City council in Thunder Bay, Ont., backs new indoor turf sports facility

A proposed new indoor turf sports facility in Thunder Bay, Ont., has taken a big step toward becoming a reality, but the projected cost to build it hasincreased.

At Monday's meeting, citycouncil voted to approve the project in principle. A ratification vote will take place July 22, and if that passes, it will clear the way for administration to beginsite preparation work at Chapples Park, and start finalizing the building's design.

However, council also narrowlyapproved five councillors in favour and four opposed an amendment to the resolution, which adds six indoor tennis courts to the building and increases the projected costs from about $30 million to more than $38 million.

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"It is certainly my view that if tennis was included in this first phase, as opposed to years down the road, we don't have to hire multiple consultants, we don't have to ... join buildings," said Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds, who tabled the tennis amendment.

"Although we do have to put more capital dollars in it now, down the roadwe don't have to hire all those other people again, and can potentially save some dollars in terms of economies of scale," he said.

The decision was praised by David McCallum, president of the Thunder Bay Community Tennis Centre. The centre has been pushing for indoor courts in the city. Currently, they operatenine outdoor courts, but there is nowhere to play tennis during the winter months, despite high demand.

"We were very happy," McCallum said of council's decision.He hadmade a deputation to council, asking for the inclusion of tennis courts, prior to Monday's vote.

Amendment a surprise

"Our goal [Monday] was to be considered for phase one," he said. "We feel that now's the time to build the facility with all user groups included, so we were very happy when they voted to include us in phase one."

Mayor Bill Mauro, however, said he was surprised by the amendment, and resulting vote.

Mauro said he hadtabled his own motion, calling for the formation of a subcommittee to deal with questions such aswhich other sports should be included, how financing would work, and what type of model the facility should operate under.

Mauro said the tennis question did not need to be answered Monday; the only immediately-pressingquestions where those of location, whether the building would be a solid structureor air-supported dome council approved the former, as per a recommendation by administration and the actual size of the turf field inside.

"Really, in my mind, I thought it was teed up well," Mauro said Tuesday. "I thought it was more appropriate that [the question of including tennis] be considered by the subcommittee that I wanted to set up."

Cost of tennis courts questioned

Mauro said he is supportive ofincluding tennis inside the facility,but "didn't think that last night at the last minute" was the best approach, adding that he would want more information before making a final decision.

Questions were also raised over the projected costs of adding tennis courts to the building.

"It seems exceedingly high," Maurosaid of Monday's cost projections. "I have some questions to administration about that dollar figure."

McCallum said research by the tennis centre hasput the price of building an air-supported facility,containing six indoor tennis courts, atbetween $5 million and $8 million.

Thehigher number included in the Monday's resolutionhad come from city administration, McCallum said.

"We'd like to have that taken a look at from the city management side," he said.

The added costs, whatever they end up being, werea concern for Soccer Northwest Ontario president Michael Veneziale, who's been advocating for a new turf sports facility for some time as there's very little indoor space available in Thunder Bay for sports like soccer, Ultimate, or touch football.

"I'm very worried that it's either going to stall the project, or halt it altogether," he said of the additional costs. "I have no issuewith a tennis facility if everything goes through the same process, and showing that it's required and that the funding is going to be there to support it so it doesn't lose money."

"We had councillors on board to support the turf facility, and now I don't know if they're going to be on board with the whole project," Veneziale said.

Mauro echoed those concerns.

"Now council feels like they're voting on a $40-million instead of a $30-million project," Mauro said. "It's a concern of mine that it is set up to be a reason for people to vote no on the larger project."

Foulds said the inclusion of tennis has been discussed at length, and council has received deputations from tennis players in recent months, so the amendment shouldn't have come as a surprise.

"It is absolutely critical that it is inclusive, so that it appeals to the young, the old, families," Fouldssaid of the facility. "It is critical for me, also, that it is available for a broad range of sports."

Money in budget

However, it isall still subject to change. No designs have been finalized, and there are still questions about how it will be funded, whatever the final cost turns out to be.

"We already, in my mind, could easily find $15 million ... without any additional hit to the tax base," Mauro said. "That does not include any provincial or federal money that we may be successful in, that does not include sourcing money from Renew Thunder Bay, plus there are other options."

Mauro also said he's worried about time being lost, since the hope was, ideally, construction on the facility would begin in spring 2020. The city estimates it will take 18 months to build.

Mauro said council could have potentially ratified its decision Monday night, which would have allowed administration to beginthe process ofprocuring site development services as early as Tuesday

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However, a Monday ratification vote wasn'tpossible in the end, Mauro said.

"Ratifying the same night requires nine votes," he said. "We started with nine [councillors], but by the end of the night, there was only eight. One had to leave."

"We had no option to even ratify."

Kelly Robertson, the city's general manager of community services, said staff are already preparing the paperwork, so if the decision is ratified next month, any request for proposals (RFP) can go out quickly. She said it would likely take a few weeks to complete the procurement process, meaning site preparation work could begin in late summer.

The city clerk's office said the vote on the overall project was 7-2 in favour. The vote was not recorded.