New Westminster is wading back into its plans to build a new aquatics and community centre but isn’t quite ready to plunge right in.
For the past several years, the city has been working on plans to build a replacement for the Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre. Construction of the New Westminster aquatic and community centre (NWACC) was expected to begin in the summer, but the city put it on hold in June and agreed to revisit it in the fall.
“We took a pause on that project as COVID-19 was happening in the spring,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “We had anticipated to hopefully start construction of the project this summer. We didn’t feel comfortable in the spring period to move ahead with that.”
Council recently directed staff to immediately proceed with a request for proposals for construction of the facility.
“We are now feeling a little bit more comfortable about the project, and we will be putting it out to tender to get bids on the project,” Cote said.
Once the city has a chance to review the construction bids and has a better understanding of the city’s financial position, Cote said council will decide whether to proceed or continue to “pause” the project.
“We are hopeful, given the dynamics in the construction industry right now, that we will actually get some really competitive pricing put forward, but we don’t know that until we get the bids back,” he said. “We also want to give a little bit more time as we work through the budget, just to see where the financial situation is for the city. By and large, we were quite concerned in the spring period about some of the financial aspects of the city.”
While some funding sources, particularly casino revenues and parks and recreation fees, continue to be impacted by COVID, a lot of the city’s other revenue sources, including property taxes, have been stable and have started to recover, Cote said.
“It at least gives us the opportunity to get back on track on some of the big projects we were working on, but I think we still need to move cautiously, as it’s still a pretty uncertain time,” he said.
Staff will report back to council about the results of the tender and the construction budget in early 2021.
In 2018, council agreed to support an enhanced competition-hosting facility option for the new facility, but only if the city was able to obtain a federal grant of at least $22.4 million. Because the city was unsuccessful in receiving a grant from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, it has opted to proceed with a “community recreational program” design.
The community recreational program design includes an eight-lane, 50-metre pool, a leisure aquatics tank, a fitness centre, a welcome centre, multipurpose rooms, a child-care facility and gymnasiums.
A 2018 report to council stated that preliminary cost estimates indicated a community recreation facility would cost $100 million and an enhanced competition-hosting facility (which would have included two extra lanes and spaces needed to accommodate large swim meets) would cost $115 million.
Meanwhile, a report to council noted that it’s “important not to lose sight” of current operations at Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre.
“While the planning and design for NWACC has been underway, some of the more significant capital requirements at the existing CGP have been deferred with fiscal responsibility in mind,” said the report. “Should the NWACC project encounter any further delay in tendering and/or construction, this capital deferral approach will need to be revisited.”
