The city’s proposed Community and Recreation Centre project remains on the committee file at Council.
This after a lengthy staff overview of the project, then two hours of councillor questions involving the site, the design, the consultation process and the financials of the project.
“Council members still have a lot of questions regarding the project,” says Councillor Justine Mallah, Community Services Committee Chair. “Because it’s a new council, I think it’s really important for all of us to have as much information that we need to make the most informed decision.”
Mallah says there are some specific answers she’s looking to staff for.
“I think having that business plan, having a bit more information around maintenance and upkeep,” she says. “The main concerns I heard when on the doors during the election period is how we’re going to pay for it. I know there are strong concerns about having a significant property tax increase.”
Some of the discussion focused on the $25.7 million in federal funding from the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program.
“It is very site specific to the Omischl (Sports Complex),” offered Mayor Peter Chirico during a point of clarification. “I did speak with MP Anthony Rota and the likelihood of this funding being available if it is moved is very low. Extremely low.”
Chirico says they’d have to go back into the queue and additional funding under that program has not been announced.
MJMA is half of the project’s architect team with Mitchell Jensen Architects of North Bay.
Marc Downing, principal at MJMA, says the biggest risk with any delay is that funding.
“What we really hope, from our perspective, is that we can take advantage of the timelines we’ve got in place and get that funding in place,” he says. “That really does mean in the ground in spring. Speaking frankly it would mean that any design adjustments we would make would probably need to be minor.”
Council doesn’t have any more scheduled meetings until the new year but Mallah says follow-up meetings can be scheduled accordingly.
