Boxrud said.
The loans will cover the following:
Fire hall seismic upgrade and bridge replacement — $681,887
Facilities, office systems and fire fleet — $2.96 million
Peninsula Main Road capital works — $1.65 million
Water meters — $701,382
Watermain replacements — $322,840
Dike upgrade design work, acquisition and capital works — $777,763
Third Avenue pond remediation — $580,808
District-wide software upgrades — $1.43 million
Landfill vertical expansion — $4.83 million
The landfill no longer requires work, but it was paid for using money from District reserves. The borrowed money will be used to replenish those reserves now that the work is completed.
In a separate motion, council also voted unanimously to maintain a $2-million line of credit that it has with Scotiabank.
