Money-losing aquatic centre political fodder
Mayoral candidate Matt Marchand on Thursday questioned the accountability of a string of projects and events led or supported by Mayor Drew Dilkens, starting with the aquatic centre, initially touted as a success and now a financial drain.
“Had we had a cost-benefit analysis at the front end, maybe we wouldn’t be in the position we are in today, paying for this facility twice in 20 years,” Marchand said in announcing a three-point plan for fiscal accountability and transparency in front of Adventure Bay water park at Pitt and Church streets.
If he’s elected, he said, he’ll bring in a municipal auditor general to examine the centre’s losses and “look at some options.”
He didn’t say what those options could include. Ward 3 Coun. Rino Bortolin, who represents downtown, two years ago floated the idea of converting the water park into less expensive zip lines and rock climbing walls. It cost $78 million to build the aquatic centre five years ago, and the city originally estimated it would cost $200,000 a year to operate it.
Instead, the cost immediately skyrocketed to between $3.3 and $3.5 million a year. It’s budgeted to cost $3.7 million this year, though it’s expected to be less. City staff prepared a business plan for the facility before it was built, said Jan Wilson, executive director of recreation and culture.
“We did do a lot of research,” she said. “We did research across North America.”
But she said it was difficult to compare the city’s plan
— a publicly owned and operated 71-metre pool with a dive tower and water park — with other facilities that are privately owned, outdoors and seasonal and or tied to hotels.
“It’s a tricky comparison,” she said.
Attendance at Adventure Bay was far less than expected, she said. It plunged 38 per cent, from 171,069 in its first full year in 2014, to 105,083 in 2017. Hydro costs were much higher than expected. And the city decided to keep Adie Knox Herman pool, which was to close to help pay for the aquatic centre.
The city took numerous measures to mitigate the costs — raising rates, cutting hours and staff, offering more flexible memberships. Solar panels added to the roof bring in $260,000 a year. A new, combined heat and power unit to be operating next May is expected to save $367,278. The marketing budget was doubled, to $200,000 a year, to try to draw more people. Council even considered — then rejected — selling alcohol at the aquatic centre.
“My opponent calls it losing money,” said Dilkens, who first proposed the aquatic centre and chaired the steering committee that built it. “I call those investments in our community and the quality of life in Windsor. Frankly, the community I want to lead has amenities like this that attract employers and make it a better place. I won’t apologize for providing them.” He called the aquatic centre “spectacular.”
“It’s a very vibrant, dynamic place,” he said, saying 380,000 people used the entire complex last year, including the pool, fitness centre and meeting rooms. “But make no mistake, these types of amenities cost money.” He said it’s incongruent that Marchand, who last week proposed a $50-million “community livability fund,” is now criticizing the aquatic centre. When the city discovered that the centre cost millions more to operate than expected, “we all said we need to do something,” Dilkens said. “We’ll continue to find ways to make it more efficient.”
The city found savings elsewhere so it wouldn’t have to raise taxes to pay for the extra cost, he said. Marchand also raised the sometimes controversial $50,000 a year that the city contributes to the Detroit Grand Prix.
“What was the benefit to Windsor taxpayers and how was that measured?” he asked. The organizers send the city a report detailing things like the times the city is mentioned in the media coverage of the event, Dilkens said. There are a lot of “intangibles,” too, he said. “You can’t measure the value of David Letterman coming over here and 1,000 people tweeting and retweeting that,” he said, referring to when the celebrity ate at a Windsor restaurant during the 2016 event. Marchand also called for costbenefit analyses for the proposed Riverside Drive pedestrian underpass supported by Dilkens and indoor sports centre he proposed for the WFCU Centre. Windsor already has a privatelyowned indoor sports centre, Central Park Athletics, Marchand noted.
The underpass is “in abeyance” until there is a plan for private development on adjacent land, Dilkens said. The adjacent land is owned by London developer Shmuel Farhi. The indoor sports centre is also tied to a proposed development by Farhi adjacent to the WFCU Centre. Marchand’s three-point plan, the fifth in a series of platform planks, calls for cost-benefit analyses by outside experts of large discretionary projects and sports tourism events, including FINA, the swimming championship supported by Dilkens. A report by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance concluded that the event generated $32 million in local spending, though millions of that came from government.
Marchand also called for more “due diligence” for all city contracts, including financial and real estate transactions, and a municipal auditor general to review purchasing bylaws and policies and procedures for city contracts.
“This is something that has come up,” he said, referring to his talks with residents, “making sure before we embark on large expenditures, that we’ve done our homework, we’ve thought it out, here’s what it’s going to look like, here’s who we’re going to have do it and hold those folks accountable.”
It’s a very vibrant, dynamic place. But make no mistake, these types of amenities cost money.