THUNDER BAY -- The city will consider its options when it comes to the proposed event centre.
With a letter of intent with Thunder Bay Live set to expire at the end of the month and a letter from Infrastructure Canada saying the plan could qualify for federal gas tax funding with Lakehead University as the event centre's main tenant, city council voted Monday to have administration keep moving with recommendations.
Those recommendations include a final architectural design, construction, project management, facilities and operations programming and a revised business plan. Council also voted to have the project head back out for open bidding and look into a partnership with the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium.
The city is expected to see around $32 million in federal gas tax funding over the next five years. A letter dated July 2 from Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel stated that money could be used for the project but only if amateur teams are using the event centre. If a professional team moves in, the city wouldn't be eligible for gas tax funding until the money already spent was paid back.
Negotiations will begin with Lakehead University, which would use the centre for hockey and other athletics, but the city still needs more than 170 additional events to make the centre work, which is why city manager Tim Commisso said looking at all options for other partnerships as well.
Coun. Rebecca Johnson said she's glad the city is exploring its options but doesn't want to see a report on the event centre until there's something to report on. The event centre just stirs up controversy.
"We're not really moving ahead with this," she said. "Have the report when we're ready to go."
Council also heard that so far the project has cost nearly $4 million, $1.6 million of that for the schematic design. It will take up to $6.5 million more to see that design complete. It could also see the seat-count drop from 5,700 to 5,200.
