Rollie Miles Rec Centre Update

On Wednesday, Community and Public Services Committee at City Hall discussed a report on alternative financing for Rollie Miles Rec Centre. Sarina Loots, Kirsten Goa, Elaine Solez/Diana Staley (pictured above) and Julie Kusiek all made presentations or answered questions from Committee on behalf of this group’s efforts. It’s also great because presenters live in four different neighbourhoods and will all benefit from Rollie Miles Rec Centre coming to life. Thank you to the 60 or so volunteers who prepared for the day by attending meetings or sending feedback.

Our efforts made a difference. 

Want to hear the whole discussion? Listen here starting at the 4:43:57 mark.

Two motions were passed at Committee. These are both good news for us and for small scale recreation in Edmonton. 

What does the FIRST motion mean?

This motion does a few things that were important going into Wednesday’s meeting:

• Affirms design funding (our next step) isn’t going to get held up with alternative financing discussions – we can ask for this in the spring via regular tax supported funding
• Directs administration to continue the conversation with community and stakeholders
• Names Rollie Miles as a pilot
• Adds in a Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) or other creative solutions to the options
• Sets of deadline in advance of the next Capital Budget Cycle in December 2022 (when we’d want to get construction funded)

And the second motion?

The most important piece of this motion is that it takes a big picture view of alternative financing for recreation in Edmonton.

• Affirms Rollie Miles can’t be the only facility where alternative financing is expected
• Gets to the policy question around city-wide versus local benefit and what mix of city supported tax base funding should be expected to give rec projects lift off and how much should be generated in an alternative way (the first motion above speaks more to the tools that could be used in a variety of situations)

Bottom line is, Council is aware of the equity piece of this conversation and is looking to address those issues (which types of projects pay alternatively and in what proportion of total cost) at a city-wide policy level. 

What’s Next?

The immediate next step is to prepare for the spring supplemental budget adjustments. This is when we can ask for design funding for Rollie Miles Rec Centre. Getting design funding in the spring is essential to calculating an accurate capital construction ask before the next funding cycle deliberations in 2022. Stay tuned.