THUNDER BAY -- City council continues to be at odds on whether to try and proceed with the event centre.
Coun. Iain Angus agrees with mayor Keith Hobbs that there's no harm in getting city administration to look at other options for the project, including using the Lakehead Thunderwolves as an anchor tenant or building a stand-alone arena.
"I think its very prudent and responsible for us not just to give up but to see what options if any are available to us," he said.
"We've invested a lot of time and a lot of dollars in getting to this point and I think it would be wise of use to continue on the path just to see what works for this community."
That includes the city's $23 million Renew Thunder Bay fund. That money does collect interest but there's a real danger that inflation would eat into anything growth should the city wait too long to replace the Fort William Gardens Angus said.
But Coun. Rebecca Johnson said there's another danger in that once that money is spent, it's gone forever.
"I think what we need right now is to just stop everything, really stop everything and take a look at where we're going as a community," Johnson said.
With the city developing a new strategic plan, it's the perfect time to ask the community where it would like to see the money spent Johnson said.
Both councillors agree though that Renew Thunder Bay should be used how it was originally intended, funding a strategic capital project.
"It was for major capital investment and I still think that's what we should be looking at," Johnson said.
That would rule out things like roads and other infrastructure, things that Angus said there are already other funding sources available to tap into. Contractors in the city are already having a hard time keeping up with infrastructure spending without injecting another $23 million into the community.
"We're at our capacity as a community to rebuild our roads, to fix our roads. The contractors just aren't there, the workforce is just not there to do anymore than we're already doing," Angus said. "So let's not kid ourselves into thinking that we could just double the amount of road reconstruction each year. We just don't have the resources to do that."
