Reaction has been mixed to Monday night's city council decision to build a stand-alone Kin 4 arena at Exhibition Park.
In March delegates from the Prince George Minor Hockey Association and Prince George Recreational Hockey petitioned the city to consider an additional arena to reduce the shortage of available ice time. According to city staff, prime ice time is almost 100 per cent booked during the ice season, with non-prime times approximately 90 per cent booked.
"It's a great improvement to the city," Prince George Minor Hockey Association president Alec Hartney said. "If we went with Kin 1, we'd lost a lot of ice time. It would impact every user group hugely."
As part of the city's commitments to host the 2015 Canada Winter Games, the city had pledged to demolish and rebuild the Kin 1 arena at an estimated cost of $15.8 million. A cost estimate by PBK Architects puts the cost of building the new arena and upgrading the Kin Centre to Canada Winter Games standards at $22.2 million - with $3.8 million still needed to repair and upgrade Kin 1 to an NHL standard-sized arena.
The city has a one-time opportunity with the Canada Winter Games and, "we should use that money for the best possible use," Hartney said.
Despite council's Monday night meeting overlapping the Vancouver Canucks' Stanley Cup playoff, representatives of local hockey groups attended the meeting. And they cheered council's decision to build the new arena south of the existing Kin Centre.
Hartney said he respects that other sports groups also have needs and would support their efforts for facility upgrades as well.
However, Monday's decision had Mayor Dan Rogers questioning how the city will complete the facility on time and on budget.
Council, spearheaded by Coun. Shari Green, voted to form a committee to review the capital cost of the project and find ways to reduce it. Green, and councillors Debora Munoz and Cameron Stolz, expressed optimism that cost reductions could be found to not put an extra burden on the taxpayer.
Rogers said there is little time for council to work with, given the Canada Winter Games Council must approve all venue changes.
"All this... delays us getting on with it," Rogers said.
PBK Architects pegged the optimum completion time for a new stand-alone arena at September, 2014 -six months before the city hosts the Canada Winter Games. In the report to council, PBK said, "We are also concerned that delayed construction for Option B would diminish the opportunity to properly commission a new stand-alone arena in time to prepare for the hosting the games."
Rogers said committing to building the stand-alone arena gives the city no financial room to deal with other costs which may come up.
"The city is on the hook for any overruns in operations or capital. We've committed to it," he said. "I've been involved in organizing several major sporting events. Be conservative early on, because there is unknowns that will creep in."
In the end, the taxpayers will have to pick up the extra costs through taxes or debt, Rogers said.
City recreation director Colleen Van Mook said city staff will regroup and seek guidance from the Canada Games Council.
"We need to find out what, really, our options are go back to the Canada Games Council and let them guide us," Van Mook said. "Timelines are very tight -there is no doubt about that."
