The total cost for a project to install a multi-use building beside Fen Burdett Stadium in Mahon Park has ballooned past its initial budget, and the municipality is covering the overage.
City of North Vancouver council voted unanimously on Monday to approve an additional $1.4 million for the project, bringing the municipality’s total contribution to $6.7 million. The plan kicked off after getting a $2.7-million grant from ChildCareBC in 2021. North Vancouver Sports Council is also providing $125,000.
Once completed, the two-level building will include a 4,900-square-foot childcare centre (with 25 spaces for three- to five-year-olds and 12 spaces for infants and toddlers), universally accessible washrooms and change rooms, as well as an outdoor pavilion.
The current version of the plan has expanded beyond its first iteration. At the direction of council, the change rooms were added to the scope in May 2022, and additional city funding was secured to cover the cost. In August 2022 and May of this year, staff applied for and received more funds from ChildCareBC for the childcare centre, allowing the project to advance to the phase of getting a formal cost estimate.
After a detailed review, the total estimated cost is $9.5 million, a $1.4-million shortfall from the $8.1 million that was already secured.
The new structure will replace an existing fieldhouse that has been deemed end of life. According to a staff report, the existing washrooms are well used but don’t meet current universal design standards for accessibility and inclusiveness.
“The new public washrooms consist of six individual, gender neutral toilet compartments each with their own sink,” reads the report. Two of the washrooms are universally accessible. All of the washrooms will be operational year-round to support use of the adjacent park.
The budget also provisions for temporary washrooms during construction.
At the council meeting, Coun. Tony Valente questioned whether decisions like this, before the tender phase, should happen in public.
“I recognize the balance we try to strike between transparency, but also balancing the fact that we’re gonna go for a tender, and it’s all in the public now,” he said.
Mayor Linda Buchanan said she took Valente’s points to heart.
“I think that’s something we should be taking a look at in terms of making sure that we’re getting bids that are in the best interest for people doing business, but also the best interests of government,” she said, “because we sometimes are seen to be an easy target.”
