THUNDER BAY — Despite new calls to pump the brakes, including a deputation from a past mayoral candidate, Thunder Bay city council voted to ratify its earlier decision to move ahead with the proposed $42 million indoor turf facility.
“I can appreciate many around the table who feel we have spent enough time on this and it’s time to move on,” said Coun. Mark Bentz. “What I have learned in the past week is many in the community want to have input on this.”
Bentz was one of three around the council table Monday night to vote against ratifying last week’s decision to approve requests for proposals to build the indoor turf facility.
Coun. Rajni Agarwal joined Bentz last week in opposing the original motion and Coun. Albert Aiello, who was not present last week, added his voice to calls for deferring ratification of the decision.
Aiello said council was in favour of the facility in the past but then had ‘sticker shock’ when it realized the price and denied a tender for $39 million.
“I’m really fearful we are heading down the same path,” Aiello said, adding he is also concerned about operating and staffing costs to run the facility.
The transition to a new city manager in the coming weeks also raised concerns for Aiello, who said it is unfair for council to drop a project of this magnitude on his lap right from the start.
“As I’m thinking, the fact we have a new city manager starting, maybe we need some fresh eyes to look at this,” he said. “It may do nothing, I don’t know. But just to drop this, welcome to the job, we are going to stick you with a $52-million bill doesn’t seem fair to me.”
Agarwal agreed, saying she would like to hear the new city manager’s thoughts on this project.
“We need to involve our new city manager,” she said. “He is going to be the new leader. We should look at a way we can include him and involve him, in fairness.”
Others on council were less concerned about the role the new city manager should take in this decision.
“We often get accused of letting administration take the lead and deferring to them,” said Coun. Shelby Ch’ng.
“I would be very hesitant to take a rightful decision of council and pass it off to someone I haven’t met. I don’t think he’s spent 48 hours in Thunder Bay, so what kind of insight would he have on a decision council has taken years to come to?”
Prior to last night's discussion to ratify the decision, council received a deputation from past mayoral candidate Shane Judge, who raised several concerns regarding the project, including a lack of investment from the private sector.
“The majority of property taxpayers in the city are going to have to fit the bill. This is unacceptable. If you don’t believe me, hold a plebiscite,” Judge said. “There is another way to get this facility built, it is by partnering with the private sector.”
Judge called the current plan to build the facility as it stands is to ‘cheat the taxpayers,’ and he suggested if the city were to put up $10 million for site preparation, it would open up private sector interest to build and operate the facility.
“Most of the homework has been done,” he said. “We just have to have a tipping point where it makes sense for the private sector to step up.”
Coun. Brian Hamilton asked city administration if such partnerships are still available as part of the request for proposal phase.
Hamilton was told that the RFP process and design and build team is like a partnership, but financing is a separate issue. Administration continues to look for federal, provincial, and outside funding.
City manager Norm Gale responded to Bentz’s question about whether or not council ever directed city administration to go out and seek such partnerships by saying: “I think the answer to that is no, not specifically.
“To specifically say, go get a partner, I don’t recall that ever happening. But we were welcome to partnerships and we didn’t see any partnerships that would be mutually beneficial to the taxpayer or private sector.”
During discussion to ratify the RFP decision, Hamilton advised those around the council table that they cannot say yes to the project but no the finance.
“There is no project without the finance,” he said. “I believe this is the most financially responsible option that we have. When you are talking about operating a facility of this calibre, reliability is critically important. If you say yes to the facility but no the finance, you are saying you want to go to an air support structure or a bubble.”
Hamilton added the indoor turf facility will be a service upgrade for more than 6,000 users in the city and it may require council saying no to other projects in the coming years.
“It means making sacrifices and making a choice,” he said. “We could do 15 other projects or we could do this one. If you want to do this one, I think it’s important to say no to other projects that may be near and dear to you and your constituents.”
Bentz proposed an amendment to the ratification vote to defer the decision to the next scheduled city council meeting on June 24.
He cited numerous ward meetings set to take place in the coming weeks that could provide members of the public an opportunity to express their support or opposition to the indoor turf facility directly to their member of council.
“On an item of this level of community engagement, remember we are trying to build community engagement, I am asking council to defer this decision,” he said. “It will just give the community some time to absorb this information and will give us the opportunity to make the best decision.”
The amendment to defer the decision was defeated with Mayor Ken Boshcoff, Agarwal, Bentz, and Aiello voting to defer and councillors Ch’ng, Hamilton, Kristen Oliver, Kasey Etreni, Andrew Foulds, Trevor Giertuga, Dominic Pasqualino, Michael Zussino, and Greg Johnson voting against.
The original motion to ratify last week’s decision on approving the request for proposals passed with Bentz, Ararwal, and Aiello voting against.
