The City of Estevan sent out a release Thursday afternoon detailing some of the items they think people should know about their Downtown Revitalization project.

The project received $7.75 million from the federal government, which was accepted at Monday night's city council meeting. The council also budgeted $1.5 million to contribute to the project.

The city laid out five points in their release:

  1. The City of Estevan received approval for $7.75 million through the Canada Coal Transition Initiative Infrastructure Fund (federal government-funded program, administered through PrairiesCan). This funding was allocated for this project specifically, under their guidelines. The City of Estevan is not free to choose how to spend these funds. If the city chose to turn down this opportunity, these allocated funds would be awarded to an alternate community for their project.

    2. The $1.5 million that the City of Estevan is required to contribute is to address the underground infrastructure that will be required in the future to be replaced regardless of the downtown revitalization project. This $1.5 million spent will not be reflected in a tax increase, but rather reallocation of debt deduction funds for one year.

    3. There will be no increase to property taxes or utility billing as a result of this project. The timeline for the Downtown Revitalization construction is based on our warm-weather construction season, providing us the opportunity to complete the project before the next cold weather season affects the project. The funding for the project will not be rescinded by a certain deadline in the 2024 season and would under no circumstances cause a 20% tax increase.

    4. From November of 2021 to April of 2022, there were 6 opportunities for public engagement. 3 open houses, 3 public surveys.

    5.  All businesses have agreed to a plan to strive to minimize any interruptions to their day to day business operations through construction.