Fort Simpson council questions operation costs of building fitness centre

The federal government has set aside almost half a million dollars for a fitness centre in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., but that's no guarantee it will get built.

Darlene Sibbeston, mayor of Fort Simpson, says the village's current council wants to canvass public opinion and figure out the project's ongoing operations and maintenance costs first before taking the feds up on their offer.

"From the start of this application process right up until now, there's been no estimation as to how much it will cost in terms of O and M," said Sibbeston. "That's what we're working towards."

Last year the previous village council applied for money under Infrastructure Canada's Small Communities Fund.

On Wednesday, N.W.T. MP Michael McLeod confirmed Infrastructure Canada is willing to give the village $447,514 — roughly 75 per cent of the cost to convert one half of an existing building into a fitness centre.

"It's not to say that we're not going to do a fitness centre, we just want to know how much it's going to cost," said Sibbeston. "If the community's in support of a fitness centre, then absolutely we'll use that funding."

But doing so could tie the village to footing the cost of running the centre for its whole life, which would either require increasing property taxes or cutting back on other services in the village, she said.

"We really want to put the onus back onto the community to say, 'Is this something that you need?' I'm willing to go door-to-door if that's what it takes."

A spokesperson for Industry Canada said Thursday if a council decides not to use money from the Small Communities Fund for the project the money was intended for, it has to give that money back so that it can go to other projects in the territory.