The status of a new $30 million ice arena and community centre scheduled to be built near the Steve Omischl Sports Complex may be up in the air now due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The city awarded the engineering and design project through a joint venture between MJMA Architects in Toronto and North Bay’s Mitchell Jensen Architects, back in September of 2019.
"Once the pandemic restrictions have been lifted, Council will review the city's financial decision and decide when phase three will begin," said Coun. Johanne Brousseau, Chair of Council's Community Services Committee.
"With the financial impact of COVID-19 we all need to be patient. At this moment we need to stay focussed on managing the situation with the least negative impact on our city. Staff is doing a tremendous job with that."
See related: New community centre and arena to cost between $30 to $32.5 million
Phase three of the process was expected to begin in June with shovels potentially in the ground by the fall of 2020.
"Council will have to make the right decision at the appropriate time looking at the data that will be given to us which would be the current financial statements once we get out of this," said Brousseau.
"There is no point predicting right now because everything changes all the time. Every week we get new directions from either provincial or federal. Right now we are just focussing on dealing with this pandemic. Once we come out of that we will decide when phase three will start."
She says the risk is always there and it is about minimizing risk and making the right decisions.
"We need to ride out this storm and along with staff figure out where we are at and then make responsible decisions after that," she said.
