Investment fund, cash injection mooted for Orana Wildlife Park
The Orana Wildlife Park entered the Christchurch City Council chambers ready to defend its request for funding, but left with multiple options on the table.
The park needs at least $500,000 in the next financial year to keep the doors open, but chief executive Lynn Anderson fears an “inevitable demise” of the park without future public funding to the tune of $1.5 million a year.
Anderson’s submission yesterday to the draft long-term plan (LTP) – in which she said the park was the only major zoo in Aotearoa to not receive council funding fell on sympathetic ears.
While the council won’t debate and vote on a final 10-year spending plan until June, two councillors mooted alternative Orana funding options to the one Anderson proposed.
Councillor Kelly Barber boldly suggested creating a multi-million-dollar investment fund for the park, as the council is doing for the Canterbury A&P Show, using the revenue from the prospective sale of council land.
“Just floating an idea here,” he said, and asked how Anderson would use the funds.
A surprised Anderson said her team would manage the fund well, saying they had a long history of good fiscal responsibility.
She said their pending request for public funding was an example of that responsibility, as they weren’t going to the council “in ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff mode”, but with time to spare.
Councillor Sam MacDonald asked Anderson if the park could repurpose money raised specifically for a new conservation centre for day-to-day expenses if – hypothetically – the council promised to give it money for the centre instead.
Anderson said they would need to think about it, and MacDonald requested staff advice on his idea.
MacDonald later clarified to The Press that by investing in a capital project – not operational costs – the council could potentially tap into its capital endowment fund to support the park. That fund was cost-neutral, so would not lead to rates rises, he said.
Meanwhile, support for the Arts Centre and cycleway projects continued to be a topic of interest at yesterday’s hearings.
Peter Beck, who was the dean of the Christ Church Cathedral at the time of the 2010-11 Canterbury earthquakes, said the Arts Centre was the jewel in the crown of Christchurch.
He said he was dismayed by how controversial the issue had become, and what appeared to be increasing animosity between the city council and the Arst Centre.
Beck encouraged the parties to sit down in a room together and come up with a solution.
“Don’t throw rocks at each other any more. It really doesn’t help,” he said.
The public hearings into the LTP will resume on Tuesday.