City of Whitehorse prepares to start work on $32M operations building

The City of Whitehorse says it's preparing the site and the design for a new $32 million operations building that will house the city's vehicle maintenance bay and its transit buses.

The building will be constructed behind the Northwestel facility on Range Road.

Mayor Dan Curtis says the current operations building is a less-than-ideal setup.

"If you look in the back, it looks like a Jim Robb painting," said Curtis, referring to theramshackle buildingslovingly captured in the Yukon artist'spaintings.

"It's a bunch of buildings, the old Cassiar asbestos buildings, that are buildings that are kind of glued together.

"It's kind ofnon-conforming in the area and it's not very fair to our employees and for the people trying to do the great work they are doing with such an inefficient set up."

To lease or to own?

The project has yet to receive council approval.The city is mulling a lease and purchase agreement with the Yukon Government, which owns the eight-hectare parcel.

The lease would run for 30 years, with the option to purchase the land outright or to renew for another 30 years. The city would pay the territorial government one dollar per year for the site.

Access to the site would be via land owned by Northwestel. City staff have negotiated a land exchange agreement with Northwestelthat would provide access to the new building.

The federal government is contributing about $15 million towards the buildingthrough the Gas Tax Fund.

The City of Whitehorse is responsible for the rest of the budget.