THUNDER BAY -- Three city councilors have put their names on record as opposing the Thunder Bay Event and Convention Centre, despite approving other infrastructure priorities.
Council came one vote short of unanimity in accepting administration’s $323-million list of infrastructure projects, including $250 million in "unfunded" priorities. The $115 million event centre accounts for nearly half the dollars on the unfunded priority list.
The list was written for senior levels of government as plans are drawn for economic stimulus packages and infrastrucutre funding rounds. In 2016, both the federal and provincial governments have publicly said there are no current programs that could fund the $115 million proposed event centre.
"This is a way of showing that some of us are not in favour," said Neebing Coun. Linda Rydholm, after asking for a notation next to her vote that would exclude the event centre from her support.
Northwood Coun. Shelby Ch'ng also put her dissent for the event centre on the record.
Coun. Frank Pullia asked to strike the event centre, the proposed $33 million waterfront art gallery and the second phase of waterfront development from his vote of support.
"As it stands right now, in its current form, I am just voicing my constituents' concerns that have been raised to me and my personal as well," Pullia said.
Mayor Keith Hobbs is keeping his faith in Ontario and Canada changing their tune on the event centre project.
"I still think the majority of this council will support the Thunder Bay Event and Convention Centre -- at some point, when we get funding from the province and the feds," Hobbs said.
City manager Norm Gale defended the three-quarters of priority infrastructure dollars being in the "unfunded" category by saying the city is hoping to “get ahead of the ball" in communicating its needs and anticipating future infrastructure plans.
"One of the things we've tried to do is ensure the projects met the criteria already iterated by the federal and provincial governments and what we think the future criteria will be," Gale said.
Coun. Larry Hebert cast the lone dissenting vote.
Even as Coun. Rebecca Johnson called the list a "leading document for strategic planning," she challenged administration for delivering the priorities without a priority order, which was a specific prescription of the city's federal representatives.
Gale coneded he recalled Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Patty Hajdu asking for the prioritized list but argued the list's complexity would make that task unfeasible.
"The challenge we found was, it's an enormous list. What you're seeing is just the top," Gale said.
"Also, having council go through an exercise of prioritizing these many projects would be, I would suggest, challenging."
Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds was surprised to see the Boulevard Lake dam on the "unfunded" list, seeing as though the city has put money aside to pay for its environmental assessment. Adminstration informed him "additional requirements" of the assessment are not funded.
"I'm very concerned the dam gets done. I'm very concerned about the cost of it," Foulds said.
"We have some money aside. We're clearly going to need more money. Not doing the dam can't be an option so we need to do good planning right now. I'm not satisfied. The dam is not done and it needs to get done."
