Full cost of new covered rink

Field project comes at a deceptively high cost to taxpayers.

This week, our municipality celebrates the grand opening of the newly built Field covered rink. This project has been decades in the making. Residents and volunteers in the community have been raising funds for years to built this rink.

Today, I don’t want to discount this long-term effort or discourage people from taking on initiatives such as this. But as a community, I think we need to understand the true cost of projects like this one.

Although years of fundraising and advocacy persuaded politicians to give this project the green light, West Nipissing and Ontario taxes are paying for these facilities.

When the dust settles, this project cost $1.26M. The $500,000 announced by the Ontario government earlier this year covered 40% of the total cost while the Caisse Populaire’s generous donation of $125,000 covered 10%.

The municipal budget which was only supposed to cover $150,000 when it was approved in 2021 ended covering nearly $600,000 of the project.

While countless volunteers contributed to raising funds for this project over many years, the total contribution of these efforts amounted to just 3% of the total sum. The $40,000 raised did not even cover half of the $85,000 engineering fees.

Again, I don’t want to discount the effort that went into making this project a reality.

Ultimately we must just accept that this is a taxpayer funded facility which may actually present a net benefit to our community by getting people (and especially children) much-needed outdoor time during our long winters.

How it Started

When taxpayer funds were first approved by council back in October 2021, this is the budget that councillors approved after a lively debate that respected taxpayer funds.

In 2021, the municipality green lit this project with an estimated cost of approximately $800,000 while committing ratepayers to pick up 18% (or $150,000) of the final tab.

But when tenders came back, and and it ended up costing four times more municipal funds ($600,000 vs. $150,000), council completely ignored the tax implications.

In a very short deliberation at the very end of the May 16th meeting, council unanimously agreed to spend $600,000, the equivalent to a full 2.5% of tax increases.

This was done with no public consultation.

To many residents, the total cost of the project is not what bothers them. It is the fact that a $150,000 taxpayer expense quadrupled with almost no debate on the matter. That should never be the norm for a financially responsible organization.

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