No consultation on arena project until funding confirmed

Westmount plans to spend an as-yet-unspecified amount rebuilding the municipal pool and arena complex, although the cost could be $25 million.

The provincial government is expected to provide a significant amount for the project, but so far nothing has been confirmed. A subsidy application made by the City to the province anticipated the work starting in April 2009, with September 2010 given as the completion target date. The arena/pool complex was built in 1957 and has long been on a list of municipal buildings slated for renewal.

Last Monday, during city council's monthly meeting, Patrick Barnard of Melville Avenue asked Marks whether she had a contingency plan in case government funding did not come through or fell short of expectations. "Have you prepared a plan in order to meet the capital costs that you think are suitable if government funding isn't as abundant as you hoped?" he asked.

Marks replied, "We do not have a contingency plan, because until we know what funding is available, that's going to have some impact on what we do … So it's not as though it's going through come hell or high water. It is something that citizens will have a say on." Marks said the City is currently looking at the development of a preliminary plan. "That will then come with an idea of what that's going to cost. Then we will try and gather information as to what we will get from the grant, and then we will see what portion is left for the City to pay, the impact on residents, on taxes, on our debt — and that's the point at which we will provide that information to all residents and then hear from them on what it is they would like to do."