THUNDER BAY -- A senior director at Thunder Bay Live says his organization is ready to adapt should the city’s proposed event centre plan have to be downsized.
Former NHL coach Gary Green said nothing’s changed at this point from their perspective.
“Our consortium is committed to seeing this project through in Thunder Bay, in whatever form it ends up taking, and yes, we are well-equipped to work quickly to adapt, if necessary,” Green said, reached Thursday via email.
Green’s group includes True North Sports and Entertainment, owners of the Winnipeg Jets, who have said they plan to move their American Hockey League franchise from St. John’s, N.L. to Thunder Bay should an arena be constructed.
Earlier in the day Mayor Keith Hobbs acknowledged the city might have to get creative in seeking federal funding, having been told by Conservative Kenora MP Greg Rickford that the $114-million project would not be eligible under the Building Canada Fund.
Hobbs, who is meeting face-to-face with Rickford on Sunday, said the MP told him there are other funding avenues that might be available to help cover a portion of the cost of the project.
Hobbs said it could mean scaling back the event centre from 5,700 seats to 5,200, eliminating or lessening the convention centre space and cutting the cost to $80 million to $85 million.
This news did not sit well with at least one member of council.
At-large Coun. Rebecca Johnson said she would absolutely not support a downsized event centre.
“I’m not going to support a downsizing of the proposal,” Johnson said, adding city officials have been working on this plan for close to eight years.
“I do not feel at this time that this is an area we even need to be discussing downsizing, to be quite honest with you. The community, right or wrong has agreed that we should have an event centre. Location is a whole other matter, but if we’re going to have an event centre, then we go with what is planned, which is 5,700 seats and a conference centre attached to that.”
Anything else is not acceptable and not what was sold to the community, she said.
Other councillors chose a wait-and-see approach.
Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds says his support has always been contingent on support from other levels of government.
“However, at this point it is difficult to speculate on the future, given we haven’t formally hear from other orders of government,” Foulds said via email. “I am still hopeful that the provincial and federal governments see the value in this.”
At-large Coun. Larry Hebert says he still wants the public to have a say in whether or not to go forward.
“But I want to see what get reported to us next week before I comment,” Hebert said.
McIntyre Coun. Trevor Giertuga said any speculation at this time is “premature.”
