Despite what some city hall critics have been saying, the downtown arena/events centre is still projected to cost and is budgeted at $200 million.
Including downtown land costs and money already spent on the since-cancelled Kingsway Entertainment District (an earlier events centre proposal), the total budget hits $225 million.
If the city were to receive information which affects the project’s budget, it would go back to city council members for a fresh vote, city Growth and Infrastructure general manager Tony Cecutti told city council members on Tuesday.
“I’ll be bringing that information back and we’ll be making choices about scope, schedule and budget.”
In recent days, local city hall critic Tom Price, supported by fellow critics John Lindsay, Lionel Rudd and Bob Johnston, have been emailing city council members and local journalists with what Cecutti described as inaccurate numbers associated with event centre costs.
Rather than the $200 million the city has associated with the event centre building costs, which city council members have budgeted toward the project, these critics have shared a figure exceeding a half-billion dollars.
Former Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan shared his own inflated numbers on the Valley East Today Facebook page he moderates, writing on Feb. 11, “The costs now associated with the downtown arena project will be $335 to $450 million, plus debt charges for the next 30 years.”
These allegations spread far, with Valley East Today carrying approximately 21,500 members.
(Kirwan has been sharing inflated numbers regarding the downtown arena/event centre for months, with Sudbury.com including his past estimate of $380 million in a story published early last month regarding misinformation.)
During Tuesday’s city council meeting, Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent pressed city Growth and Infrastructure general manager Tony Cecutti to respond to the budget exceedances which Kirwan has alleged, including:
- Allegation: It will cost taxpayers $60 million to build parking structures
- “There’s no parking structure that’s part of the scope of the work at this time,” Cecutti said, to which Parent responded, “That’s helpful, because I don’t recall us ever discussing or debating parking structures at $60 million.” With 3,648 parking spots within downtown, the intention is to use a dispersed parking model wherein people walk to the arena from wherever they find parking.
- Allegation: It will cost an additional $18 million for the foundation
- “There’s no change in the budget to accommodate the foundation needs at this time,” Cecutti said, clarifying that the anticipated foundation costs are baked into the existing budget.
- Allegation: It will cost taxpayers a minimum of $20 million to address soil conditions for a hotel
- “That would be one heck of a big hotel,” Cecutti said, adding that this footprint would be as big, if not bigger than an arena. Plus, he said, “I don’t understand why that would be a taxpayer requirement. … The foundation would be a requirement of the hotel.”
- Allegation: An additional $20 million is needed for contingency costs
- “The estimate of $200 million is a conceptual estimate, which inherently includes contingencies,” Cecutti said. “We’re confident that we can deliver this project for the budget that council has approved.”
Parent capped his questioning by offering a definition of the word, “lie,” relaying, “To make an untrue statement with intent to deceive.”
“That’s what these statements are,” he said.
“I don’t know the motives of the authors of these untrue statements, but to perpetuate such lies certainly leads to the erosion of trust of staff and elected officials when such is simply unwarranted.
“Those who author and spread such lies simply do not have the best interests of our city or our residents at mind.”
On Wednesday morning, Kirwan reiterated his $335 million to $450 million cost estimate.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Parent told Sudbury.com that if he’d handled his comments any differently it would have been to better suss out the project’s costs beyond the oft-cited $200 million.
(Parent considers its budget approximately $220 million, which adds the city’s downtown land purchase/demolition expense but does not include the $4.38-million spend on the Kingsway Entertainment District which Sudbury.com has chosen to include.)
He told Sudbury.com that he decided to bring the misinformation to light to help curb its spread.
Happy to debate political matters grounded in facts, he said that misinformation tends to unfairly feed into anti-government sentiment.
“With the introduction of social media platforms, (critics) now have a larger megaphone to dispense information that isn’t tied to any fact,” he said.
For whatever reason, he said political discourse has drastically changed in recent weeks toward anti-government, often fuelled by information shared on social media.
“I’m truly concerned, because I’m seeing it almost accelerate, the anti-government movement,” he said. “I don’t know why, but the tone has changed a lot.”
Misinformation has muddied the city’s efforts to get an arena built for the past several years, most notably during efforts to get the Kingsway Entertainment District built.
In early 2022, Price hosted a public meeting to share his cost estimates which showed that the Kingsway Entertainment District would cost at least $222 million. Although the city’s cost estimate ended up hitting $215 million after this meeting, it wasn’t for the reasons Price claimed.
Despite the city maintaining its council-approved budget for the arena/event centre, uncertainty persists via such things as the threat of U.S. tariffs and retaliatory actions by Canada.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc tabled an unsuccessful motion to pause the arena/event centre to either wait out the tariff threat or at the very least better understand its impacts.
Although Kirwan flagged the tariff threat as carrying a price tag of $50 million (a full 25-per-cent of its $200-million budget), Lefebvre told local journalists that the bulk of materials used are unlikely to be sourced from the U.S. It’s also unclear whether the tariff threat will materialize.
Next up for the arena site will be a schematic design and class D cost estimate, further geotechnical investigation. Ground work is expected to continue this year, with the area fenced off and a staging area set up where the Ledo Hotel once stood.
A venue operator is expected to be lined up by the end of March, with two pre-qualified bidders eligible to submit applications. These include California-based ASM Global and Colorado-based Global Spectrum Facility Management.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.