New Renfrew, Ont. recreation centre double initial cost estimates

Coming in late and over budget, Renfrew's new recreation centre is not working out as expected.

An external review of Renfrew's new MyFM Centre was presented to Renfrew's town council Dec. 19, where it was revealed the project is costing twice as much as initially budgeted.

• Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

"We estimate that the project at this point will be $35 million, including the tennis courts," said Tammy Carruthers with WSCS Consulting, who was hired to conduct the review of the project.

The expansion of the current Ma-Te-Way Centre will see the construction of a second ice pad, a walking track, a fitness centre, a gymnasium, and a cultural centre.

"Is that a realistic number or was somebody fibbing, was somebody stretching the truth?" remarked councillor Andrew Dick when presented with the findings. "The numbers don't add up."

"What we're hearing from the review is that the numbers that were presented were unrealistic," said Renfrew Mayor Tom Sidney, speaking with CTV News.

Sidney says upon review, "institutional failures" were made by previous councils, which led to the expansion far exceeding its budget.

"The type of contract we entered into was not the right contract we should have done and we're learning that now. And it's just a matter of learning from our mistakes and not doing it again."

A contract was agreed to with construction company Buttcon, which initially quoted the project at $18 million.

At the time, the town would only have to make up a difference of $7 million after being awarded $11 million in government grants.

Now the town has to pay a balance of $24 million after a total cost of $35 million was revealed.

"I would say that there was a desire to keep the budget lower, there was some value engineering that was done," said Carruthers, who added that plans by Buttcon were not very thorough.

"Their reporting is very challenging. I would not report in the same way that Buttcon does in terms of their deficiencies."

The new recreation centre was also originally planned to open in August 2022. A partial opening date has now been pushed to February 2024.

It's leaving residents to question who will be paying for the expansion now. The expectation is it will come from their tax dollars.

"Why were things not checked each time things were constructed," questioned resident Grant Lavallee.

"We're just entering into budget now, we're in a good position at this point," said Sidney when asked how the project would be paid for.

"We're going to do the best we can and we'll crunch the numbers and we'll try not to be too impactful on the residents."

A final report and recommendations will be made to council after the expansion is complete.