Summerside's latest budgets put cash into 'planning for growth,' with major investments

Thinh Nguyen · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 12, 2025 12:48 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

The City of Summerside has released its 2025-26 superior and operational budgets, including $29.1 cardinal worthy of investment in the community.

With the taxable Planning for Growth, the fund gives precedence to infrastructure improvements, economical development and semipermanent sustainability, the municipality said successful a quality release.

P.E.I.'s second-biggest metropolis is projecting a balanced budget, with full revenues and expenses of $76.7 million, which includes the cognition of city-owned utilities.

Capital spending has accrued importantly from past year's $71.2 million, with the biggest summation — $11 cardinal — going toward the city's East-West Housing Corridor project. 

The task volition yet link Water Street East with Ryan Street in the city's northbound end. Officials person said the improvement volition easiness traffic and unfastened up capable onshore for developers to physique up to 2,000 caller lodging units.

Other large infrastructure investments include:

• $3.7 cardinal for h2o strategy upgrades
• $1.4 cardinal for thoroughfare resurfacing
• $404,000 for occurrence and constabulary instrumentality upgrades
• $130,000 for downtown revitalization and nationalist creation initiatives
• $762,000 for extortion and rooftop aerial handling strategy astatine City Hall
• $291,000 for sidewalk operation and replacement  
• $355,000 for boardwalk remediation

The fund is supported by cardinal gross sources, including $12.7 cardinal from authorities transfers, $12.1 cardinal from spot taxes and $3.7 cardinal from upwind vigor sales.

Summerside councillors volition ballot connected the fund astatine a assembly gathering connected March 27.

Electricity, water rates up; taxes unchanged

While spot taxation rates volition stay the same, the combined complaint for h2o and sewer services volition summation by astir 5.5 per cent, from $76.32 past twelvemonth to $80.75.

Electricity rates person besides gone up successful enactment with an summation successful Maritime Electric rates that took effect March 1. Domestic work has a $24.57 monthly work complaint and vigor rates of $0.1723 per kWh for the archetypal 2000 kWh and $0.1375 per kWh for the remainder.

Investment successful Summerside Electric

Meanwhile, the city continues to reinvest successful its ain electrical utility, which generates astir $31.6 million successful revenue.

The Summerside grid volition spot a $4.6 cardinal concern to heighten safety, information and reliability, arsenic good arsenic to guarantee a sustainable and dependable powerfulness proviso for residents and businesses, the quality merchandise said.

The city's powerfulness supply faced a bid of challenges past period pursuing a nonaccomplishment astatine Maritime Electric's Sherbrooke substation. While the metropolis generates astir 60 per cent of its energy done renewable sources similar star and wind, it depends connected Maritime Electric's transmission grid to person the powerfulness Summerside Eletric buys from New Brunswick Power.

A mobile transformer brought successful from Newfoundland was installed to stabilize the system, but the metropolis is calling for a imperishable solution from Maritime Electric.