Harvey: rec centres should not be burdened with capital debt

Lower Sackville Councillor Bob Harvey believes HRM should change their policy on how the construction of recreation centres should be financed.

According to a report in the Chronicle Herald, Harvey gave his fellow councillors a heads-up that he plans to bring forward a motion for HRM to write off approximately $15-million in debt currently being carried by seven facilities.

This line of thinking is a shift from current method of financing the construction of recreation facilities. Currently, if there is not enough money to fully pay for a facility when it is built the extra money needed is borrowed. After the facility is built operating revenue is not only used to cover the day-to-day operational expenses such as utilities and staff, it is used to cover the construction debt payments.

Harvey estimates that the facility serving his constituents, the Sackville Sports Stadium, currently pays nearly $500,000 per year in interest and principal towards the construction debt. He said that were it not for this expense, the facility would be self sustainable. According to HRM figures, Sackville Sports Stadium has a total debt of about $4.5 million.

HRM's current financial commitment to the construction of the Mainland Common Recreation Centre sits at $3.7 million. The act of HRM writing off nearly $15 million of debt for various recreation centres in metro would, in the end, increase the net financial contribution of the municipality towards the construction of these facilities.

Such a move would strengthen the case that additional municipal funding is needed towards the construction of the Mainland Common Recreation Centre.