The city of Sarnia will be debt free in three years if no new bank loans are taken on.
Treasurer Jane Qi highlighted the achievement during her presentation to council on capital priorities Monday.
She said the current ten-year capital plan is fully funded and grants have been increased for the last two years.
But, Qi said significant projects are unfunded.
"The total unfunded capital projects for the next ten years is $140 million," said Qi. "The largest unfunded capital project is the multi-use recreational facility, which is $35 million."
She said it's important to maintain adequate reserves and ensure capital investment is directly linked with the reserve plan, otherwise council would have to consider borrowing funds to move forward with unfunded projects.
"The city will be debt free by 2026 without taking on any new bank loans," Qi said. "It will help to build up the city's reserves and reserve funds."
Mayor Mike Bradley said paying down the city's debt has been one of council's strengths for many years.
"I understand we need to look at some of those options, all of us have important projects," said Bradley. "But you need to have that strength to say no, and say this is what we need to do and this is something we'd like to do when we can afford to do it."
Bradley said people are always stunned when they find out Sarnia is almost debt free.
"When we get to that zero debt, we need as a council to recognize that we'd be one of the few communities in this country that is at zero debt and we did it the hard way. Mississauga always takes all of the credit, but they had development charges. We cut, we held the line and I think that's the important part."
Councillor Chrissy McRoberts said while she loves "being debt free" Sarnia's "assets have been neglected."
"Where do we meet that balance," McRoberts asked. "I want us to not be paying anything back with interest, but we've kind of let the community down as far as maintaining those assets."
Councillor Terry Burrell said what Sarnia spends, and has spent each year, on capital projects is "well within reason."