Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
The price tag of the 樱桃视频Adventure Centre is up to $4.9 million, states a recently released 樱桃视频Sustainability Corp. (SSC) report.
The report's numbers have caused two councillors to put forward motions to find out how the cost became so inflated.
The first time 樱桃视频residents were presented with the project in 2003, the budget was set at $2.3 million, with funding of $900,000 projected to come from each of the provincial and federal governments and another $255,000 from a private contribution to complete the three-way partnership originally intended, as well as $255,000 from Canadian Hydro Developments as a private contribution.
The cost of the project quickly rose to $3.2 million after the completion of design, a number the District was using as the centre opened this past September.
The $4.9 million does not include the capital cost of purchasing the $900,000 piece of land the centre sits on, and the district may still have to shell out substantial money for the sports exhibits such as a windsurfer, kayak and climbing wall, as well as highway access to the property.
"I think we've seen it come in way over, way over budget, I mean ridiculously over budget," said Coun. Corinne Lonsdale. "It's a disaster if you ask me."
Coun. Mike Jenson put forward a notice of motion during the Tuesday (Feb. 21) council meeting to release all documents related to the Adventure Centre.
"It's really to ensure that all of the expenditures on that project have been properly approved," said Jenson. "I think that as a council member I need to know that before personally moving forward and I think the community needs to know that to move forward too."
Jenson said that the request is in line with his election platform, but: "I'm not trying to make it political, I just want to make sure that all our ducks are in a row."
Jenson also put forward a motion to hire George Cuff, a government financial expert, to audit city hall.
"He's known as an efficiency expert," said Jenson. "The administrative costs have gone up over 100 per cent over the last five years, and I just feel that there may be some room for efficiencies."
Lonsdale also expressed her concern during the council meeting, putting forward her own motion. Lonsdale wants council to appoint to the SSC board - which is responsible for the Adventure Centre - all seven members of council plus one representative of the Chamber of Commerce and Terry Hood of the BC Centre for Leadership and Innovation in Tourism. "We [council] are removed and we only get involved in the end," said Lonsdale. "I think with the Sustainability Centre we need to be involved right from the get go."
Lonsdale said she's dismayed that it took five months to get the recently released SSC report and that council wasn't told of the cost overruns as they were occurring.
"I believe that it's been a given for two years probably that we were having problems with the capital costs of that building and I could never get the answers I was looking for," she said. "This report that we got here about two weeks ago, I started asking for that in the beginning of September, so it was very difficult to get those numbers and I am really troubled because council should have been made aware. It's not up to council to go out there and ask 'Is this on budget?' We should assume that it is on budget because after all that's the direction we gave. I don't know how they did it without coming back."
"By putting this motion in place, I believe it's the responsible thing to do," said Lonsdale. "I think that's how we can take charge and take control of what's going on over there."
Mayor Ian Sutherland said that, as promised from the very beginning, the cost to local taxpayers will still be only $900,000. The $2.3-million budget figure was merely a rough estimate provided for an application to get funding from the federal government, said Sutherland.
He added that sponsorship will be secured within six months and with projected annual revenue of $300,000 from an anticipated 100,000 visitors to the 樱桃视频Store, the Adventure Centre will be generating money by the end of 2007.
"The 100,000 visitor projection is based on the number of cars on the Sea to Sky highway. It's a formula based on the knowledge that people in the tourist industry have," said Sutherland.
"Our numbers for VIC [visitor information centre] are three times for December and January then they were this time last year. So obviously more people are stopping by and getting visitor information in Squamish, which is one of the intents of the building."
In the meantime, the projected annual operating loss for the Adventure Centre in 2006 will be just short of $400,000.Much of the negotiations of contracts, real estate and sponsorship were done during closed door sessions. But disgruntled residents who say there wasn't enough public involvement were simply not taking the opportunity to get involved, said Sutherland.
"People had all kinds of opportunities to be involved in the process," he said. "If people chose not to be involved that's fine, but they can't use that as an excuse for not getting involved because there were all kinds of chances to give input, there were all kinds of chances to get involved and say your piece. And what people are doing now is taking shots after the fact and that's not a real fair thing to do."
Lonsdale and Jenson's motions will be considered by the rest of council during the March 7 council meeting.
