January 18, 2019

City of Winnipeg on the hook for $4.85M in convention centre upgrades

Winnipeg city hall is being asked to put up $4.85 million to complete upgrades to the original portion of the RBC Convention Centre.

Council is also being asked to dip deeper into the downtown marketing reserve fund to pay off the city’s share of the convention centre expansion loan in a shorter period of time.

An administrative report to the Jan. 22 meeting executive policy committee states about $4 million is needed for fire suppression and $850,000 is needed to bring the washrooms up to current building code standards.

The report recommends council finance the upgrades with $2.1 million from the downtown marketing reserve fund (also known as the hotel room tax) and $2.75 million from the proceeds of the settlement with convention centre expansion builder Stuart Olson.

The centre is owned by the city, which is responsible for its debt.

The provincial government shared in the cost of the 2012-15 expansion (which added some 131,000 square feet of space and underground parking) through a tax incremental funding grant and has provided funds to offset operating costs of the original building. However, the report notes the government led by Tory Premier Brian Pallister has reduced its share of ongoing operating costs to $847,800 in 2018 from $1.4 million prior to 2016, and $1.26 million in 2017.

The province did not respond to a request from both convention centre management and civic officials to pay for a part of the upgrade costs, the report notes.

The report says the upgrades are in addition to about $2 million in improvements planned for the original portion of the downtown complex.

The administration is also proposing city hall dip deeper into the downtown marketing reserve fund to pay off the city’s share of the centre expansion loan in 11 years, rather than the originally planned for 25.

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said the loan guarantees had been approved under the Sam Katz administration, and the current council is trying to make the best of the financial situation presented to it.

Bowman told reporters the convention centre is a key component of the city’s economic development and city hall has no alternative but to make the payments.

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