Arena committee chair Mark King says he’s disappointed with what transpired during a meeting this week to discuss options to replace the aging West Ferris Arena.
“There is obviously an attempt by two of the board members which would be Mayor Al McDonald and City Councillor Daryl Vaillancourt to somehow stop the committee from moving forward with an RFP (request for proposal) that would identify other options for an arena build,” said King.
“To a certain point I was disappointed because the meeting was very heated, and there were some differences of opinion that appeared both from the councillor and the mayor about the process that’s been on-going.” King added.
“In fairness, they seemed to be frustrated because in their mind, looking at what other opportunities can be available from an arena or community centre aspect, didn’t seem to be what they wanted to do. So as the chair I felt somewhat blindsided by the questioning that they posed towards me. What we’ve tried to do here, and I have the support of the majority of the committee at this particular point, is to move forward with an RFP process that at least looks at the opportunities that are out there for a community centre that could very well be a design-build process, it could be some sort of a public-private partnership.”
King says one of the problems at this point is trying to get the right guidelines in place.
“That’s frustrating. I’ve asked staff to come back with an overall guideline of what the RFP would look like based on a twin pad with a walking track included in the development. And at that point what we’ll do from a committee standpoint, is determine whether or not that request goes far enough. So it’s still in the development stage.”
Mayor McDonald says he wanted to ensure the North Bay Mall option would remain open.
“My concern was, what was being proposed would have eliminated or put the North Bay Mall proposal at a distinct disadvantage. So I wanted to make sure that the recommendation that would be going forward from the committee would in some way keep the mall option open,” said McDonald.
“What was being proposed definitely put them at a disadvantage or basically made it almost impossible for them to put a bid in. There was a lot of conversation around the table, but staff still weren’t 100% clear on what was trying to be proposed. So I just want to make sure that the North Bay Mall proposal isn’t disadvantaged with what was being proposed.”
King says the upcoming municipal election may be interfering with the process.
“I think what I’m watching as the chair is that obviously, the election is playing a part in this. Certainly, it does create a distraction and also creates that uncertainty as to why certain people are creating roadblocks in the process.”
“I didn’t see that to be honest. AlI the members of the committee were just trying to come up with what exactly was trying to be proposed and what would be in the RFP document. It was very clear that the staff weren’t even sure of what was being suggested,” said McDonald.
“If a roadblock was making sure that the North Bay Mall could be included in the RFP, I wouldn’t say that would be a roadblock. I would think we were really keeping an open mind to make sure that anyone who wanted to bid on the twin pad and whatever concept that might be, are able to do that because I think the community has really spoken that they want to hear all the different options.”
Baytoday reached out to Councillor Vaillancourt for comment, but he was unavailable.
The next public meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, July 31, at 7:45 a.m.
