INNISFAIL – After a two-week break from the unveiling of the validation report for a proposed new aquatic centre Innisfail town council members and administration were told unequivocally by mayor Jean Barclay that finding funding is now the priority.
And the mayor just had a recent chat with Rebecca Schultz, the provincial minister of Municipal Affairs, to put an exclamation mark on that critically important point.
“I think my feeling is we don't want to get too deep into designing the building because that's not what we do,” Barclay told council members at the Agenda & Priorities meeting on April 3. “To me a bigger picture right now is how are we going to fund this thing and what's the strategy to get the funding in place, and we can worry about the design as we move forward.
“We can move all sorts of rooms and everything else around, but if we don't have the money to build them it doesn't really matter."
On April 3, Steven Kennedy, the town’s director of operations, presented council ideas as to where the town might want to go following the March 20 unveiling of the consultant’s validation report that advanced a comprehensive overview of what the new aquatic centre could look like, the amenities that can be offered, the preferred location by the Innisfail Twin Arena, and its overall cost of more than $28 million.
In his report to council Kennedy said the feedback he heard dealt with parking capacity, office space requirements versus vendor space, spacing between the arena and the new building, pool viewing area and operational savings associated with energy efficient upgrades.
Kennedy’s report also had a list of funding opportunities for the project, which included provincial and federal grants, a Red Deer County contribution, sponsorship and fundraising.
The provincial Community Facilities Enhancement Program that has a maximum allocation of $1 million was also listed.
Coun. Dale Dunham said he wanted an “extended opportunity” to go over the designs and what council members are already hearing from the community.
Coun. Gavin Bates said parking capacity is definitely an area that needed a closer look but he also wanted to know how the town was going to figure out the levels of funding required to move forward with the project, noting increased taxation was not the answer.
Barclay made it clear the priority had to be finding the money first, and then deal with other issues of concern.
The mayor was in Edmonton from March 29 to 31 to attend the Alberta Municipalities’ President’s Summit on the Future of Municipal Government, and Spring Municipal Leaders’ Caucus.
It was here she and other council members, along with CAO Todd Becker, had a 15-minute sit down meeting with Schultz.
The need for potential provincial funding opportunities for the aquatic centre project, which could one day morph into a full multiplex, was explored with Schultz.
“We had a meeting with minister Schultz and her team and told her we were wanting to build a new aquatic centre, that we have to build the aquatic centre at some point, and it's impossible to do without other levels of government helping us in that endeavour,” Barclay told the Albertan last week.
“The conversation was very pleasant and she (Schultz) seemed to understand. It’s really about communities our size. How do you fund this type of facility?
“The costs have escalated so much and they're so important to communities. It is impossible for us to do this by ourself.”
As for the Kennedy’s April 3 report, a motion was passed to accept it as information.
Administration will report back to council at a future date with different project funding scenarios.
