THUNDER BAY — No member of the public was told, but Thunder Bay's proposed indoor turf facility at Chapples Park was already out of the running for federal infrastructure funding last summer.
It was because of a decision by the Ontario government.
City administration and all city councillors knew this by August, the same month that council agreed to put the project to tender.
However there was never a public announcement.
The issue only surfaced last week when council voted against awarding the construction contract, leaving the project in limbo.
At that meeting, Mayor Bill Mauro sought to clarify the status of the city's application for nearly $22 million in funding from the federal government's Invest in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), saying "It's certainly not my understanding that that is in play for the community. I thought that ship had sailed a long time ago."
In reply, City Treasurer Linda Evans confirmed that the funding request was rejected in August, in a letter from Queen's Park that was marked "confidential".
Under an agreement with the federal government, Ontario got to approve all requests from municipalities for ICIP funding.
It's not clear why the province asked for confidentiality, but some members of council speculate that it wanted to wait until it could announce funding for a smaller infrastructure project in Thunder Bay which it did recommend for infrastructure funding.
In any case, the rejection letter was never released outside city hall, and never discussed in an open meeting of city council until last week.
Evans explained to TBNewswatch that after reviewing the letter on Monday, she determined she could reference it publicly "given it was the subject of an important decision that night."
She said the province did not include an explanation for its rejection of the project.
Mayor Bill Mauro – a proponent of the indoor turf facility – emphasized in an interview Wednesday that he had shared the rejection letter with all councillors right away.
"I knew the funding wasn't there, and I never for one second promoted this project with the possibility of there being federal funding," Mauro said.
Although the funding package the city eventually put together for the indoor turf facility included no ICIP money, the mayor noted that council agreed to use $7 million in federal gas tax money for the project, which is part of over $18 million in the city's reserves.
Council decided to earmark those reserves as well as $1.6 million in Municipal Accommodation Tax revenue, leaving the balance of the project cost to be covered by a $16.6 million debenture.
Despite the fact the contract has not been awarded, a council resolution to proceed with the indoor turf facility remains on the books.
