The City of Kamloops is still hoping to build an outdoor ice sheet in Riverside Park.
Council has voted 6-2 to have staff re-apply for a grant to build the rink. It would be for $4.2 million, and the city would pay another $1.5 million out of reserve funds.
“When I was contacting neighborhood associations for the Economic Recovery Task Force, every one of them said ‘please build things for us to do. Do things that will make us feel like a community again,'” councillor Dale Bass says.
“I have to tell you, last year when we were discussing this, I didn’t see the value in it. But having watched us go through what we’re going through now, and realizing that people are afraid and we’re telling them to shop locally, we need to give them places to play locally too
The project will also see the 24-year-old spray park replaced at Riverside Park, and new washrooms and change rooms would also be built.
Councillors Denis Walsh and Kathy Sinclair voted against the skating rink proposal.
Walsh called it a “ludicrous” idea during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s going to increase our greenhouse gas emissions, it’s a fact of life. This project is the wrong project at the wrong time. I find it unbelievable that we could be, in this day and age, be considering something that is a nice-to-have and not a need. We’re going to have so many needs in front of us in the next two years. We’ll regret this, I would think.”
Councillor Mike O’Reilly says the skating rink would be free, making it an affordable recreation amenity if its built.
“It is a tired water park, and it does need that rebuild. And if we can couple this in with federal funding of 73 per cent, I think this is the time to do it. And if we don’t get the funding, we don’t go ahead with everything else. But we still have to spend $1.5 million on the water park, so I think this is a good project to apply to the grant for.”
Councillor Arjun Singh also said the cost and the timing were important questions.
“I do wonder about what the pandemic is going to bring us down the road, in terms of costs. And so when we’re looking at… costs that add up to $120,000 dollars a year, where is that budgeted from?”
City staff went on to say the cost to operate the rink would come from taxation. The $120,000-dollar annual operating cost assumed that the skating rink is open for 16 weeks of the year.
Meantime, a community group isn’t pleased with the timing to propose re-applying for a grant for an outdoor ice sheet in Kamloops.
Speaking on NL Newsday, Robin Reid with Friends of Riverside Park says during a time of economic uncertainty, the budget would have to be increased for the operating cost of the rink.
Reid also says this plan goes backwards from the city’s Community Climate Action Plan.
“I would anticipate that the reason for those documents is to give direction to the city in where they’re going to prioritize the tax dollars to support some of this infrastructure and programming. And so if those documents are not going to inform future decisions, then what’s the point of the documents?”
The City of Kamloops first applied for a federal grant to build the ice rink in December of 2018. It was declined in the spring of 2019, but city staff say the proposal has been refined this time around with more prep work done in advance.
Editor’s Note: This story previously stated that the vote was 7-2, but it was actually 6-2. Councillor Sadie Hunter was absent during yesterday’s council meeting.
