Flin Flon city council endorses multimillion-dollar renovations to the Aqua Centre, but it’s not clear whether the city itself will invest dollars in the proposed project.
At the latest council meeting, held Tuesday, Feb. 16, council approved a motion to support in principle Option 4, one of six options considered for upgrading the facility.
Council’s support is subject to available funding – Option 4 would cost $6.97 million – and allows for the possibility of further upgrades.
Tricia Tetlock, chairwoman of the committee working on the project, had asked council to support Option 4 so the committee could begin applying for grants.
Council’s endorsement does not commit the city to any portion of the funding, but Mayor Cal Huntley is leaving that door open.
“We know that this project is going to have to be a regional project, and so we’re going to be looking for funding from everywhere,” he said. “Will some of the funding come from the City of Flin Flon? It’s up in the air as of right yet. I would assume there will be some at some point in time, but we’d have to see what the region wants to support.
“So we have an active committee that’s representing, I believe, most facets of the region and we’ll see what they come up with. In other like communities, there’s been a lot of participation from individuals, from business and from government, so we’re going to need to see that here to make this happen.”
Huntley said the proposed upgrades involve “a large amount of money,” but he is optimistic the dollars can be raised over a period of time.
Many residents believe the Aqua Centre as it stands has a fairly finite lifespan. Referencing a study on the facility, Huntley said it “for sure” needs an upgrade.
“And if you don’t do anything, then you’re going to run into trouble with the shell and everything else,” he said.
Coun. Karen MacKinnon said accessibility is a major issue at the Aqua Centre, with Huntley adding that as the building is modernized, accessibility rules will have to be met.
Option 4 would include, among other things, an expanded and improved pool deck at the existing Aqua Centre.
Open to change
Huntley said he is open to pushing for provincial changes that would let municipal councillors take a leave of absence, rather than resign, when running for higher office.
The statement came in response to a question from the media, and as the city prepares for a byelection precipitated by Coun. Leslie Beck’s decision to resign so she can run for the provincial Liberals.
Huntley said council “certainly could” ask the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) to lobby the province to permit a leave of absence rather than a resignation in such cases.
“If you want good leadership, then there shouldn’t be all [the] risk, probably, that you need to take to sacrifice one for the other,” he said. “If you want to take a chance and run for federal or provincial [office], [should] you have to give up what you’ve got going on right now?”
Huntley said a change to the law could also prevent byelections that carry a cost.
“So it’s something to talk about,” he added.
MacKinnon said she thought this issue had already been brought forward to AMM, but she didn’t know if it was still on the table.
Agreements
Huntley and Mark Kolt, chief administrative officer, both said they believe the Flin Flon Fire Department’s mutual-aid agreements with neighbouring fire departments do indeed exist on paper.
The comments came in response to a question from the media. When the issue last surfaced at a council meeting in June 2015, it was unclear whether the agreements were written or verbal.
At that time, Beck said that when she looked into the matter years earlier, there were no written agreements. Huntley said at the time that he was of the understanding the agreements had in fact been put to paper.
If it was found that no written agreements existed, Huntley agreed at the time that this should change.
Last year, Creighton town council reviewed a written mutual-aid agreement between the Creighton and Hudbay fire departments.
At the time, Creighton town administrator Paula Muench said there had long been a verbal mutual-aid agreement between the two departments, but nothing was written.
