St. Catharines Downtown Association

 

Both sides say they're doing the same thing -- waiting.

Brock University says it's waiting for grant approval from the provincial government for $26.1 million towards construction of a new $42.9-million arts school in downtown St. Catharines.

The Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities says it's still waiting for a formal proposal from the university for the project.

And while the bureaucratic waiting game plays out, Brock has put the project on hold indefinitely.

As a result, the city's plan to create a downtown performing arts centre -- which is to be built as an integrated component of Brock's project and already has provincial and federal funding support -- is also effectively stuck in temporary limbo.

"We've reached the point now where we cannot progress further without commitment from the provincial government for the $26.1 million we have requested," Brock president Jack Lightstone said Friday.

"Right now the project is halted and it cannot be started until that commitment is made."

But a ministry spokesman said the government can't yet consider the funding request because the university hasn't submitted a formal proposal for the project.

"That was identified as one of their capital funding priorities through our long-term planning process, but we don't have a specific request in right now and we don't have any funding announcements coming up in the immediate future for that," Patrick O'Gorman told The Standard.

Lightstone said the ministry asked universities in 2008 to submit proposals for five capital projects each to be considered for funding available through a 10-year infrastructure renewal program.

Brock singled out its plan to relocate its current school of fine and performing arts from its Glenridge Avenue campus to the former Canada Hair Cloth building behind St. Paul Street as its top priority, he said. 

Lightstone said the university followed up last year by submitting a formal "dossier" providing more detail on the proposal to both the province and the federal government when the City of St. Catharines put in its proposal for joint funding from the two levels of government to build a $54-million performing arts centre adjacent to Brock's downtown arts school.

The city received word last May that Ottawa and Queen's Park would each kick in $18 million towards its project, leaving it with an equal share of the construction tab.

Brock has been waiting ever since for the other piece of the joint-project puzzle to fall in place -more funding from the province to help pay for the transformation of the historic Canada Hair Cloth building, which the city expropriated last year.

"Everyone had the full dossier," Lightstone said. "Everyone knew that this was one integrated project and the viability of the operation really hung on the integrated nature of the project."

Lightstone was shocked by the ministry spokesman's take on the status of Brock's proposal.

"That's pretty odd.... I think he's misunderstood," he said.

University administrators are in contact with ministry staff on a daily basis to discuss the project, he said.

"Over the past number of months they've asked us for supplementary information. Why would they be asking us for supplementary information if we hadn't submitted a proposal?" he said.

Regardless of the circumstances of the apparent misunderstanding, the situation remains the same -without a funding infusion, Brock's project is stalled.

A joint steering committee of city and Brock officials was scheduled to hire a project manager last month, but couldn't go ahead as planned because of the funding questions.

"We're at a point now where to make further progress we need to start issuing contracts which involve serious money in order to proceed," Lightstone said. "Of course, the university's board will never authorize major expenditures until at least it has the commitment from the government for where the rest of the money is coming from."

St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan said the city may be forced to wait on its portion of the project while Brock tries to sort out its funding status.

"If they say we need a month or two to get everything in place, I think it would be prudent to give Brock that time," he said.

McMullan said he's confident the province believes in the merits of the overall initiative.

"It's a strong project. It's good for the university and it's good for the city, particularly for our efforts to revive downtown."

O'Gorman said he's not aware of any major funding announcements on the horizon before the government sets its next budget in the spring.

The longer it takes for a funding decision, the more difficult it will be for the city to meet construction deadlines set when the province and the federal government approved grants for the performing arts centre, Lightstone said.

"It's not us who started the timer going," he said. "It's as if they've made us half-pregnant, I guess."

But St. Andrew's Ward Coun. Andrew Gill argued Brock cannot simply wait for the province and needs to look at alternative sources of funding, including debenturing to pay for the project.

"For Brock not to go forward with this partnership, especially after we've gone to the trouble of expropriating property and purchasing property in order to make this happen, I would say I'm very disappointed in Brock at this point," he said.

Gill said the city has been dealing with the issue "openly and in good faith" for more than a year, yet he only found out Thursday in an e-mail from McMullan that Brock is putting the project on hold.

"I think we've purchased $3.5 million worth of property downtown, and now to pull the rug out from under our feet? It's just not acceptable," he said.

But Lightstone argued it would be "irresponsible" for the university to take on debt to pay for the project.

"Would you go out and get a mortgage for your house not knowing where the money would come from to pay the principal and interest? Our board would be irresponsible to do that," he said.

Please see story by P. Downs in The St. Catharines Standard at:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2254384