MCRC Committee

Community group comes to an end with imposed bureaucracy

Through the history of the development of the Mainland Common Recreation Centre plans, there have been two community boards. Both boards saw many resignations and both were eventually relinquished of their duties. Despite the failure of these structures, HRM is intent on setting up another HRM driven Advisory Board, this time to do fund raising. HRM had aimed at announcing this board on December 8, however, due to a lack of qualified applicants, an advisory board was not announced.

MCRC Committee - 2001 to Nov 2003

In the spring of 2001, then Councillors Diana Whalen and Russell Walker convened a community committee to bring the need for a new recreation facility to the attention of HRM. The group was drawn from interested individuals who had contacted Diana and Russell about the need for improved recreational opportunities. This would become the first Mainland Common Recreation Centre Committee. The group invited HRM staff to brief them on the current plans.

Potential partners early on

From the outset of the first committee, the YMCA had been in contact to express that they were interested in the project; they had identified Mainland North as an under-serviced area and would like to be part of the project as it took shape. They continued to make periodic presentations to the committee and then to the Board that followed. They worked to get a Memorandum of Understanding with HRM without success.

Other groups expressing interest were the Centennial Rink Commission who were considering the need to replace or to add to the Centennial rink in order to better serve the area. The current rink is 35 years old. Representatives from Swim Nova Scotia and various other aquatic groups also banded together and had their opinions represented.

Committee ends through HRM formalization process

In 2003, HRM displayed more interest in the replacement of Northcliffe, likely due to the rapid decay of the facility. HRM directed the original "Committee" should be replaced with an official non-profit society "Board". This started a process of selecting nine board members and others to serve on sub-committees. A memorandum of agreement was established between the Board and HRM which allowed HRM to maintain some control over board activity.

Only two members decide to proceed

From the beginning, there was some opposition to formation of an HRM directed non-profit society among existing committee members. Several key members including the original Committee Chair, Jack Flemming (an influential business person) and Judge Hugh Randall decided not to move forward with HRM's board formalization process and were lost. In fact, only two people from the original committee decided to proceed.