Council balks at plaza overruns, orders staff to sharpen pencils

Asked tonight to increase the controversial project’s budget to $11.6 million, councillors dug in their heels

Sault Ste. Marie's Civic Centre. File photo by David Helwig/SooToday

Exasperated with escalating construction costs on the downtown plaza, city council tonight slashed $660,000 from a request for an additional $1.4 million.

City staff have also been asked to come back to a budget meeting on Feb. 13 with more ideas on how to reduce funds being requested for the project.

"I'm sure this one will be quick," said Mayor Matthew Shoemaker as the cost overrun came up for discussion.

It wasn't.

It took almost an hour and some quick-witted political horse-trading to keep the controversial project afloat, after councillor after councillor admitted their patience had run out.

As SooToday reported on Friday, Tom Vair, the city's deputy chief administrative officer for community development and enterprise services, was asking for the extra cash because of supply-chain issues, especially problems that delayed pouring of the concrete ice rink slab until spring, when the frost will be out of the ground.

Vair said tonight that the project's contingency funds have been exhausted.

"Within the project budget that we have now, we have spent the funds that were allocated to any kind of contingency that we've had to date, covering some of the unexpected items that have come along the way," Vair told councillors.

"We are looking for a contingency budget to take us through to the end of the project," he said.

Ward 5 Coun. Corey Gardi asked him: "Moving forward beyond this, if this council is to approve your ask, is this it? In a few months, are you coming back?"

"While I can't guarantee anything," Vair responded, "I can say that what we tried to do with staff, is provide sufficient contingency so that it would see the project through to completion."

"Obviously, we don't relish the opportunity to come back for additional funds. In crafting this additional request to council, we believe we would have the funds to see this project through."

Chief administrative officer Malcolm White said Sault Ste. Marie has actually been very fortunate in how the pandemic and supply-chain issues have affected city construction projects.

White said that when he met with other municipal CAOs in 2022, a typical Ontario municipality was only getting about 55 per cent of its planned capital projects completed.

"We were especially fortunate in Sault Ste. Marie in our road work program," he said.

"Pretty much every other municipality suffered cost increases similar to what you see for building construction like the plaza or Mill Market."

"We did very well and were able to complete all our road programs on budget."

"Especially with the connecting links, we were able to get two phases done with funding for one. We've been very fortunate here with the twin-pad [arena] project. You're going to see a very nice facility in a month or so."

"However, this [the plaza] is the one project that we've really seen an effect on," White said.

Ward 3's Angela Caputo was concerned the plaza will be just another little-used municipal asset.

"The Bondar pavilion, tons of rinks. How are we going to be assured this is not just another competing place that's going to be underutilized?" Caputo asked Vair.

Vair replied that the new plaza will have enough features that, unlike the Bondar pavilion, will attract foot-traffic even when it's not hosting an event.

"I think this fills a void in terms of having a strong anchor in the downtown that will be that magnet for future activities," he said.

"We're pretty far down this path now," said Ward 5's Gardi, who nonetheless cautioned: "Beyond this point, I will not approve another dollar for it."

"But I can't see how, after all this time, with all the infrastructure already in place... how we don't see this to fruition."

"It's a tough decision, but the wrong decision would be not to support this ask," Gardi said. "I am supporting it this one final time."

Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen said negative behaviours of the kind downtown is struggling to control are greatly reduced by 'activating' spaces.

For one thing, she said, the plaza will provide public washrooms that are sorely lacking in the downtown area.

"I know that Mr. Vair and his team will not be coming back and asking us for any further funds."

"If they do need any other funds, they need to look to other sources, such as reviving thrift fundraising," Vezeau-Allen told the meeting.

Vair said that from a billing standpoint, work on the downtown plaza is about one-third complete. He said it would take about one week to review the plaza project to determine whether some parts of the project could be cancelled and the cost of those cancellations.

Faced last night with the possibility that council might reject the staff recommendation for an additional $1.4 million, leaving the project with insufficient resources, Mayor Shoemaker proposed amending the request.

Vair would be granted a $660,000 budget hike, using funds returned from a successful funding application by the Mill Market.

And, he'd be asked to return to city council on Feb. 13 with suggestions on reducing the remainder of his $1.4 million request.

The mayor.s resolution was approved six-to-four by council.

Here's how your council members voted on the stripped-down plaza budget increase;