CORNER BROOK — The City of Corner Brook will soon find itself with two recreational spaces and it’s looking at the possibility of turning one of them into a home for the Western Regional School of Nursing.
After the city received funding for a new $25-million regional recreational centre in May, Mayor Jim Parsons said it immediately had to start considering options for the annex at the Corner Brook Civic Centre.
The annex has a gymnasium and multipurpose spaces, and so will the new centre, which will be constructed at Grenfell Campus.
“When you buy or build a new house you’ve got to sell the old one,” said Parsons. “You can’t afford to run both.”
The nursing school is currently housed at Monaghan Hall, which is attached to Western Memorial Regional Hospital. The hospital is being replaced and there is no space allocated in the new building for the nursing school.
Students at the nursing school also graduate with a degree from Memorial University's Grenfell campus, and there has been talk of moving the administration of the school to Grenfell, but nothing has happened on that front.
Looking at option
Parsons said in the summer the city and Western Health decided to partner on having an engineering study done on the feasibility of renovating the annex for the nursing school.
The cost to do so came in at around $4 million, which included contingencies and engineering.
Parsons said other options, such as renovating Monaghan Hall or the former RecPlex, which is now owned by Grenfell, or building a new building, would be more costly.
The concept being explored would see the city finance the renovation, but it would be paid for by Western Health. The financing would be amortized over the same period as the lease for the space, 20 years.
In addition, Western Health would pay about $300,000 a year to lease the space.
Parsons said the city has a signed letter of understanding with Western Health to pursue the concept and the matter is still being negotiated with the health authority.
He noted it has not yet been approved by council and that a decision would have to be made once an agreement is nailed down.
Not everyone supports plan
Corner Brook MHA Gerry Byrne has expressed opposition to the plan, saying that two important stakeholders have been left out of the process — the community and the provincial government.
Byrne said he has been approached by sports groups in the city concerned about a loss of a venue, and he was not aware of what they were talking about.
“It was definitely out there, but in a very clouded and with a very negative cast to it as what exactly was happening.”
Byrne maintains that the province, including the departments of Health, Education, Municipal Affairs and Transportation and Works, had no knowledge that such a plan was being examined or that any feasibility study had been done.
He says that doesn’t sit right with him, especially with the likelihood the province would provide significant funding for the project.
“Money was obviously spent without knowing if this was something either the people of the city or the province would necessarily agree to,” he said.
“I’m just at a loss as to why they wouldn’t have shared this information, either Western Health or the City of Corner Brook, or for that matter Grenfell, with any member of government. I’m at a loss,” said Byrne.
“I think there should be a consultation. In my experience with government, we never take one option and one option only. We’d like to know what the other options are.
“It would be valuable to have that information available to decision-makers so that we can have a genuine discussion amongst peers seeking the best interests of the people of Corner Brook."
Byrne said he can’t agree with it unless he knows there is a consensus around it.
“It’s clear from everyone’s point of view that this is something deserving of consultation with the community at large,” he said.
“The reward is clearly there. A future home for the school of nursing would be provided. That’s the reward.”
But he said the consequence is high in terms of losing space for conventions, for recreation and for community events.
Parsons doesn’t see it that way.
“This is a big upgrade from the annex,” Parsons said of the new centre.
The gymnasium at the new recreational centre will be exclusively for recreation and not for other events such as craft fairs, which currently use space in the annex gymnasium.
With other options still closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Parsons said the annex is seeing more rec use. In October and November, the average was less than four hours a day, the most it’s ever seen. In a normal year the usage is closer to two and half hours a day.
He says traffic could be accommodated in the new space at the new recreation centre and said the civic centre still has space for conferences and other events in Canada House, the conference rooms and on the two ice surfaces.
“From a conference and meeting and event perspective, we don’t see any limitations.”
The bottom line
The city currently subsidizes the civic centre to the tune of over $1 million a year.
With the added responsibility of the new recreation centre, Parsons said it’s going to be imperative that the city makes the best use of the space and cuts the subsidy at the civic centre as significantly as possible.
And $300,000 per year over 20 years will be a significant help to the city’s bottom line.
Western Health did not respond to a request for comment prior to deadline.
Diane Crocker reports on west coast news.
