While Timmins council has approved the engineering designs for the proposed aquatics centre, there’s still no guarantee that the $48-million facility is going ahead.
Tuesday, consultant Perkins and Will presented the final design for the multi-use recreation facility to council. By having the designs approved, the city is "tender ready" if funding becomes available.
The building includes elements previously discussed such as an eight-lane competition pool, leisure pool and a family-friendly play zone. There is also a dryland section with multi-use and squash courts, and an indoor walking track.
The main lobby would be central and connect the existing Archie Dillon Sportsplex arena to the new facility.
“The path forward from here is, as council’s always stated throughout this entire process it was contingent on getting the funding required so we will continue to work with the upper levels of government to seek that funding,” said Mayor Steve Black after the meeting.
He noted that the previous funding program being discussed was for 40 per cent of the price to be covered by the federal government, with the provincial government and municipality each chipping in 30 per cent.
Provincially, however, the government changed before the criteria for the grant was in place. As such, Black said it’s not known if that program is continuing.
The city is trying to set up a meeting with the Minister of Infrastructure.
The purpose, he said, is so the government knows "we’ve done our due diligence on this one and that we’ve done all the work required to make sure that it’s shovel-ready and that when they get to the point that they talk recreation funding we’ll hope there’s enough to allow this project to move forward.”
Throughout the process there have been vocal supporters as well as opposition to the project.
One of the biggest worries is the rising cost.
Coun. Rick Dubeau explained his concern is how the project is growing from the shovel-ready $15-million facility that it started as.
“It’s not what you want, it’s what you can afford. We have a lot of wants, but there’s a lot of needs in this community that have to be addressed first,” said Dubeau.
The presentation also didn’t include the ongoing operating costs for the building.
Director of community and development services Mark Jensen said there was a cost analysis for the original concept, however that doesn’t reflect this facility.
“I have requested information from Markham, I’ve received it, it’s just a matter of time to go through to see what their operational costs are,” he said.
Because of the modern design, he is anticipating some costs improving. With more programmable space, he said if it’s promoted the city could get more revenue as well.
After the meeting, Black wouldn’t say if the project could be scaled back.
“That’s going to be a discussion for the council at the day when we get whatever funding is available through the upper levels of government, council will have to move forward on whether or not they want to move forward with the facility as it is. As well there will be a community fundraising aspect and hopefully some support from some of our corporate partners in the community as well when we get to that stage,” he said.
He’s hoping there will be a program supporting recreation infrastructure to access.
“If you can look at building a $48-million facility and all you have to contribute is $14.5 or $15 million, that would be a great deal for the City of Timmins and a great opportunity to have a state-of-the-art multi-use recreation facility,” he said.
It should be noted, however, that if the cost is broken down in a 40-30-30 split, the municipality’s share would be about $14.4 million. If the funding is only on the construction cost, which is $36 million, the municipality would be on the hook for its share of that as well as the $11.9 million in soft costs.
