Financial matters  |  24 Jun 2019

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The Global Settlement, which will provide clarity on outstanding matters from the Crown and Council’s 2013 Cost Sharing Agreement, will be finalised in August.

The Settlement agreement, a collaboration between the Crown and the Council, will go public on 29 July. The public will then be given the opportunity to provide feedback at a special Council meeting on 6 August, before the Council makes a decision on finalising the agreement on 8 August.

The questions and answers below give more detail on the Agreement and its history.

Why is a global settlement needed?

An aerial shot of Christchurch taken from the Port Hills.

A Global Settlement between the Crown and the Council will resolve some of the issues in Christchurch left open in the Cost Sharing Agreement.

In 2013 the Council and the Crown signed a Cost Sharing Agreement (CSA) which outlined which earthquake recovery projects would be delivered, who would lead their development and who would fund them.

This agreement was important to enable the initial stages of project planning and project delivery for a number of the key recovery programmes, but left open some issues that would still need to be decided, such as what would happen to some of the projects when they had been delivered, and did not address some other issues.

It’s important that the Council and Crown can reach a full agreement, supporting the transition of regeneration back to local leadership, and allowing the remaining uncertainties to be resolved so that the city can continue to regenerate.

Why do the Global Settlement now?

Christchurch is firmly back on its feet after the upheaval of the earthquakes and the Council is ready to resume full responsibility for managing the city.

The unprecedented level of involvement the Crown has had in Christchurch since the earthquakes is no longer required and both the Crown and the Council believe it is time to ‘normalise’ their relationship.

The Global Settlement is an important step towards this.

What kind of things will the Global Settlement cover?

The Global Settlement will provide certainty on assets and regeneration matters such as decisions on long-term ownership of assets and project responsibilities.

Who has put the Global settlement together?

Senior Council and Crown officials have been negotiating the settlement for the past few months.

Negotiations are nearing the stage where the officials are ready to bring an agreement to the elected Council and Cabinet for their consideration.

Is there going to be any chance for the public to have their say?

Negotiations have taken into account what we’ve heard from people through The Long Term Plan and Annual Plan processes, and there will be an opportunity for people to make deputations before the settlement is finalised.

How does the Global Settlement relate to the $300m Christchurch Regeneration Acceleration Facility?

The Global Settlement builds upon the agreements reached by the Crown and the Council on how the $300 million Christchurch Regeneration Acceleration Facility will be spent.

The Government set up the Canterbury Regeneration Acceleration Facility last year to help delivery of important Christchurch projects.

It is intended that $220 million from the fund will go towards Canterbury’s multi-use arena, $40 million will go towards seed funding for the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor, and $40 million will go towards repairing roads and footpaths.

Those funding allocations are subject to satisfactory investment cases being prepared.