Thunder Bay event centre costs start to rise

City councillors in Thunder Bay spent hours Monday night debating how much more support is needed for the proposed event centre.

City administration said it needs the money to pay for design work relating to moving the Camelot Street hydro substation. The money would also pay the wage of a person to oversee the project, legal fees related to signing contracts with a potential American Hockey League team, and other environmental and parking studies.

I'm a little concerned that had we known these costs sooner, maybe we could have applied to Fednor and to NOHFC to help in this million dollar expansion of phase three, said Coun. Mark Bentz.

But Coun. Brian McKinnon echoed the opinion of many on council.

"We are not happy with it, but I think the sense is that it's something that we can't stop doing now, he said.

We have certain commitments that we've addressed and saying we've got to meet this, this and this."

Look for savings

The worry is, if council does not approve the extra money later this month, the city could miss out on applying for federal funding to start building the event centre next year.

But Bentz said he wanted administration to find savings.

"I certainly understand the rationale, [but] I'm very uncomfortable doing it. I'd be more comfortable asking for what is the bare minimum you need to get a good proposal forward."

Administration now has two weeks to find a way to bring down the costs.

The report will come back to council in two weeks, with a mention if there is any way to reduce the million dollar request.

City councillors also heard from representatives from Ipsos Reid regarding the poll commissioned by the city on the event centre.

Roughly 61 per cent of those surveyed were in favour of the project. The survey, which canvassed 1,000 people, is considered accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The main concerns raised from the survey include location, parking and the projects effect on property taxes.

The surveywas projected to cost about $20,000 to complete, but the total cost ended up doubling to $40,000.