Thunder Bay council approves extra funds for event centre

Thunder Bay city councillors have decided to not worry about savings and instead pushed through an approval forextra spending for the third phase of the city's proposedevents centre at Monday night's council meeting.

Just last weekcouncil requested city staff look for savings after learning of a $1 million cost increase.

After reviewing administration's report on the matter at a meeting Monday night, almost every member of council weighed in on whether to trim a quarter million dollars from the budget.

• Thunder Bay event centre costs start to rise

Administration proposed cuts or deferrals to things like design and legal fees, but warned reductions come with risk.

The suggested cuts included cutting contingency spending (a $50,000 pocket of money in case unplanned costs come up), cuttingdesign work ($25,000) to move the Camelot St. hydro sub-station, delaying negotiations with True North Sports andEntertainment (owners of the Winnipeg Jets - $75,000), delaying a study on relocating the Water Street bus terminal ($15,000), and not hiring someone to prepare funding applications (doing it in-house instead - $35,000).

Mark Bentz was one councillor in favour of a smaller price tag.

I think we need to defer as much as we can here, until we have a deal in place with funding and a building that's going to be built.

But some councillors worried spending less now will cost the city more later.

Coun. Paul Pugh said cutting corners now will hurt the project.

Trying to cut a few nickels and dimes off ... isn't going to influence the outcome, but it will create unnecessary limitations to getting the project done properly.

Stop worrying about votes: Hobbs

Mayor Keith Hobbs said it's no time for second-guessing.

I don't think now is the time for cold feet, ladies and gentlemen, he said.

Public confidence is only eroded when we as a city council lose confidence. We've been unanimous on just about every vote I say let's do this project right. Let's not screw it up now because we're a little worried about votes because I really think that that's what this is coming down to.

In the end, council rejected the proposed savings and approved spending the extra $1 million.

Councillors Bentz, Giertuga, Rydholm and Boshcoff voted in favour of the proposed savings, while the rest of council, including the mayor, didn't support them.

Coun. Iain Angus said he didn't support the proposed reductions because the project could run over-budget if some of that extra money is taken out now.

"I'm quite happy to take the heat on the $1 million that we're being asked to put in here. I don't think that reducing budget by 1/500th of the total cost of the project is really going to win us many votes, he said.