Capital Region Emergency Services Telecommunications (CREST), which provides emergency communications equipment to municipalities throughout Greater Victoria, is looking to build a new post-disaster headquarters in Langford.
The organization has several buildings, including an office on West Shore Parkway, a warehouse in Langford and the master site in the West Shore RCMP building. The aim is to consolidate those functions in one building to make the organization “disaster and seismically safe,” CREST general manager Gord Horth told Langford council on Monday. CREST has picked a parcel of land in the City Gates community on McCallum Road for the location.
The project budget is $16 million, all but $1 million of which will be funded through the Municipal Finance Authority, which helps municipalities fund projects by pooling together resources. Horth said the costs should be covered by the already approved annual levy increase of 2.9 per cent charged to the region’s municipalities.
Langford is one of 20 shareholders that are part of CREST. The go-ahead for the purchase and building construction needs to be approved by a two-thirds majority of shareholders.
If approved, Horth said, construction could start in early 2023 and would take around 18 months.
Langford council will make a final decision at a future council meeting on whether to support the project.
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