Iqaluit aquatic centre financing delay pushes back grand opening date

The groundwork for Iqaluit’s $34-million aquatic centre is almost done, but construction of the structure won’t begin until the fall of 2015. The centre will open at end of 2016, instead of May that year, as originally planned. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Iqalummiut will have to wait an extra summer before the city’s aquatic centre opens, due to a delay in financing for the $34-million project.

Although the foundations for the multipurpose facility, touted as the City of Iqaluit’s biggest single project ever, are on schedule, construction of the structure will carry over into the summer of 2016 as well as 2015.

This means that the grand opening will take place in the final months of 2016 instead of May that year, as originally planned, says the city’s director of recreation, Amy Elgersma.

A primary loan of $26.5 million from Canada Life Assurance Company, which was supposed to finance the greater part of the project, fell apart in June.

“The loan with that organization was dragging out, causing us delays,” Elgersma reported to city council, Sept. 9, during a verbal update from the department of recreation.

“It was at that point, after our agreement was completed on timelines, that we needed to speak with other lending agencies.”

The city moved to a second option with the Bank of Montreal, which offered a similar lending arrangement. Once construction is completed in 2016, a $26.5 million loan will be repaid over 25 years according to a set schedule, Elgersma said.

City council passed a motion to enter into an agreement with BMO on July 8, the director told Nunatsiaq News.

A second loan of $7.5 million will cover the rest of the $34 million project’s cost. Elgersma said the city will announce the source of the second loan once the deal is finished.

The city marked the project’s $34 million budget as a high point in the project’s development, because the sum amounted to $6 million less than the $40 million ratepayers agreed to in a contentious referendum in 2012.

Former mayor John Graham said earlier this year that this demonstrated the city’s commitment to limit the project’s high costs, which at least two councillors have consistently opposed.

Located next to the Arnaitok building, which houses city hall, the fire hall and an arena, the aquatic centre will be built on 305 piles, drilled into the bedrock beneath the ground.

Canadrill Ltd. recently completed all piling work, Elgersma said.

“It’s really important to have a good, solid foundation, especially for such a big building,” she reported to council. “We had an independent monitor oversee the work, and every pile that was drilled. Everything went well, and we’re really pleased with the results.”

The aquatic centre will house two pools, a fitness centre, changing rooms, concession stands and other extras on two floors.

The facility’s construction contract is now up for tender.

“We expect the main construction to be awarded some time in October,” Elgersma said.

That work will begin in fall of 2015, and continue in the summer and fall of 2016.

The facility will have parking spaces for 70 vehicles. Only 20 of these will be next to the centre, in a small lot to the north.

The city will lay out another 50 spaces on the next block north of the centre, 61 metres from the entrance, Elgersma said.

Three mixed residential-commercial buildings, located next to the city’s Elks Lodge, will be removed to make way for the larger parking lot in 2016.

“Instead of just demolishing them, we’re hoping that somebody can make use of them,” Elgersma told Nunatsiaq News. “We want to sell them off towards the end of construction.”

The aquatic centre’s senior project manager, Pierre Courteau of MHPM Project Managers Inc., left his firm in the spring, according to Elgersma.

Interim replacements will make way for Pierre Meredith, who will take the lead role in mid-October, she said.

Coun. Kenny Bell noted at the Sept. 9 meeting that Courteau “said he was never part of a project that was over budget, or over time.”

He then asked whether the centre’s delayed opening means that costs will escalate.

“We are actually under budget right now,” Elgersma replied. “We will keep a close eye on that, and we will be working very diligently on this project.”