City Council Decides Not to Submit Application for Funding from CSRIF Second Stream for MURF

Brockville – At Tuesday night’s regular council meeting council voted (7-2) to not submit a funding request to the Province’s Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund (CSRI second stream, (New Builds/Signature New Builds) towards the Multi-Use Recreation Facility project (MURF).

Council already submitted an application for the first stream of the CSRI where the Province would provide 50% up to $1 million for the replacement of the current Memorial Centre roof.

“It is critical that the 40+ year old roof be replaced and it’s a significant component of the Multi-Use Recreation Facility project (MURF),” said Mayor Matt Wren. “If approved, the Province would provide 50% up to $1 million. We are pleased the Government of Ontario has offered the program in the absence of any federal recreational infrastructure funding.”

The second stream of funding where up to $10 million is potentially available towards the construction of the new arena required 50:50 cost sharing.

“As the total project is worth $42 million, Council came to the conclusion this program, albeit great to see available, has limitations that would leave the City and the ratepayers responsible for too large a commitment, especially given other priorities we face. To put a number to it, we would be on our own to fund $30 million+ or have to delay significant aspects,” said Wren

He also stated that they may have been excluded from applying to larger funding opportunities in the future if those included provincial participation.

City council has been used to funding formulas of 1/3rd, from the Province, 1/3rd from the Feds and 1/3rd municipally, but at this time the Federal Government has no funding streams for the project.

The Mayor went on to say, “By submitting one strong application towards a major component of the overall project, we can continue to prudently financially prepare ourselves to move forward with the MURF project in totality when a larger federal/provincial program becomes available as was always Council’s intent.”

Council did approved a part-time Fundraising Coordinator contract position (10 Hours per week) for administration support for the Multi-Use Recreation Facility Capital Campaign Committee which will be funded through monies raised by the committee.

“In the meantime, we’re nearing the launch of the community fundraising initiative for the MURF and more news will follow soon,” said Mayor Wren.