Standing committee recommends against more city funding for Thunder Bay Art Gallery
City Council’s Finance and Administration Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday included a request by the still-under-construction Thunder Bay Art Gallery for an additional $2.5 million of city funding.
The city initially pledged $5 million to the project back in 2017. At the time, that $5 million was meant to represent 10% of the total cost of building the gallery. The rest of the cost is meant to be funded through a combination of federal and provincial funding, grants, and private fundraising.
Earlier this year, the gallery came to the city with a request for more funding, explaining that the estimated cost of the facility had increased from $50 million to $75 million.
On Tuesday, city councillors on the standing committee weighed the request.
City government presented councillors with a plan to spend $1.25 million from the city’s Municipal Accommodation Tax reserve fund, split between the 2025 and 2026 budgets, and an additional $1.25 million from the Renew Thunder Bay reserve fund, which is meant to go towards projects to help the city grow economically.
City Manager John Collin explained to councillors on the committee that increasing the city’s funding of the project would allow it to maintain the 10% contribution to the project.
“But the project now is closer to $80 million instead of $60 million,” the City Manager said.
In a previous meeting with City Council, the art gallery proposed a way to partially open the building to visitors before construction is fully completed, allowing the building to develop a proof-of-concept and begin earning revenues, offering it an opportunity to complete its fundraising down the line.
At present, the gallery has raised approximately two-thirds of what it requires to be completed.
Councillors on the standing committee were not interested in the proposal.
Councillor Albert Aiello of the McIntyre Ward seemed opposed to the entire concept of the art gallery. “I don’t think there’s an appetite out in the community for this,” Aiello argued. He pointed out that funding for the art gallery was agreed upon in 2017, before the current city council was elected.
“We have got to stop the precedent of bailing people out. How you can start a building and not have the money to finish it… It’s very difficult to understand that,” Aiello said.
City Manager John Collin suggested that inflation likely contributed to the increased cost of the building.
Though likely not the sole reason, goods and services in Canada have seen prices rise by more than a quarter in the last few years, with the COVID-19 pandemic years producing particularly high inflation rates. Any cost estimate made by the art gallery would have happened long before the pandemic.
Councillor Aiello was not alone in his unwillingness to support the venture. The standing committee held two votes on the matter, first voting down the $2.5 million funding proposal, and then voting down a modified proposal just offering the $1.25 million from the Renew Thunder Bay reserve fund.
The standing committee’s votes are not binding: the committee’s decision will be presented at a future City Council meeting, where the entire council will debate and ultimately decide on whether to offer the additional funds to the gallery.
