A referendum to decide whether Castlegar and area residents are willing to pay for a second ice surface and a walking track is likely a year away, city council has heard.
Last week the Regional District of Central Kootenay gave the go-ahead to borrow up to $15 million for the project, pending approval from voters in the city and electoral Area J, which includes Ootischenia, Robson, and other rural communities. The money would be repaid over 25 years.
Unlike two previous referenda, residents of electoral Area I, which includes Brilliant, Shoreacres, Tarrys, and Thrums, would not contribute toward the cost of building the new facilities. But if they are approved, residents would be on the hook for ongoing operations and maintenance.
“These are just the first steps in trying to move this project forward and get it to referendum for the public to decide,” city councillor Brian Bogle, who sits on the recreation commission, told his colleagues.
Councillor Cherryl MacLeod asked Bogle for a best guess on a timeline
“Possibly it would be in the spring or early fall [of 2026],” he replied. “Different things need to happen, but I would hope we have something by then.”
Councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff, who is also on the rec commission, said the fall of 2026 “is most reasonable.”
“You have to go for tender, you have to decide what your project is,” she said. “All kinds of things have to happen, and that’s going to take about a year.”
If the vote was held in the fall of 2026 it could potentially coincide with the next round of local government elections, thereby costing less than a standalone vote.
The same architectural firm that worked on the failed 2018 referendum to add a new ice sheet in Castlegar has been retained for the latest version of the project.
The RDCK has applied for up to $7 million from the Strategic Priorities Fund, administered by the Union of BC Municipalities.
For the foreseeable future, Castlegar will have a single sheet of ice, following the closure and demolition of the Pioneer Arena to make way for medical offices and a housing project, announced two years ago this week.
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