BANFF – A $1.2 million plan to breathe new life into a heritage building at the Old Banff Cemetery this year has been postponed.
The plan to turn the 1905 Banff power substation into a columbarium – a place where funeral urns containing cremated human remains are stored – has been pushed back to 2021 or beyond to help the Town of Banff with cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials say this is part of the $14 million in cuts to Banff’s $47.8 million capital budget this year, bringing 2020 capital spending to $33.9 million – and possibly more as the coronavirus crisis evolves.
“There is no pressing need to do this project at this time,” said Chris Hughes, the Town of Banff’s corporate services director.
“It is designed to be debt financed with cost recovery, but at this time, we felt that this is one we could move out into the future for cash flow reasons.”
The plan, which was approved in January as part of the 2020 budget, is to integrate a columbarium with the adjacent Old Banff Cemetery, which is a designated heritage property and final resting place of some of Banff’s most famous pioneers.
Included in the $1.2 million plan is a scattering garden, a memorial court with memorial wall and commemorative plaques, significant landscaping, major building restoration and columbarium niches inside and outside the heritage building.
With $118,000 already set aside in the capital budget back in 2017, administration planned to borrow the rest to fund the project up front. The sale of niches is expected to more than recoup the costs to repay the loan.
Fees for interior niches inside the power substation building are proposed for be $3,100, generating an estimated $620,000 in revenues. Exterior niches would cost $2,500 to bring in $675,000 in revenues. Projected revenues total $1,295,000.
Councillor Chip Olver said she would like to make sure the Town has enough shovel-ready capital projects still on the books in the event other levels of government provide stimulus funding for infrastructure projects post COVID-19.
“I want to flag this one in that we’ve stated that design-ready projects are the ones that are likely going to be targeted in infrastructure funding … and be prepared if circumstances change to pull this one back in order to qualify for grants,” she said.
In June 2015, the substation building was tagged in an act of vandalism, leading to renewed discussions with the Banff Heritage Corporation about restoration of the vacant building.
Originally used as a substation bringing power to Banff from Bankhead, the building was decommissioned and has remained vacant for the better part of 65 years, but still evokes its original character and the architectural details of its original use.
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