Windsor's mayor believes the proposed City Hall Square Ice Rink project is the same as an investment in a park and hopes council will approve the plan.
Drew Dilkens points to what's happening in Detroit.
"Whenever you put on the TV and they're talking about Detroit now, they're showing you a picture of Campus Martius Park, which is the ice rink and the tree," he says. "So we're trying to create our own civic space here that has people coming to city hall. This is a multi-year project; no one on city council today will be here when all of the civic esplanade is built out, but we have to start somewhere."
On Monday, council voted to defer a report seeking approval of an agreement with the low bidder, Oscar Construction Company Limited, for over $11.7 million to construct the project, while also supporting the $15.4 million overall costs of the plan.
The overall price tag is over $6 million above the $9.3 million budget.
The issue will now be discussed at the June 10 meeting of council to allow data collected about free ice skating offered in Windsor to be included in the report and give the public a chance to have a say on the rising cost of the project.
Dilkens says they understand there are overages in capital budgets, which is why council approved a capital inflation budget line item to handle these types of increases.
"The other source we're drawing from is MAT (Municipal Accommodation Tax), the hotel-tourism tax. So visitors to the community stay in a hotel and pay a tax, and we're using some of that funding along with our gas tax funding, which is money we get based on our transit ridership that comes to the City of Windsor. This is one of those eligible expenditures," he says.
If approved by council, the budget shortfall would also be covered by money from the 2025 Canada Community-Building Fund, the Corporate Inflation Mitigation budget, and the 2025 Tourism Infrastructure Development and Program fund.
Dilkens says at the end of the day, council just has to decide if they want a 12-month feature that has ice skating and a water feature out in front of city hall, do they want something less, or do nothing at all.
"We've gone through and spent a lot of money getting the consultants reports and having the architect design these works. I'm hoping they want to proceed with some type of project," he says.
Administration informed council that they have been advised that a delay will mean the construction timelines will not be met for this upcoming season if materials cannot be ordered at this time.
It would include a long island positioned in the middle of the ice rink, providing a skating loop that could also be outfitted with winter and holiday-themed lighting and decorations.
The island would also contain a water feature, allowing for water and lighting activation in the spring, summer, and fall.
The report says the pavilion will be surrounded by native tree species and landscaping, extending the natural green environment that exists to the north at Senator David A. Croll Park.
In June 2022, council voted to retire the Charles Clark Square outdoor skating rink due to the rising cost of repairs needed to ensure the aging downtown rink would be functional.