Council met on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018 for the last time of the year to discuss hot topics such as the fly-in, fly-out workforce and turning Shell Place into an all-weather stadium.
Councillor Phil Meagher made the motion to direct Administration to conduct a feasibility study to change the Shell Place stadium field and bleachers into an all-weather indoor structure.
Referencing the cost of the sport and entertainment venue, Meagher wasn’t a fan of only being able to utilize it for five months of the year.
Mayor Don Scott questioned Chief Administrative Officer, Annette Antoniak if the structure was being utilized effectively.
“In my opinion it is not, for the very reason Council Meagher pointed out, it’s very seasonal,” said Antoniak. “Also the inability to bring concerts up on their concert run during the winter because the infrastructure isn’t there nor is the covered roof.
Although Shell Place did hold the 2018 provincial high school football championships this past November, Meagher said there was struggles with the snow.
“All this is, is to get more out of a – I would say a world class facility, and be able to use it year round,” said Meagher.
Councillor Mike Allen “had trouble wrapping his head around this one” and was concerned about the cost.
“We do have a jewel there, we have a spectacular facility between the Suncor Energy Centre and Shell Place but we’ve spent a significant amount of money already, would we actually get any benefit, or significant enough benefit, to spend a lot more money,” asked Allen.
At this time it is not sure how much the construction would cost or what the cover would look like.
A concept level study could be undertaken for under $25,000 and would include building types, site and facility layouts, stakeholder engagements and initial numbers for council to consider.
“I know it is going to X number of dollars but I see the potential for that building, I did when it was being built and I still see the potential for our community as a whole,” said Councillor Verna Murphy, noting some events such as conferences and motocross that can’t currently be held in the region. “We’re going to go out to the community for engagement of course when we see how much it’s going to cost so I think the potential for the region far outweighs however much the feasibility study will cost.”
Councillor Bruce Inglis said that given the current economic times, this is the time to be bold and step forward with the project.
“With doing that we will get the best bang for our buck probably, we’ll stimulate the local economy but also what we’ll do is take a facility that sits idle and really wasted… and I’m imaging soccer in the winter, I’m imaging baseball in the winter, all these things that we could be potentially be doing, plus the winter games.”
Ultimately the 2022 Arctic Winter Games was ignited the idea for Meagher as he is on the bid committee.
There is a requirement to host the opening and closing ceremonies for the games indoors, however the Municipality currently does not have a venue to accommodate the number of attendees.
When the Municipality hosted the 2004 games, a temporary indoor venue was built at MacDonald Island Park at a cost of about $1 million.
“We have to be able to have a facility, I’m not saying this would be the facility… but it could be if the feasibility study also included timelines as to completion,” said Meagher.
“We don’t have a place where we could host a big number of people, right now our biggest place is the Casman Centre that could hold, I think it’s just over 2,400 people.”
A report on the feasibility study, is to be presented to Council by Feb. 5, 2019.
The next council meeting will be on Tuesday. Jan. 8, 2019 and will begin at 4 p.m. as council passed a motion to change the start times of the regular, bi-weekly meetings.
There will be a public hearing regarding bylaws that impact the downtown revitalization and zoning of the waterfront.
