The Cairns Entertainment Precinct has secured almost a third of all capital works spending in the region with $46 million out of a total of $151.7 million being poured in to the project, while $490,000 has been allocated to implementing the Port Douglas Waterfront Master Plan.

Funds have also been set aside to commence the Port Douglas Reservoir Design and Construction Project which will investigate additional water resources in the area which may include a possible reservoir location in Mowbray or Craiglie.

The Council has produced a deficit budget of $4.8 million for the 2011/12 financial year with a two-year outlook to get back into the black.

Mayor Val Schier said that internal spending was targeted, and that forward planning would deliver a "balanced budget" by 2013/14.

“While significant cut backs have been made within all departments, costs keep increasing – it costs more to do the same job now than it did 12 months ago.

“Balancing high unemployment and struggling businesses against a need to keep our programs on track, provide services that the community wants, and to plan for the future, Council decided that a deficit budget was the responsible choice.

“We are confident that this year’s deficit can be overturned in the next couple of years, with the 10-year outlook taking us into a significant surplus.”

Division 10 councillor Julia Leu echoed the Mayor's sentiments that cuts in spending won't impact on service delivery.

"Really what we're hoping (is that) most of the cut backs are unlikely to be really visible to the general public.

"Every department (within Council) has on at least three or four occassions had to come back with savings, so overall there has been $20 million in savings identified."

Cr Leu said that the region was still feeling the effects of the Global Financial Crisis that has hurt the tourism reliant economy.

"We certainly understand the community is going through a difficult time at the moment and we're only very very slowly recovering from the Global Financial Crisis.

"We know that we've got high unemployment and we know people are doing things tough, we've also got struggling businesses and we know that in Port and across Douglas."

She said that the $298 million operational budget has been impacted by a reduction in developer contributions, lower than normal population growth, and ongoing costs associated with Cyclone Yasi.

Other project to receive funding in Division 10 (excluding water and waste):

$490,000 Implementing the Port Douglas Waterfront Master Plan
$290,000 Scoping and repair of Sugar Wharf
$190,000 New pound at Mossman
$210,000 Lighting for Port Douglas Sports Complex
$500,000 Road improvements Cape Tribulation to Bloomfield Rd, Woobadda Creek
$430,000 Tourism Port Douglas and Daintree 
$940,000 Clifton Rd reconstruction
$690,000 Library stock purchase
$490,000 Street lighting improvement