There are no dollars thrown behind it, but city council have thrown their full support behind making a performing arts centre in Prince George a reality.
Applause broke out in the standing-room only gallery following the unanimous vote to name the project as one of the city's priority capital projects and have staff come back to council with further information on things such as budget and potential funding sources.
Subsequent motions to add the performing arts centre to the city's five-year unfunded capital plan and to have staff also return a preferred location for the facility were also passed.
Since the formation of the Prince George Regional Performing Arts Society in 2007, the group has narrowed the project down to an 800-seat theatre, a 250-seat small theatre, a multi-use rehearsal room and administrative offices that would cost about $42 million to build. Ideally, the facility would be city owned and society operated.
With Monday night's vote, the baton has been passed from the society - which completed background studies and planning to the tune of more than $240,000 - to the city.
Society president Ken Kilcullen said he was pleased with council's decision.
"Over and above the motion being accepted tonight is the personal commitment from the councillors to be the champions of this project with their colleagues and with other levels of government," he said.
"It's time to move this project forward," said Coun. Murry Krause, noting its importance had never diminished in his mind. He also said he didn't see a problem in being aggressive with the timeframe.
While council's decision didn't come with a set timeline or budget, it's the first step to something concrete, said Coun. Brian Skakun. "We need to take the lead on this," he said.
Bringing the project forward doesn't hurt anybody, agreed Coun. Albert Koehler.
"I am in favour of it," he said. "If we have a plan coming from administration, we have solid information, because in my opinion we can make a decision only... when we have solid and good information."
Council reaffirming their commitment to a performing arts centre is the tip of the iceberg, with acquiring funding still a major hurdle.
"This is going to be the challenge for us," said Mayor Shari Green. "For me, this is the project I'd like to see the city next take on. The big if, is where's the money for that. Where would be get our quarter of the project and are the other partners at the table prepared with their grant funds?"
Green said she hasn't heard from federal and provincial sources that their priority funding bends towards cultural projects, when there are infrastructure concerns to be addressed.
A lack of a funding envelope, such as the federal government's Build Canada Fund, which won't have new terms available until next year, will make this an interesting project to move forward, said Coun. Cameron Stolz.
Stolz was also interested in having a more firm timeline from administration as to when council could expect to see something back on the project.
City manager Beth James said she couldn't give a proper date yet, given the amount of information to go through to understand the scope of the project, but said staff would work through it as quickly as they could.
Helping the public to understand that the performing arts centre has a broad appeal beyond the theatre-going community will also be important.
Coun. Garth Frizzell said he still didn't know the "difference between a mezzo soprano and Tony Soprano" and that "average people like us" required reassurance it wasn't just for a small segment of the population.
Kilcullen said to look to other cities, some smaller than Prince George, where similar facilities are thriving as culture-building centres. He outlined a variety of uses such as hosting conferences, weddings, lectures, concerts, corporate events and more.
Part of the society's ongoing role will be to make that pitch to the community, Kilcullen said, as well as assisting in fundraising activities.
