Council Rejects Prudent Approach to Arena Program

At the Special Council Meeting held last night at Christ the King School, Council debated the merits of building new arenas, a youth centre in Acton and a Seniors Centre in Acton. This debate was being held because at the Budget Committe meeting in January, I put forward a motion to defer all of the capital items that were tied to the arena construction proposal.

I am well aware that there is a need for new ice to meet the needs of the residents but when I saw how this was playing out in the Capital Forecast I thought that Georgetown overall recreation needs were not being adequately addressed in favour of Acton projects. I did not express it exactly like that as I did not wish to make this an Acton Georgetown issue. However, by asking for more balance, that is really what I was driving at.

My request to staff was to give us more options that would better balance the needs of the whole community.

Subsequent to the deferral we received the request from the Hospital to kick in $5 million to cover 100% of the provincial costs of expanding Georgetown Hospital. We also learned that we will be losing some assessment due to a deal that was struck with MPAC. We learned that our financial plan for funding road maintenance is falling behind. And we learned that our reserves are unacceptably low.

At the same time we have been growing very slowly due to a lack of water. This means that we are not getting development charges, nor are we getting the building permit revenue or the new assessment. Fortunately we just had water approved that is the equivalent of water for 1000 new homes. The Region believes that we will get another 1000 units in a couple of years but I have been around long enough to know that you cannot count on this until the day they approve it. In short, our financial situation is somewhat weak.

I am very happy that I instigated the deferral because it got a lot of people interested and involved in the discussion. Of the emails that were received from the public by the Town, they ran 40 to 10 against going into debt to fund the arena projects.

The report produced by staff offered 4 options:

• Option A -Stay the course, build a twin pad at MoldMasters, Twin Acton, Build the Acton Seniors Centre and Acton Youth Centre
• Option B -Build the twin at MoldMasters and delay the Acton program for 1 or 2 years
• Option C - Build the twin at MoldMasters and substitute the Gellert for the Acton program
• option D - Build the twn at MoldMasters and delay any further program plans until after the actual construction bids are received and other financial considerations have been considered

I stated quite clearly at the meeting that I would support option D as I believed that it was the most financially prudent course of action. It gave the arena people 2 new arenas to start with. It took nothing off the table but it allowed us to see what was happening with respect to the hospital. It allowed us to know exactly what the construction was going to cost and we would have the results of the Youth Study that we have just commissioned.

It was clear that the majority of my fellow councillors were predisposed to support Option A but that there would be a split vote. To gain more support the Mayor offerred an amendment that recognized Georgetown recreational needs. The offer was to include the design of the Gellert Phase 2 in the Forecast.

My reaction was that this was not the right course of action at all. I was in favour of Option D specifically because it was the more fiscally responsible route. Certainly adding $880,000 for the design of the Gellert without taking anything out of the forecast was not responsible in my opinion. Furthermore it looked like a waste of money because Council refused to actually put the construction costs into the forecast. I cannot understand what use a design is if there is to be no building. The earliest the Gellert can proceed is 2023, after the Acton complex has been paid off. I never thought that when we built the Gellert Phase 1 that it would take over 20 years before we would see Phase 2.

I am also very perplexed at why the sa,e councillors, who regularly state at budget committee they are concerned about the taxpayers, would then turn around and spend over $30 million without thinking this might be a bit of a problem for the taxpayers.

However, the program is set. We will get 3 new arenas as well as a Seniors' Centre in Acton. The Acton Youth Centre is deferred to the next budget cycle. We will also get a piece of paper with a design on it for the Gellert Phase 2. I do not believe this is a fair or prudent course of action.

As it turns out, this opinion is my own and is not shared by my fellow councillors. The vote was for Option A with a vote of 10 to 1. This is a democracy and the majority has spoken. I am happy to have represented the minority.