EDMONTON – The Kinsmen Sports Centre is asking the city to fund $106 million in upgrades to the public facility.
On Monday, a city committee took a step forward on a plan that would see the creation of a ground floor lobby, expanding the fitness centre, adding new racket courts, widen the 50-metre warm-up pool, and add more parking spaces.
“We approved the master plan but we haven’t approved any funding towards it,” explained Councillor Michael Oshry. “So, now there’s a plan for the Kinsmen rec facility, but whether or not it gets funded is still up to council.”
The funding will be discussed by council during budget deliberations which begin in late November.
The Kinsmen is the city’s second busiest recreation centre.
“I think there are certain facilities that are city-wide facilities,” said Councillor Ben Henderson. “There are expectations of the citizens to have one of them in the city, and I think Kinsmen is one of them.”
“If we want to have a top-class facility for the city that you can use for meets, that you can use as a competition space, that you can use for high caliber training, the Kinsmen is where it needs to go,” he added.
“The Kinsmen is where it is, and we haven’t done any major work on it in a long time.
“This is a facility for all those kids and athletes that want to be high performance across our city,” said Henderson. “If they don’t have it, they are going to have to go somewhere else to get it.”
“I think it’s part of the expectation of living in a big city. A big city has to be able to provide a facility of this nature to make sure that it is kept up-to-date,” said Henderson.
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However, Councillor Michael Oshry said, if he had to choose between upgrades to Kinsmen and a new facility in the west end, he’d prioritize the latter.
“We’ve got an existing facility in Kinsmen that’s functional and we don’t have a facility in the west end, which is one of the fastest-growing areas of the city.
“There’s enough families and kids there now that we need a facility there,” said Oshry. “The spot’s been allocated we just don’t have any funding towards it. The discussion… for me, is whether or not we should refurbish Kinsmen or build a new facility that’s going to accommodate tens of thousands of families.”
He said, down the road, there’s potential to tackle both projects, but his priority would be building a facility where there isn’t one already.
“I look at the priorities of the city and number of users we can get in a west end facility, which would be over a million.
“Why would we look at refurbishing something that is existing that does need some sprucing up… versus building something new that is non-existent?”
With the additional funding, the facility’s director believes it could attract over a million people.
“We’ve had great success with Terwillegar rec centre,” said Oshry. “That facility actually breaks even more or less for the city, so it doesn’t cost the taxpayers to operate it. We get a million people a year there, and now we’ve got a similar demographic in the far west end of the city – the similar number of people – and there’s absolutely no rec facilities anywhere near there.”
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Henderson said it doesn’t have to be a case of one or the other.
“I think to say that they’re one or the other is to misunderstand what’s being put forward… I think we need rec centres in all parts of the city… we also need to have these city-wide facilities … you can’t provide something of that caliber in all parts of the city.”
In the end, both councillors agree it all comes down to funding and priorities.
“I would hope actually that we can get our design pieces in place now because I know we can’t afford to get any of this stuff built in the next budget,” said Henderson. “But I’m hoping it’ll be ready to go in the next budget which I think will be a little easier on us.”
Oshry said the issue would be addressed in the next four-year capital budget.
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