Council's blessing was given after a four-hour debate on such issues as cost, location, user safety and planned corporate sponsorship from a beer producer.

Cost of the outdoor ice rink on the Halifax Commons is to be factored in to the municipality's tax bill to property owners. The oval will be in the city's draft 2011-12 budget, which council is to discuss in April.

The vote Tuesday was not unanimous. Dartmouth-area councillors had concerns, saying the municipality has other fiscal priorities at this time.

But backers on council of the recreation project won out. 

Even though the oval project and its hefty price tag were not originally on the city’s slate for the upcoming year, staff told council there are ways to pay for the popular venue.

Phillip Townsend, HRM’s director of infrastructure and asset management, said during deliberations that they have some options in covering the cost, expected to be about $4.3 million for 2011-12.

The price tag for the following year will be about $1.4 million and $400,000 in annual operating costs.

He said the “unexpected” start-up costs of the oval can be dealt with over three years through a variety of actions, including accepting corporate and private funding.

“There is significant interest in financially supporting this,” he said. “Even without actively seeking support, almost $1 million has been offered to date.”

The director said there’s also about a $1-million surplus in this year’s operating budget that council could opt to tap into or they could choose to defer some other projects, such as the $1-million allotted for new sidewalks.

He said property taxes could also be hiked to cover the remaining costs.

“In an average household, at $282,000 of assessed value, that would amount to about $7 a year,” Townsend said.

Staff was looking for council to both approve the project, wildly popular with residents over the winter, as well as give staff approval to accept donations to help fund the ice rink.

Council was also to consider approving selling the naming rights to the oval.

The oval was build for the Games but open to the public from Christmas until March. Over that time, about 100,000 people took a spin around the 400-metre ice surface.

Corporate donors like Emera, GoodLife, Molsons Canada and others have promised financial support.

Coun. Gloria McCluskey (Dartmouth Centre) raised concerns about the cost of building the oval as well as operational expenses in upcoming years.

“We build, we build but we don’t stop to think about the operational costs,” said the councillor, who also raised an objection to Molson sponsoring a facility that would be used by children.

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said not only did the community support the oval by turning out in droves over the winter, they also sought out sponsorship to help offset the costs.

“A group (Save the Oval) got together because they saw a need for a place like the oval and they’ve raised over a million dollars,” she said.

Sloan said the venue brought much needed “social capital” to the downtown core.

Save the Oval held a small rally at city hall on Tuesday morning as councillors began their deliberations.