Other options sought for Park funding

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This article was published 02/08/2023 (1036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Westman projects received $4.4 million in funding from the province’s Arts, Culture and Sport in Community Fund in a Monday announcement, but there was a noticeable omission from the list.

Earlier this year, the City of Brandon said it was making an application to the fund to help pay for a replacement structure for the Park Community Centre, but it was not included on the list of recipients on Monday.

The existing decades-old structure has been plagued for years by structural issues that have limited it to an indoor capacity of just 40 people.

When considering proposals for replacing the centre earlier this year, city staff recommended the three bids received be rejected after the lowest bid was $300,000 more than had been budgeted for.

Following that, the city and the centre’s board said they would need to change the scope of the project and look for outside funding to make up the difference.

The ACSC fund was one potential way of finding the money. Another was adding a daycare to the project to help provide the new centre with financial stability.

Speaking to the Sun on Tuesday, Park board member Eldon Schmitz said he was disappointed that the centre wasn’t included but that the Peter Sawatzky sculpture garden at the Riverbank Discovery Centre was.

“What does Brandon need more: (A) sculpture garden or a community centre and a daycare?” Schmitz said. “Just kind of blew away that the province didn’t fund us but it gave ($520,000) to that project.”

While Schmitz said the snub is a blow to the replacement efforts, he’s not yet giving up hope that it will happen. He said the board received an email from the city Tuesday morning asking to set up a meeting to discuss next steps.

“I think the city is more on board now than they have ever been,” he said. “They’re trying to work with us and we’re trying to work with them, also.”

Reached by phone, Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the city is still trying to work with the province to find funding for the centre’s replacement. He also said there’s a chance that funding through the ACSC fund could still come through if another project receiving funding is unable to be completed.

“There were hundreds and hundreds of requests,” Fawcett said. “It didn’t quite get in there, but it was close. But we’re continuing to work on that. We’re still working with the board and we will have something come hopefully shortly. I’m diligently working with the province on something still right now.”

Though he wasn’t sure of the exact figure, Fawcett said the funding shortfall was probably a little smaller than the last time it was discussed.

Brandon East Progressive Conservative MLA Len Isleifson said the project was near the top of his list for local projects he was championing, but said a few complications likely prevented the Park from being selected.

Because of the potential inclusion of a daycare and a cultural hub, he said the project would be under the jurisdiction of multiple provincial departments.

Additionally, he said the program doesn’t usually take more than one application from an entity and Brandon had also asked for funding for the final phase of the outdoor sports complex and the sculpture garden, both of which received funding.

However, Isleifson said the project is very important to him, and he is still working with his colleagues in government as well as the mayor to find a way for the province to support the project.

“As long as I’m in there, it’s gonna be at the top of my list,” he said. “We’ll keep pushing for funding of some type for it.”

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2), the elected representative for the neighbourhood that contains the centre, said it was disappointing that the funding wasn’t received but that Brandon is clearly benefiting from a pre-election spending push right now.

“I think we’re still in a pretty good place with the Park Community Centre,” he said. “I think the funding from Co-op demonstrates that our business community is behind it and so there’s other opportunities for us to source additional dollars including the money that we still have sitting in our reserve.”

Last month, the centre received an $85,000 donation from Federated Co-op Limited’s Co-op Community Spaces program to establish a new commercial kitchen in the new building and a further $15,000 from Heritage Co-op that Schmitz said will be used to buy sheds and new gardening equipment.

In the past few years, Brandon City Council has considered demolishing the centre and replacing it with a greenspace, replacing the existing building or repairing it.

Last year, city staff said an engineering study showed that needed repairs were extensive enough that repairs would not be cost-effective.

Back in February, city staff submitted a report to council recommending that three bids received for the demolition and construction be rejected and the centre be demolished after the lowest bid came in around $1.5 million — $300,000 more than had been allocated in this year’s budget for the project.

Part of the reason for that funding gap was that the request for proposals asked for a building design that would hold as many people as the original centre could hold in its prime. Modern building standards would have required a larger facility to hold the same amount of people, increasing the cost.

The month after, council voted to reject those bids but elected to undergo a different process where designs are solicited and then reviewed before the search for a contractor is launched.

Council could still decide against any of the new proposals, but it promised not to demolish the centre before that point is reached. Fawcett said Tuesday that is still the plan.

Included in the media release about the fund recipients was a mention of funding for upgrades at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum. However, the museum was not listed in the province’s provided list of approved projects.

A provincial spokesperson told the Sun on Tuesday that the museum was mentioned in error and a correction would be issued.

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