The cost of the repairs done to the C.A. Nesbitt arena in January was only fully approved by City Council this month.

Council had approved the $22,000 quote at the end of January, but were recently was presented with an addition bill totalling over $11k.

Deputy Mayor Colleen Smook spoke to Arctic Radio News, and said that it’s

unclear why council didn’t get the full bill more than half a year ago, but that the work was necessary and needed to be done at the time.

When the contractor had arrived on site, Smook says that the City was told a temporary patch wouldn’t hold. Council then approved a resolution for the work to be done immediately, as hockey season was still in full swing and the Manitoba Winter Games were just around the corner.

Smook said that it’s not clear as to why the full bill wasn’t given to council at the time, but that when the resolution was before council earlier this month it had already been paid.

She added that the extra cost was due to overtime, freight, and materials not included in the original quote.