The performing arts centre plan was already dead, as likely to be built over the next few years as the Northern Gateway pipeline, but now the arts centre - at least in its current $50 million form - has been drowned in not one but two swimming pools.
There is simply no way an arts centre will ever take precedence over swimming pools for a present or future city council. Faced with options ranging from $37 million to $62 million to retire the nearly 50-year-old Four Seasons Pool downtown and upgrade the approaching 20-year-old Aquatic Centre, the arts project is dead in the water.
Along with the pools, the city's infrastructure issues are mounting. The main fire hall downtown needs to be replaced, as does the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, the Roll-A-Dome and Studio 2880. The Elksentre and the Playhouse aren't getting any younger, the library is already 35 years old and both the Civic Centre and CN Centre are starting to look tired.
The price tag to replace or renovate all of these public facilities is likely north of a quarter of a billion dollars. That's without anything new, like a performing arts centre and a refrigerated outdoor ice oval, to name just a couple of worthy infrastructure ideas being floated.
Decisions of how and when to spend that money will fall to future mayor and councillors but it is up to this city council to frame the discussion. Steps are being taken with these needs assessment reports being done but restoration and/or replacement dates need to be attached to these facilities as well, to add a sense of urgency to the work. Another way to fast-track these improvements is by hosting major events. Deadlines and rolling out the welcome mat to visitors always drives plans to reality. For example, it took the Canada Winter Games to get Kin 1 and Otway done. Would a Memorial Cup jumpstart a new Rolling Mix Concrete Arena and a CN Centre renovation? Would a national championships or the Canadian Olympic swimming and diving qualifying trials get Prince George that new pool? The arts need a similar hook to rally residents around an arts centre.
Even if it's just setting priorities, putting preliminary plans together and taking on some of that early groundwork, Mayor Lyn Hall and this council can still provide a great service to both future councils and future residents. In other words, frame the discussion now because those small steps forward in 2016, 2017 and 2018 make that work that much closer to completion, even if it doesn't happen until 2030 or even 2040.
Fortunately, Prince George was blessed with a dreamer who saw the city how it could be, one that had beautiful, modern infrastructure and community facilities like a performing arts centre. Paul Zanette died in 2010 but he left behind some beautiful renderings of parts of downtown, including a public library and performing arts centre complex across the street from city hall in the lot that is currently vacant.
Zanette knew that for a city the size of Prince George, groups were going to have to co-habitate to make these amenities possible. Partnerships must also extend to working with other levels of government, as well as the private sector, to move projects from architectural visions to construction blueprints.
User groups can be both the best advocates and the worst enemies of renewed infrastructure. Instead of considering the broader community benefit and future users, some consider only their present interests and needs, refusing to adapt and collaborate. Whether it's a performing arts centre, a new swimming pool or any other major facility improvement, the city needs to be the final arbiter or fall into a bottomless pit of meetings and negotiations. If a user group refuses to come to the table, they might need to be made offers they can't refuse, such as eliminating their annual city funding to charging higher "non-partner" rental rates and offering less accommodating times in city facilities.
It's funny how quickly arguments of principle evaporate when the person holding the purse speaks up.
For the performing arts centre to have any chance against all of those infrastructure demands, a mayor and council need to seize the idea and push it forward, attracting more support, more partners, more users and bringing the naysayers into line.
Without that political support and unified commitment from the entire local arts community, that project is sunk.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
