A new gymnasium for the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex (SARC) is expected to be complete by March of 2024 following Council’s approval last week.
Council signed off on the $11.125 million gymnasium extension to the recreation complex located on Wellington Street East, just east of Leslie Street, on June 28 on a vote of 5 – 2.
For supporters of the project, it was a long-overdue decision to address a shortage of recreation space identified in the Town’s Parks and Recreation Plan. For others, the cost was simply too high or would not make a big enough dent in the rec shortage.
The gym will be part of a larger renovation project that will include, in addition to the gym, dry changerooms, storage, a revamped administration and customer service space at the SARC, a new multipurpose room, and the renovation of the existing pre-school room to make it a more flexible space.
“I think the role of all of us sitting around this table is to look after the needs of the community,” said Councillor Michael Thompson who put the motion forward, seconded by Councillor Harold Kim. “We all have different perspectives on that definition, but from my perspective the gym is long-needed. It has been identified in our Parks & Recreation Master Plan, it is something that has been discussed for well over five years. I would have wanted to see [adding a gym] sooner rather than later, there is a defined need, it has been discussed, it has been agreed upon that the need is there, and we are just meeting the needs of the community by building a gym.”
The need for the gym was not a matter for debate; rather, the process to get there was in sharp focus at last week’s meeting.
Reiterating his previously-stated opposition to the build, Councillor John Gallo said he not only wanted more time to “digest” the budget figures, but he questioned the input of local sports groups in the overall plan. He questioned the decision to take showers and bleachers out of the build, following consultation with the groups, in order to save on the gym, and said a better process could have been followed.
“When we go to the user groups to get their input… how do we vet the information that is coming before us?” Councillor Gallo asked. “It’s quite easy for a user group to tell us they have 1,000 members and whatever, and 60 – 70 per cent are Aurora residents and then we go out and spend millions on capital projects because they tell us the need is there. It is just not the way you build these things.”
Councillor Wendy Gaertner shared similar concerns over the showers and said the lack of such facilities could cause a problem down the road. A bigger concern to her, however, was the fact the Town will be spending more than $11 million on a single gym when the Master Plan says two are needed to meet current and future demand.
“At the end of the day what you really need is two gyms,” she said. “This is a lot of money to spend on one gym. I want to support sports tourism, we want to make sure we have enough facilities for our future residents, and undoubtedly we need two gyms. I know that we don’t have a spot at the moment for two gyms, but I think this money would be better not spent until we can figure this out and hopefully get one gym on top of another as places have done [and] would need a smaller footprint. I won’t be able to vote for this.”
Council had previously considered two gyms for the SARC site, but settled for one.
Moving forward with two would have encroached on nearby environmentally-sensitive land, a problem that was deemed difficult to overcome.
Council also expressed some concern that two gyms would run upwards of $26 million.
“It was really an impossible go for two gyms because of the environmental concerns and I don’t know how much money would have been spent trying to remediate that footprint,” Councillor Gaertner added. “It still remains to me that this is too much money for a gym in this area.”
Speaking in favour of the new SARC gym, Mayor Tom Mrakas said it was time to act as costs are going up.
“We have seen costs escalate every time [Council decides to wait] on a project,” he said. “We have seen in other communities what happens when they delay. It was originally a $2 million gymnasium [when first proposed for the SARC} and that has inflated to $11 million. We are in a deficit through our Parks & Rec Master Plan and if we continue to wait all that is going to happen is prices are going to escalate and that doesn’t help our residents and that doesn’t help the taxpayers of this community.
“Our job is to make sure we provide the proper services for our community at the best possible price. By waiting, we’re not getting the best possible price. Our residents and taxpayers are going to pay even more [for] the exact same service.”
Councillors Gaertner and Gallo were ultimately the two votes against building the new gym.
Brock Weir, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Auroran
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond – latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.View on euronews
The death of a cyclist killed following a collision in Regina last week was the second major blow for a family that was still mourning the death of a grandmother four months earlier. Cynthia Key has confirmed that it was her brother, Anthony Norman Douglas Key, 28, who was struck on June 26, shortly after 7 p.m., at Dewdney Avenue and Garnet Street in Regina. The driver remained at the scene while Key was rushed to hospital by EMS. "I was in a state of shock," Key told CBC News. "I didn't honest
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's Liberal party has elected Zach Churchill as its new leader to replace the province's former premier. Churchill won the leadership with 65 per cent of the vote over Angela Simmonds. He first joined the legislature in a 2010 byelection and has served as a cabinet minister for the departments of education and health. The new leader from Yarmouth, N.S. thanked his community for supporting him for the last 12 years and told delegates that Simmonds showed courage in running for
Elena Rybakina, 23, is the first player representing Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam singles title, beating the Tunisian in three sets 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. View on euronews
With people leaving the workforce and more jobs available in June, the unemployment rate on P.E.I. fell almost three percentage points to a new record low. Statistics Canada released its monthly Labour Force Survey Friday morning. The rate dropped from 7.8 to 4.9 per cent, which is the same as the national rate. In recent years only Newfoundland and Labrador typically has had a higher unemployment rate than P.E.I. In June the province ranked in the middle, tied for fifth spot with Alberta. What
One person was killed in a single-vehicle collision Saturday morning around 3 a.m., according to the Ottawa Police Service. The vehicle was travelling east where regional road 174 and Highway 417 split. Officers are currently investigating. As of Saturday afternoon, no details had been released about the person who died.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — The largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park remained closed Saturday as firefighters battled a blaze that threatened the gathering of the iconic trees and forced hundreds of campers to evacuate. The rest of the park in California remained open, though smoke that hung in the air obscured some of the most scenic vistas and views. More than 500 mature sequoias were threatened in the Mariposa Grove but as of Saturday afternoon there were no rep
Heat islands are a problem in any big city and Montreal is no exception, which is why the Sainte-Marie borough is running a pilot-project opening up a new "piscinette" downtown. The salt water pool was inaugurated at Jos-Montferrand Park on Saturday, and was made using a recycled shipping container. Sophie Mauzerolle, the city councillor for the borough, said officials wanted to think outside the box to combat heat islands as the city grapples with worsening heat waves. "It's a project we've bee
Residents in the small town of Druzhkivka, south of the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Kramatorsk, wake up to three suspected missile attacks which ripped apart a supermarket's shop front and left a massive crater in front of the store.View on euronews
The federal government has formally apologized to descendants and relatives of the men of the No. 2 Construction Battalion Saturday afternoon, 106 years after the formation of the historic battalion that faced anti-Black racism during the First World War. The Nova Scotia-based battalion was the first military unit in Canada made up of mostly Black personnel. The battalion was primarily used in non-combat situations to clear trees, build roads, and maintain railway tracks. Prime Minister Justin T
Jodie McConnell said as soon as she heard there was another COVID-19 outbreak at her mom's long-term care home she panicked. "I was scared this outbreak would be like the previous ones," she told CBC News. So far, the outbreak at St. Joseph's Villa in Sudbury, Ont., where her mom, Jean, lives, is affecting 12 residents. Across the province there were 65 long-term care homes reporting outbreaks as of last weekend, according to Public Health Ontario data, as well as 51 retirement homes as of July
The tide of the St. Lawrence River fills and empties the moat surrounding the historic Royal Battery in Quebec City's Petit Champlain neighbourhood. And from now until October, thousands of life vests of all shapes and sizes attached to the old greystone walls of the battery will float with the tide. In all, 2,000 life jackets adorn those walls — part of an exhibition simply called Life Jackets, by Chinese artist and humanitarian activist Ai Weiwei. The display is an effort to raise awareness ab
President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the "extreme" Supreme Court majority that ended a constitutional right to abortion and delivered an impassioned plea for Americans upset by the decision to "vote, vote, vote vote" in November. (July 8)
News bulletin 2022/07/09 21:11View on euronews
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's Liberal party has elected Zach Churchill as new leader to replace the province's former premier. Churchill won the leadership with 65 per cent of the vote over Angela Simmonds. Churchill first joined the legislature in a 2010 byelection and has served as a cabinet minister for the departments of education and health. More coming. The Canadian Press
Ottawa police Const. Samson Vo, who repeatedly kneed and punched a man during an arrest in 2021 and who pleaded guilty to unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority at a disciplinary hearing in May, will be docked a week's pay. Hearing officer Supt. Chris Renwick decided to accept the joint position of Vo's counsel and Ottawa police prosecutor Vanessa Stewart that Vo forfeit seven eight-hour days of pay, Renwick said during the penalty decision hearing early Friday afternoon. It was held via
The president and CEO of Rogers Communications has apologized for a serious network outage that disrupted service for more than 10 million Canadians. The “network system failure” was caused by a maintenance upgrade, he says. In an interview with Global News, Tony Staffieri said there was “a maintenance upgrade in our core network, and that caused our routers to malfunction.” Brittany Rosen tells us what went wrong, and what's being doing about it.
Police have identified 18-year-old Auptin Abedini-Senoubari as the victim of a homicide that happened early Friday in North York. Officers were called to the plaza near Dufferin Street and Finch Avenue West after midnight. According to a news release on Saturday, officers found Abedini-Senoubari behind the plaza suffering from stab wounds. Police said "lifesaving efforts were attempted" but the teenager from Richmond Hill succumbed to his injuries. He is the city's 36th homicide of the year. Pol
After having no luck finding jobs, four teenagers in Leduc, Alta., took matters into their own hands and had a cool idea for work: running their own ice cream truck. "We were just like, it would be fun. It's summer, it's hot. Ice cream! So we're like, it'd be a good summer job," said 17-year-old Trinidad Lefebvre. Two pairs of siblings — Trinidad and Antonio Lefebvre and Elizabeth and Alexandra Rowland-Dow — named their ice cream truck Da Scoop. "Our original idea was to have it kind of like a n
Shinzo Abe, a divisive archconservative who was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and, even after leaving office, a powerful and influential politician, has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday,. (July 8)