THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Public Library may yet have a branch in the Intercity Shopping Centre.
A modified proposal to open a new branch at Intercity — and close the existing County Fair branch — is set to go before council on April 28.
Red River ward Coun. Michael Zussino will be calling for an amendment of the library’s initial plan to establish a centralized location in Intercity Shopping Centre by proposing a new site in the mall, eventually terminating the library’s lease for the existing County Park Branch in County Fair Mall and maintaining the remaining city-owned branches: Waverley, Brodie and Mary J. L. Black.
“It's going to be a partnership where our contribution from the city is approximately 40 per cent and 60 per cent will be coming from other (funding) sources,” Zussino said. “So that is also way easier to stomach in terms of price tag.”
Zussino also sits on the board of the Thunder Bay Public Library.
In 2024, council members rejected a plan that would have seen a centralized branch in the former Lowe’s Home Improvement space in Intercity; city administration also didn’t support that plan. However, library CEO Richard Togman said, in the intervening months, they learned another space is likely to become available with Sport Chek expected to move into a different location within the mall, freeing up their existing site for the library to lease.
Togman said the library has the full support of mall officials, with them offering to pay about 25 per cent of the up-front estimated $5.5 million in capital costs for the renovations. The library and the city would split the remainder, with Togman saying he’d like to use money the city has already allocated for “library development,” but not yet spent, to help offset that cost.
He said it “potentially means about $700,000 in new costs to get a brand new 24,000 square-foot library branch right in the heart of our city.” That, Togman said, would mean a roughly 30 per cent increase in total space. Zussino’s motion calls for that balance to be paid for through the renew Thunder Bay reserve fund.
Zussino was one of the councillors who didn’t support the 2024 plan. He said this one makes much more sense.
“I think that there's not going to be an impact on the tax levy; operationally, it's not going to cost more — the library management has made that clear that, operationally, it's not going to cost more,” he said.
“So, I think that's a win. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to venture into this, and I'm excited about it.”
Closing the County Fair Mall branch would essentially trade one leased space for another, Togman said, with he and Zussino adding that the size and centralized location of the proposed Intercity Mall site, plus amenities like transit access and parking, also makes it a better option.
“The location at Intercity is really appealing for us because it's one of the most heavily trafficked areas in our city,” Togman said. “The mall already has captured a large audience of the people we're already trying to reach.”
“And so, for us to be able to have a presence there and already take advantage of the huge constellation of people that are there … it's really an ideal location,” he continued.
“I think it captures part of what we were hoping to achieve in the past model, which is having a library branch that really serves the whole community as a whole.”
He also said he doesn’t expect yearly operating costs to increase under this model, citing guarantees he said are in place from the mall that a lease with them would see costs set at fixed rates for 25 years, the library reallocating existing staff and perhaps deferring some other maintenance items.
“There's no big increase in library funding that we're asking of the city,” Togman said. “This is a cost-neutral model where we shift the lease costs from County Park to Intercity.”
Zussino’s notice of motion is set to be debated at city council proper rather than committee of the whole. That means it will need two thirds of council’s endorsement to pass, rather than just over 50 per cent.
He said the proposed new location makes it well worth pursuing.
“I think you have a space that you can make it your own, make it whatever you want it to do,” Zussino said. Twenty-four thousand square feet is an abundance of space, and it won't be a big reno because there's an existing tenant already in there.”
