Victoria councillors voted Thursday to replace, rather than refurbish, the Crystal Pool and Fitness Centre. It will now be up to Victoria taxpayers to approve or reject the borrowing of needed funds.
Just how much the city will need to borrow is yet to be determined, but councillors capped total cost at $69.4 million.
The 45-year-old facility needs major repairs and equipment replacement.
Mayor Lisa Helps said several factors played into the decision to replace the pool, including:
• Refurbishment would have meant closing the existing facility for two about years
• Over the long term, replacement is a better value
• A new facility is expected to attract more users.
“To me it was a very clear case … when you put all of those things together,” Helps said.
The city plans to fund $10 million of the replacement through money it has saved, and the rest through borrowing and as of yet unsecured provincial and federal grants.
A preliminary timetable calls for a borrowing referendum to be held late this year; if approved, construction would start in mid-2018.
City staff will make preparations for the referendum, contact provincial and federal governments about possible funding partnerships and consult with residents and stakeholder groups on the new facility’s design.
Unlike the referendum to approve the Johnson Street Bridge replacement, Helps suggested the city not take a position on the pool-borrowing question. “My feeling is that the referendum should be for and by the public; that the city should not champion any side,” Helps said.
“This is the public’s referendum. If the public wants to borrow this money to build a new pool, then there will emerge in the citizenry public champions who will put forward their position to their fellow citizens. So that’s really important to me. It’s overstepping our job to spend money or time promoting one side or the other.”
But it could be an uphill battle.
Emails are already being circulated by groups such as the Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria comparing the proposed $69.4-million cost with a new University of B.C. pool that started construction in August 2014 at a cost of $39 million.
Helps said it’s comparing apples to oranges. The UBC price tag is just for construction while Victoria’s preliminary figures are “all in,” including contingencies, mid-point construction escalators and project management. “We’re utterly transparent. Then people just look at the construction costs of another project and say, ‘look it’s cheaper’. Well, actually, the construction costs are almost apples to apples.”
Only Coun. Ben Isitt, who wanted to cap the city’s borrowing at $25 million, voted against moving ahead. With a low borrowing cap, the project would be contingent on funding from other governments, he said. “I think if those other governments don’t show up, we have to look at, I think, a project with substantially reduced scope because I don’t think it would be cost effective for the city to go it alone.”
Helps said she’s “very optimistic” that external funding will be found to lower the cost for Victoria taxpayers. She said Crystal Pool is a regional facility that is widely used, making it an attractive funding target for the province. She noted the federal government will soon release Phase 2 of its infrastructure funding program.
Helps also noted that next year is Victoria’s 150th anniversary as the capital of B.C., which might attract funding.
Staff had presented councillors with three options: retrofit the existing facility at an estimated cost of $40.9 million, retrofit and expand for $57.1 million, and build new at $69.4 million.
