Iqaluit’s refinancing deal with RBC to save millions on pool loans

The City of Iqaluit expects to save about $200,000 a year over the next 20 years because of a debt refinancing agreement for the aquatic centre negotiated with the Royal Bank of Canada. (FILE PHOTO)

Only a few days after the grand opening of its new aquatic centre, the City of Iqaluit announced it has potentially saved millions of dollars over 20 years, following a refinancing of its loans for the $40.6 million facility.

According to a statement released by the city Jan. 30, Iqaluit will save about $4 million over 20 years, thanks to a new $20.9 million financing agreement with the Royal Bank of Canada.

“The new long-term financing agreement with the Royal Bank will provide $200,000 a year in cost savings for the city,” the city said.

“This new agreement will result in significant cost-savings as well as a reduced overall financial debt to the centre,” Iqaluit’s chief administrative officer, Muhamud Hassan, is quoted as saying in the release.

The latest refinancing is just one in a series of moves by the city during the design and construction phases of the aquatic centre.

In 2012, the City of Iqaluit held a referendum among ratepayers where people who pay property taxes voted in favour of allowing city administrators to seek up to $40 million in loans to finance the project.

In 2014, city staff secured a $26.2 million dollar loan from the Bank of Montreal, with a fixed interest rate of 5.4 per cent over 22 years.

That was accompanied by a smaller, $7.5 million dollar loan from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, at 4.25 per cent over 20 years.

And the city raised over $300,000 from the community thanks to a REACH fundraiser that began in 2014, but the campaign was well short of its $3 million objective.

In early 2016, the Government of Nunavut announced it would divert $4 million to the aquatic centre from the $25 million available to it from the federal government’s New Building Canada Small Communities Fund.

During a media tour held on the day of the aquatic centre’s public opening, Iqaluit Deputy Mayor Romeyn Stevenson said the project was completed $500,000 under budget, for a total of roughly $40.1 million.