City councillors will decide Monday night if they want to borrow $10 million to pay off the balance of costs owing on the Benson Centre.
The city still owes a little more than $10.4 million on the $32-million facility that has become a hockey hot bed since opening in 2011.
City acting CAO Stephen Alexander and finance manager Maureen Adams are recommending that council take $420,000 from the interest created by the $25-million Progress Fund to pay down a small part of the existing Benson Centre balance.
The remaining $10 million would be borrowed and paid off under a variety of schemes council will hear about in greater detail Monday night.
"The current interest rate environment is very attractive for long-term borrowing and the city is in a very solid financial position to enter into a long-term financing agreement," reads a report to city council.
Should council give the go-ahead, city bean counters will begin contacting banks to secure a loan that would be paid back over 20 years.
Interest rate terms the city seeks are different, depending on the term agreed to on the loan. Terms of five, 10 and 15 years bring with them interest rates of 2.12, 2.73 and 3.13 respectively.
Currently, the Progress Fund earns a little more than $750,000 in interest annually. At Sept. 30, the balance in the Progress Fund consists of the principal amount of $25 million and $525,122 from investment income.
"Given the current low interest rate environment there would likely be an opportunity that the investment return on the Progress Fund could improve several years from now," says the city hall report being tabled Monday night.
The Progress Fund was created following the sale of Cornwall Electric. At the time, the city touted itself as being debt-free without the need for a loan.
