Another debate on the future of the city’s golf courses will come to council later this month.
The three courses were appraised at about $4.5 million in a 2006 report to city council, with another report a year later recommending Municipal Golf Course be sold if any courses were placed on the market.
Some councilors, like Coun. Rebecca Johnson, have raised the issue of selling one or all three courses after it was learned that taxpayers have bailed the courses out for more than $ 1million over the last eight years due to losses.
But Coun. Andrew Foulds said while he’s not a golfer, he sees the recreational benefit of having the courses, just as people use the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium or the Canada Games Complex.
“I don’t understand this attack on our recreational facilities,” Foulds said.
And given the amount of capital investments put into the courses, especially Strathcona in Foulds’ Current River Ward, there would be no value in selling any of the courses now.
“I think it would be frankly a waste of tax dollars after we’ve made such a significant investment in Strathcona to sell it off,” he said.
But the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge, where Municipal sits on nearly 94 acres of land given to the then town of Fort William by Paipoonge in 1907, could see a huge return if the course was turned into a commercial or residential development. Currently the city of Thunder Bay only pays taxes to Paipoonge for Municipal’s clubhouse.
Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis said her municipality could make a lot more if the golf course was something else. But ultimately it would be up to the city of Thunder Bay.
“It’s entirely out of our hands,” she said. ‘We’re kind of on the outside looking in.”
She also stressed that changing the land to other uses would take a long time due to zoning amendments and other provincial matters.
“It would have to go through quite a long process,” Kusterhuis said.
The consultant who is preparing the upcoming report for Thunder Bay city council has met with Oliver Paipoonge representatives to discuss possible uses for the course if it was sold.
The potential sale of the courses has been discussed in a closed session with city council. The report is expected Jan. 16.
