THUNDER BAY -- The blueprint that promises a generation of local recreation infrastructure has been set in motion.
City council passed the recreation and facilities master plan one vote short of unanimously at its first meeting of 2017 on Monday.
The plan for municipal facilities includes twinning ice pads at the Port Arthur and Delaney arenas while re-purposing or closing the Neebing Memorial Arena and others. It aspires to close the century-old Dease Pool and erect a series of outdoor splash pads in lieu of new outdoor pools.
It holds implications for increasing tennis, pickle ball and soccer facilities while divesting from ball diamonds. It also suggests building municipally-run gymnasiums onto the Canada Games Complex and Churchill Pool sites.
City corporate projects manager Lou Morrow said administration will recommend council focus on inexpensive, "low-hanging fruit" in the 2017 budget rather than infrastructure dollars. That will include such steps as creating a new management structure for neighbourhood community centres and conducting further feasibility studies.
"We have community backing, we have council backing, administration is on board, we have an implementation plan and a schedule and we know what needs to be done," Morrow said.
"It's not going to be knee-jerk, 'chase-this-or-chase-that,' shotgun approach. It's going to be a planned implementation and I think that's what we need to do."
Sierra Planning and Management director Jonathan Hack was the report's principal author. While the federal and provincial governments have expressed their priorities in the near future will not include these types of investments, Hack urged the plan's skeptics to consider its implementation will unfold over the next 12 to 15 years.
"Even if capital dollars don't flow as easily as recreation advocates would like, the strategy is in place and I think we should all be very happy about that," he said.
Northwood Coun. Shelby Ch'ng expressed confidence in the consultation process and demographic study that produced the plan. She argued it will lend purpose to planning as the city considers its future for residents and the potential of sports tourism.
"I fully understand, everybody wants to talk numbers and how are we going to pay for this pool and all the other things but at the end of the day, these are the guiding principles that we're going to use to set aside the money and set aside the plan and as we gnaw things off, we can use this as our checkbox," Ch'ng said.
"So as much as we are concerned about the money, we have something to move forward from."
Neebing Coun. Linda Rydholm cast the lone dissenting vote. She argued no more money ought to be spent on consultants until municipal leaders can work out a reasonable plan with senior levels of government, whose priorities are currently transit, housing and climate change adaptation.
"There are people out there who really are hurting in different ways and i just can't see putting this as a priority," Rydholm said.
Hack will return to council with his Chapples master plan supplementary in late March or early April.
