Today, City Council approved an additional $1.6 million to complete the expansion of the Centennial Civic Centre.

The project now has a guaranteed price of $12.6 million. There's also new funding for the replacement of the ice plant at a cost of $666,000 - bringing the expansion to a total of about $13.3 million.

Councillor, Jerod Schafer, helped negotiate this final deal and was happy to finally reach this guaranteed price.

Dean Robson, Director of Recreation and Parks, says items removed from the plans include the elevator and sloped roof at the future curling rink among other things including unnecessary metals and materials.

All councillors were in favour of the spending increase, except John Wall who maintained his position that the curling portion of the expansion didn't have the city buy in.

Construction crews should start in October, with the completion date set for near Christmas 2007.