The divestiture issue was discussed at a South West Coast Joint Council meeting on Saturday, prompting the group to write a letter stating a number of concerns to Terry French, minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation.
French had announced the closure of the facility for the end of March. Then, after an outcry from the community and conversations with O’Brien, he issued a three-month extension on the closure until the end of June, but said the province would advertise divesting of the building before that time.
That procedure is worrisome to O’Brien, as he fears the centre could end up in the hands of a private entrepreneur who may later make use of it for some other purpose, such as an apartment complex or a grocery store.
The Stephenville town council has requested government put the divestiture proposal on hold so that the town could try and secure the building for the region and that whatever entity it is divested to would operate it for the sole purpose of a recreation facility.
Mayor Cator Best of Kippens, who was the person who brought the issue to the joint council meeting, said he figured it was a topic for the group to take on. He said communities have to be involved, and agreements that the building having to be used for recreational purposes must be part of it.
“I’m afraid that where government is rushing it that the building will fall into poor hands,” he said. “A year to get this done is not asking too much. We (communities) need to sit down with government and ask for time and start negotiating what we’ll do with it and who will run it.”
In the letter from the South West Coast Joint Council to French it was stated the facility should receive, at a minimum, the same 90/10 or 80/20 funding that all newly built facilities receive under the province's capital works programs.
But O’Brien is not in agreement with that, and questioned why a regional facility should be put on the Town of Stephenville’s capital works budget. He said government should pay the full cost of modernizing the building before handing it over to the town, which in turn would take the responsibility of divesting of it.
O’Brien said Stephenville already has several facilities, including the Stephenville Dome ice arena and the Regional Aquatic Centre. He said when the Aquatic Centre was built there was a 20-year agreement between Stephenville, Kippens, Port au Port East and Port au Port West to operate it jointly.
“Now that the 20-year agreement is up, the other three communities are trying to walk away from contributing to the operations,” he said. “One-hundred per cent of our capital works money from last year had to go into maintenance for the pool, leaving many other areas without money.
“For the town to take on another regional building and put that cost and liability on the taxpayers of Stephenville is not going to happen. Stephenville is not going to carry the load on this.”
When it comes to the West Coast Training Centre, Best said he hasn’t discussed anything with his council yet, but thinks Kippens could find a way to put something into the centre if it were run as a regional facility.
“If we want to keep facilities for people in the region, we have to put money into it,” said Best. “It’s all about regionalization and we will have a stronger voice going to government together.”
There is concern from the joint council that it is discriminatory to end provincial support for the training centre when the province supports swimming pool facilities in other communities. In addition, the provincially funded university operates swimming pool facilities in St. John's and skating rinks in Corner Brook, which are open to the residents of these two cities.
“If you treat one a certain way, then treat them all the same way,” Best said.
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