GUELPH/ERAMOSA – Councillors here heard this week the grant they thought would pay for a proposed open air pavilion style ice rink won’t be sufficient.
Parks and recreation director Robin Milne told council on June 21 that despite all efforts, he had run the numbers to cut operational costs and there isn’t a way to build the rink and supporting amenity building without sourcing partial funding from taxpayers.
“I got to a point where I don’t feel that there’s a scenario at this point with this funding model that’s presented to us,” Milne said.
At a May 19 committee of the whole meeting, council and staff discussed new facility options as they related to the green and inclusive community buildings grant.
Staff was directed to put together a grant application for the July 6 deadline for the facility.
However, the grant the township was considering would only cover $7.25 million of the $12.5-million project.
In response, Milne recommended the township not apply for the grant and instead continue to look for other sources of funding.
“Unfortunately, I’m not able to pull a rabbit out of my hat on this one. And it’s not for a lack of trying,” he said.
Councillor Corey Woods said he didn’t want to see the township limit itself due to financial restraints.
“We shouldn’t try to build a facility over the available funding,” Woods said. “We should decide what we want and then try and go for that.
“I think we should stick with our guns. I would hate to build something terrible, but it fit into a funding model.”
Mayor Chris White said the original idea is still in place, but it will be dependent on how much money the township can get from the provincial and federal governments.
White added any new project has to make sense financially.
“We have to make sure that we don’t use a lot of capital dollars up front and then operationally we’re not putting the burden on the taxpayers,” he said.
“I think we kind of know what we want, and we’ve laid that park out and at the end of the day we’re really trying to find a way to skate over there.”
White continued, “when we do things in the parks and rec department we make sure that they’re fiscally sound and if they don’t fit we’re not going to try to shoe-horn it in.
“This doesn’t work and so we’re stepping back and that’s the right thing to do.”
