From The Portage Daily Graphic

The winding road to construction of a recreation facility for Portage la Prairie has not been smooth

By Shane Gibson

Central Plains Herald-Leader

Last week, councils of both the city and Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie voted separately to sign a long-term lease agreement with the Portage Industrial Exhibition Association (PIEA) for the land on which the Portage Credit Union Centre will be built.

With those two simple votes, the debate over the right location of the new sports multiplex, which has divided people in the city and RM for months, came to an abrupt end.

The PCU Centre will be built on 8.5 hectares of land owned by the PIEA at its Island Park fairgrounds. The footprint of the facility will be roughly where the racetrack, grandstand and exhibition building currently sit at the eastern edge of the grounds.

Now, all that stands in the way of the city and RM realizing their dream of building the new sports facility in Portage are four groups of tenders — if those tenders come in on budget, and councillors vote to accept them, construction on the $35.7-million project will begin immediately.

It’s been a long road to get to this point, with ups and downs, and both councils have met with both opposition and praise since the city, the RM and the Portage Multiplex Committee first embarked on a feasibility study on the project in March 2006.

“I think we all knew when we set out on this trip that we were going to have some problems, and all we can do is do the best we can with the tools that we have,” said Portage Mayor Ken Brennan. “We’re so close now to getting the tenders all in, and when the walls (start) going up there, there’s going to be literally hundreds of people in Portage that are going to be relieved that it’s finally happening.”

The first opposition to the multiplex project came nearly two years after the feasability study, when a group of ratepayers from the RM became concerned the RM council was going to tax their farm land as well as their properties to help pay for the multiplex.

The city had decided to pitch in $16 million for the project, and the RM had promised $8 million, with the remaining money coming from both the federal and provincial governments and public donations.

Last April, as the RM council sat down to pass its 2008 budget, which included a tax levy bylaw increasing taxes in the municipality by 5.1 per cent to help pay for the multiplex, that’s when citizens became vocal in their opposition.

A group of seven farmers, mostly from the Oakville area, came to the council chambers that day and spoke to council for nearly an hour about their concerns. Since then, almost every seat in the gallery has been filled at nearly every one of the RM’s twice-monthly council meetings, with people opposing most of the issues around the multiplex.

Portage RM Reeve Toby Trimble said he is happy to have had the company at his meetings because it shows democracy in action. He said his council has taken the time to answer questions at the meetings and elsewhere, but he added not all the comments he hears are in opposition.

“Certainly, having people (at council) has shown us that people have an interest, whether it’s pro or against,” explained Trimble. “People have had the opportunity to come and speak to council; I’ve been stopped in the street in various places with people who are in favour of what we’re doing.

“Usually, the people who are not in favour of things are the most vocal, though.”

The opposition has also leaked over from the gallery to the councillors themselves, with a few of the RM councillors voting against various votes along the road to the multiplex, including a vote on whether to go to tender with the project.

At their meeting on June 24, both Ward 3 Coun. Terry Simpson and Ward 7 Coun. William Alford went against their fellow councilmen and opposed going to tender.

Portage city council has seen its share of opposition to the project this year, as well. A group of more than 200 protesters filled the street in front of city hall on June 23 to show their displeasure with the decision to build the multiplex at the Island Park fairgrounds.

“I’ve said to my council and to other people around me that it’s great that we’ve got something going on in Portage la Prairie that we’re so stirred up and passionate enough about it to stand outside city hall with placards,” said Brennan about the night. “It’s just sometimes we can react to those kinds of things. Unfortunately, in that particular case, we couldn’t react because of timing, but nevertheless, we had people excited about what we were doing.”

The rally was organized in just a matter of days by a group calling itself the Save Our Island Committee, and a petition of more than 1,300 signatures was given to council. The multiplex’s opposition was quickly able to organize the rally and petition for that night with the help of technology.

Word spread through a website called portagemultiplex.com, which had been set up just a few weeks before by Dwayne Leslie, an Oakville-area farmer and the creator of his own website, globalauctionguide.com. Leslie said since its launch on June 12, portagemultiplex.com has had roughly 15,000 page views from British Columbia all the way to the east coast of Canada.

“In a matter of about 20 minutes, we had set up the portagemultiplex.com website and opened it up for people to be able to give their opinions and help spread the information to everyone,” he explained. “We knew from watching other campaigns people have done on the Internet that it can be hugely successful in very short amount of time.”

For Leslie, giving people a forum to discuss issues about the multiplex was something he really wanted to do because he doesn’t feel residents in the RM are being fairly taxed on the project .

“The RM literally can’t afford this; it’s not just the $8 million, it’s the interest costs, and it’s the operating deficit,” he explained. “It’s created a huge division amongst people, and a huge lack of respect for both councils and our elected officials; it’s something that we shouldn’t have been dragged into in the first place.”

To show online visitors what he is talking about, Leslie has added a cost calculator to his website, which he says will show both RM and city residents exactly how much of their taxes will be spent to build and pay off the debt incurred for the multiplex over the next 15 years.

Leslie has used current mill rate numbers in the calculator, and said he has talked to representatives from both councils and they have verified the numbers are accurate.

“We give them a sheet where they can input their own assessment numbers and basically do all of the calculations themselves and basically see for themselves what it’s going to cost them,” he explained.

Leslie said when he ran his own numbers through the calculator, he was surprised to find he’d be paying $48,500 in taxes over the next 15 years just on his roughly 800 hectares of farm land, just to pay for the multiplex, and not including the rest of his taxes.

Neither Trimble nor Brennan said they have looked at Leslie’s website.

“I don’t believe that anyplace where somebody can say what they want and not have to sign their name to it is valid,” said the mayor. “It’s not a concern to me.”

The city and the RM are very close to beginning construction of the PCU Centre, with all or some of the tenders expected to be voted on by both councils at their next regularly-scheduled meetings.

“I think we’re moving along,” Trimble said. “We’ve got the agreement signed with the fairboard, and we’re awaiting the tenders, and when they come in — hopefully, within our reach — then construction will be able to get underway.”

Leslie is not so optimistic.

“It is not a done deal by any means,” he said. “The fact that the tenders that were supposed to be done in August are being put off well into September tells that there are problems and issues that they are trying to work through.”

City council will meet next on Monday and the RM on Tuesday.

No matter what is decided at those meetings, Brennan said he’s pleased with how his council has handled the ups and downs that have come with embarking on such a huge project.

“I’m really grateful that I have the council that I have because this has been, for many of us, a test of our leadership abilities. And this council has stood firm on this right through and have helped us make the right decisions, even if it meant taking it on the chin a few times,” he said. “A weaker council may not have been able to get us to where we are today, and I’m pretty proud to be part of that group.”