Thunder Bay's long-awaited indoor turf facility delayed again as council seeks to cut costs

Mike Veneziale, president of Soccer Northwest Ontario, says his wife was pregnant with their son when SNO first put together plans for a new indoor turf facility in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Their son is now nine years old and the city's soccer players are still practising at school basketball courts in running shoes instead of spikes.

City staff drafted a financing strategy for council's approval Monday night detailing how the city would cover the estimated $44.5-million cost of construction for the long-awaited facility.

However, Coun. Mark Bentz put forward a referral motion in an effort to bring the price down to around $30 million, which would mean reducing the scope of the project.

"This costing falls more in line with the SNO proposal that led us to this place and is probably more in line with expectations in the community, so I think it is going to be more likely to succeed," Bentz said.

After hours of debate, councillors initially voted against Bentz's motion, but changed their minds minutes later after a quick re-vote, following clerk Krista Power's warning that without an alternate resolution, the project was essentially dead in the water. Coun. Kristen Oliver and Mayor Ken Boshcoff were not at the meeting.

City staff have been directed to consult with stakeholders and come up with options for a statement of requirements in line with the $30-million target. Administration is to report back by March 24, so council can move forward with the procurement process.

But Veneziale said he doesn't know why more consultation is needed, and is questioning where staff are getting their numbers.

"There's nothing else they need from us. What we need to basically do is to understand how and why the building that they have costs $44 million and then the one we have is essentially half the price," he said.

Confusion over costing

Councillors have already faced a year of tough choices about the city's bottom line. City staff have been tasked with finding more than $2 million in savings ahead of next year's budget discussions, after council passed a 4.4 per cent tax levy increase for 2023.

The city has already committed $36 million to the indoor turf project, but as city manager Norm Gale explained, "There is much more work to do before there's a shovel that hits the ground.

"That includes more site investigation, refinement of design, what the operating considerations are, for example, who will operate the facility and public engagement, all of which we have committed to already."

In September, councillors voted in favour of the facility being built on city-owned lands west of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium. While the city had initially chosen Chapples Park as the preferred site, the project stalled when a request for funding from the federal government was denied.

That prompted SNO — one of the 21 districts that are affiliated with Ontario Soccer (OS) — to come up with its own proposal for a hangar-type facility to be built next to the Canada Games Complex and Thunder Bay Community Auditorium.

According to Veneziale, their latest proposal was expected to cost between $24 million and $26 million, "and then in a matter of a few months, all of a sudden it doubled to $44 million and then with the debenture in there pushing it up to $55 [million]."

He's seeking further clarity from city staff about why their financing strategy projects a much higher cost than anticipated.

"We want to see a breakdown in the price. I want to know how much they think the turf costs. I want to know how much they think the shell of the building costs. I want to know how much they think the seating costs," he said.

If the city is looking to shave $11 million off the project, "you'd have to scope it down to three fields instead of four, and then shrinking the size of the fields and taking out two of the change rooms," Veneziale said.

Frustration at council chambers

Twenty-seven votes have been made in council chambers about the turf project to date, according to Coun. Shelby Ch'ng, "and every year the price goes up."

"How are we supposed to go back to these community groups … with any kind of face on to say, 'Hey, we need you to do some consultation, it's just going to take nine years for any decision to get made,'" said Ch'ng.

"I'm tired of burning their social capital."

Sending city staff back to consult with user groups again will see the project delayed at least another four to five months, past next year's construction season.

"We would have a building for $33 million if we built it three or four years ago when we were faced with that tender," said Coun. Andrew Foulds. "But we could see just in a few years what that delay has done to the costs and we've seen what's happening to the building — it's slowly getting eaten away."

Coun. Trevor Giertuga suggested city staff report back in January instead of March, but the motion passed kept the March 2024 date.

"We've been doing this for how many years? It just seems to me that someone doesn't want this to go forward no matter what," Giertuga said.

Veneziale said it's important to remember that the facility isn't just for soccer players; if the proposal had only been about soccer, the building would be much smaller and would probably be up by now.

"This was about all of the user groups and not turning away thousands of people every single year," he said.

"I want there to be accessible turf for as many people as possible in our city that is affordable. I want to be able to see youth doing what they love — and seeing the parents and grandparents watching those kids, that's what I want."