The arena saga continues in North Bay with a temporary wrench thrown into the process for good measure.
With a 9-2 majority in favour of moving the controversial project along, the path forward for a proposed twin pad arena should be officially cleared during a special meeting of North Bay City Council on Thursday at 5 p.m. Council will address a last-gasp notice of reconsideration from Coun. Jamie Lowery which appears to be a long shot to reverse the Tuesday evening decision.
Lowery and Coun. Sara Inch voted against the staff recommendation to authorize the issuing of a request for proposal to contractors with a project target budget of $60 million that would employ a progressive design-build. The project is scheduled to "achieve substantial construction completion in 2025 and meet the Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) Design Certification requirements of the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) Program funding contribution agreement between the City and the Government of Canada."
See related: City ready to go to market on new arena with $60M target
It's no secret in municipal circles Lowery and Inch have been working behind the scenes to clarify the status of the West Ferris Centennial Community Arena and to possibly renovate or repurpose the building and grounds. It also does not take a trained eye to notice the friction between the two maverick councillors and Mayor Peter Chirico — and by extension, other council members.
During a Jan. 31 committee meeting, Lowery responded to BayToday's question about a rift around the council table with, "It looks like at least nine are on the same page."
See: West Ferris Arena motion shows cracks in the ice at council
Lowery led the evening's discussion. "As everyone knows, I have some concerns about this project. At the ad hoc committee, we agreed that $52 million was the upset limit. I know we've got some other information that says that won't be enough.
"The other thing that concerns me is we're using absolutely every lever we have at our disposal to fund this project, whether it be from the OLG [casino revenue] or MAT [Municipal Accommodation Tax] or gas tax, we're using absolutely everything, which is a concern. The other part of this is we're doing it ahead of our operating and capital budget process — so we don't know where we are and to put something of this magnitude on the table is problematic, as far as I'm concerned."
In closing, Lowery restated his opposition to the project and requested a recorded vote. He added, "I still believe the answer to this is to rejuvenate West Ferris [Arena] to breathe new life into that area."
"I would love to support this arena and this council," shared Inch, "however, I feel that, possibly, we are extending ourselves farther than we can support ourselves."
Later, Inch added, "The data that we're looking at from the MURF study is over 10 years old ... I understand we would like to build a building. At one point in time, people used to build cathedrals. Possibly, this arena is like a modern-day cathedral. So, we can move forward, and I can be supportive of this. Or, we can look around and we can acknowledge we have value and buildings we can invest in and repurpose. We can reflect on the changing demographics in our community and we can see that, possibly, ice sports are not as popular as they once were."
Coun. Chris Mayne pledged his support and called the night's events "a very important step in advancing our plans for a community centre that have been ongoing for eight-plus years now. I'm optimistic like many others on council that we'll get our first responses of interest in about two months. Hopefully, there will be proposals close to the $60-million [target budget] we're hoping for but I'm prepared to be very flexible — I supported this project at $72 million — anything we can do that's less than that certainly is a bonus. First and foremost, we need to get this process back on track."
Coun. Tanya Vrebosch wished the council had gone ahead with the previous design and budget, fearing the community would now be receiving a less functional community centre at a higher price. "We need to move forward with something ... and hearing the reports and the conversations for years and years, we know that West Ferris [Arena] is not an option and I'm OK with that."
Vrebosch, who previously served as the budget chief stressed it was financially responsible to follow the recommendations of the financial staff. "We have been talking about this and budgeting for it for years. We know how to pay for it, we know what to do in the budget when it comes. It's a conversation about whether we want to or not. To say we have to wait until the budget comes — we need to know a price, we need to know what it's going to cost so it is prudent of us to have this go out."
"We're tired of the process. It's been so long," said Coun. Mark King in support of moving forward. King once headed the council's arena committee. "In 2017, we probably should have done it and got on with it. It would have saved $20 million, maybe $30 million but the council of the day didn't do it. We got tied up in some visions of grandeur."
Coun. Mac Bain noted both West Ferris and Pete Palangio arenas need to be replaced at some point. "We need to deal with it ... I'm not happy at $60 million. I'm definitely not happy. I'm looking forward to having some interest in this project and I'm really hoping that they come in a lot less than $60 million because I have concerns, as well, how we're going to fund this. Keep in mind, we have been putting money aside. We're not agreeing tonight to spend $60 million. We're looking at the project to move forward. You might not like the location. You might not like the design. You might not like what's built in it. But, we need to build something."
Coun. Gary Gardiner reminded his colleagues by continuing the revamped project at the Omischl Sports Complex, the geotechnical engineering, environmental, and traffic studies are transferable from the original project. "We're not starting from scratch," he said, "we're going to use them in the redesign."
"I understand the progressive design-build will provide us with the opportunity to have some off-ramps if there are any challenges down the road we need to face and find different solutions for," added Deputy Mayor Maggie Horsfield.
See related: Council moves new arena to next step — costs estimated at $60M+
The City of North Bay's financial department has prepared a new preliminary financing plan that "includes the $25.778 million in GICB funding from the Government of Canada, one-time dividends and funding from the Canada Community Building Fund, OLG revenues, PAYGO, Municipal Accommodation Tax, potential surplus from open and cancelled projects and Special Debt to finance the Project and inform the Target Budget to be included in the Project’s RFP for construction of the community and recreation centre."
In December 2023, council members learned a rebooted project would, according to a hired Colliers Project Leaders consultant, come with an estimated cost of at least $60 million. The plan is for the target budget of $60 million to cover the design and construction of a new community and recreation centre. In August 2023, a trident-shaped community and recreation centre project was shelved as bids to build ballooned to more than $70 million and overall cost neared $80 million.
After reviewing the information received from the Colliers report, the design and budgets of similar community centre projects and "current cost guides and construction indices," such as Statistics Canada Building construction price indexes, staff advises "it is necessary to include a budget target of $60 million to attract serious and broad market interest and participation in the RFP that will lead to the selection of a qualified proponent to undertake a Progressive Design Build of the project that meets the current expected functional program, Zero Carbon Building technical requirements and target schedule within the Target Budget."
