A Health and Wellness Vision for Mainland North

by Mary Ann McGrath (Chair - MCRC Society) and
Judith Newman (Vice-Chair (former)- MCRC Society)

The Mainland Common Recreation Centre is intended to be a Class-A Recreation Facility-that's a facility which provides aquatics, fitness, indoor walking, etc. to serve the health/wellness needs of the catchment area of Mainland North, a community of upwards of 130,000 people as well as districts beyond. This represents over 1/3 of HRM's population and in excess of 10% of the total population of NS.

As Chair and Vice-Chair of the Mainland Common Recreation Centre Society we would like to share with our community the strategic plans the MCRC Board had developed. The Board felt strongly about presenting the plan to the public before detailed designs were prepared. Our intention was to provide our community with a clear understanding of the project and its program capacity. We had hoped to have technical expertise present at the June 16 2005 public meeting to provide information that might have changed the tone of the discussion. It was unfortunate that some attendees at that meeting were unwilling even to have the project explained to them.

HRM engaged Burke/Oliver (as consultant) to work with the previous committee to develop the size and scope of the project based on various studies and statistics. The MCRC Board worked with the consultant to 1) flesh out a recreation plan for the complete facility, and 2) develop a business plan outlining how the project would proceed (Documents and drawings are available on the website: http://www.mcrc-hfx.ca ).

There have been three major challenges facing the MCRC Board:

• The budget assigned to the project by HRM ($8,000,000) was not sufficient to develop a facility that meets the identified needs of this growing community. Cost projections from the consultant indicated an $18,000,000 cost to build the facility we need. Only $6.4 M of the funds have actually been secured: $ 3.8 M from Halifax Regional Municipality, $2.6 M from Canada/NS Infrastructure Program. To meet even the $8 M original budget, $1.6 M has to be raised by a Community Fund Raising campaign.

• From the outset, the $2.6 M from the CNSIP had to be spent by March 2006, which meant the building had to be nearing completion by that date. (On June 16, at the public meeting, the Board first learned from HRM staff that this deadline might be extended until March 2008 but all planning up to mid-June 2005 had been done with the March 2006 deadline as an unalterable given.)

• Our responsibility to an overtaxed public, meant we needed to build a cost-neutral facility, one that comes close to being self-sustaining.

The Board, in consultation with HRM Staff and Councilors, and with the architect and consultant, approached the project from a user demand perspective-our objective was to provide as much program capacity as possible within the $8 M budget. HRM felt there were other facilities within close proximity that could provide any missing program components in the short term.

To meet the budget challenge, the Board and HRM accepted the need to develop the project in two phases:

• Phase I-a leisure pool (to serve the needs of 90% of current Northcliffe Pool users), a tots pool, whirlpool, sauna, a multi-purpose room, a couple of small meeting rooms, and operational space

• Phase II-to enable the facility to fulfill its role as a Multi District facility by adding entry level competitive aquatics capability (6 lane x 25m pool), a walking track, an aerobics dance studio, a 10,000 sq.ft. fitness studio, and more meeting space

In other words, the complete facility will offer a full slate of aquatics, fitness, wellness/ rehabilitation programs, as well as community meeting and activity space-the Class-A facility our community needs.

The battle presently raging in the community has to do with the components of Phase I. Lane swimmers (who comprise ~10% of all current Northcliffe Pool users) want a lane swim pool to replace the rectangular pool they currently use. The Aquafit, instruction, and general swim users (who comprise ~90% of current users) require a slightly warmer, shallower pool (definitely not a wading pool).

What's important to know is that the plans and design of the COMPLETE facility accommodates both groups. The Board agrees that some design changes to the leisure pool will result in better program delivery; however, wholesale compromise may jeopardize the case for a separate deep water lane pool. We mustn't lose sight of the community's need for the complete facility.

In fact, before the June 16 public meeting, the MCRC Board had taken necessary steps to begin the fund raising campaign to build the COMPLETE facility. We also presented the complete business plan to both provincial and federal government officials and had received an enthusiastic response. The MCRC Board was optimistic that funds to proceed with Phase II could be secured even as building of Phase I progressed. Unfortunately, following the June 16 public meeting, the fund-raising campaign came to a dead halt.

Our plan was to be able to proceed with Phase II construction immediately following completion of Phase I. Now, with the newly approved extension to the CNSIP spending deadline ($2.6 M), one of the major obstacles requiring a phased approach has been removed. The construction of the full facility could now be a possibility-the two and a half-year time frame would give us the time needed to raise all the funds for the COMPLETE project. There is still only $6.4 M in hand, but with the community behind the complete project, it would be possible to reactivate the fund-raising efforts and go forward with the COMPLETE project.

Recently, HRM has announced vague plans to appoint a new board to oversee fund-raising ($1.6 M) for Phase I. However, a new Board's role has to be more than simply fund-raising. The partnership agreement (see website) between the Board and HRM provided for changing roles with continued community involvement. Many design decisions still require community input. The Board has advocated consistently for the building of the complete facility. We are concerned that without a community voice in all aspects of the project, that vision will be lost.

We have met with the Mayor and several senior HRM RTC officials attempting to understand how they intend to achieve the complete project. We have asked many questions and have as yet received no information regarding how Phase II will be accomplished in a timely way. All parties acknowledge that Phase I without a dry side (fitness, etc.) is a long way from being self-sustaining. Aquatic-only facilities are simply too expensive to operate. The Board has recently proposed an additional option-adding the dry-side components to the leisure pool as part of Phase I. This would increase cost by $3 M and require provincial and federal funding (~ $1.5 M each). This option might also provide better planning opportunity for a Commonwealth Games bid while still delivering the immediately needed health/wellness components for our community.

The next three months are critical in the development of the MCRC project. If, as it seems, only Phase I is to be built, this compromise will satisfy none of the users and the MCRC will fall far short of it's potential to serve the wellness needs of this overweight, inactive community. With the completion of an inadequate Phase I, and no advocacy group, the ability to keep Phase II on the agenda will vanish.

We believe it's crucial that the bickering stop and the that community take a close look at the WHOLE project. If community members would be willing to rally behind the entire project, we'd be in a position to raise the funds we need to make the MCRC a reality.