People living in Nanaimo voted against the city borrowing up to $80-million to build an events centre in a referendum on Saturday.
Preliminary results showed 80 per cent of voters did not support the City of Nanaimo adopting a Loan Authorization Bylaw, which would authorize council to borrow tens of millions of dollars.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. throughout the city on Saturday and the results were announced shortly afterwards.
According to the City of Nanaimo website, voter turnout was 36.2 per cent of the registered voters.
Nanaimo’s mayor says council has to determine what the next steps will be.
“We certainly want to have a conversation with the community to determine why they voted the way they did,” Bill McKay said.
Residents can learn more about the preliminary results at Monday night’s special council meeting at 7 p.m. at the Shaw Auditorium in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre.
The official results will be announced on Mar. 15.
For more information on the referendum, go to the City of Nanaimo’s website.
