A lack of financial benefits, concerns over long-term risk and a lack of transparency were key reasons fuelling Councillor Morgan Nagel’s rejection of the proposed operating agreement with YMCA Calgary.
He’s relieved YMCA Calgary has withdrawn its application.
“I’m glad that the whole thing has just come to an end because it wasn’t shaping up like it would be a very good deal for Cochrane,” said Nagel. “I understand the YMCA’s position as to why they would have withdrawn, like they’re not looking to get into a political battle or debate with a new business partner. I wish them all the best.”
How the town handled the YMCA discussions was a breaking point for Nagel. He has announced his intention to run for mayor in the fall election and presented a list of other concerns in a 23-minute video streamed on his social media early yesterday morning.
Nagel emphasized the importance of looking beyond verbal commitments and focusing on the long-term implications embedded in the proposed contract that, in his view, provided no financial benefit to the town while giving up control by the community.
“Understand that in five, 10, 15 years, people who aren’t even part of the conversation today will be the ones executing this contract,” he said. “It’s all about the details — and the proposed contract didn’t offer a clear financial benefit for Cochrane.”
Under the terms of the draft agreement, YMCA Calgary would have assumed full operational control of the SLS Centre. However, the town would have remained financially responsible for any operational shortfalls if the YMCA failed to generate a surplus. And if it was able to operate in the black, there was no guarantee the money would remain in Cochrane.
One of Nagel’s biggest concerns was the undisclosed administrative fee that would be charged by the YMCA and how it would be utilized.
He’s disturbed that town administration said it didn’t have details on the size of the administrative fee during the non-statutory public hearing.
“And so my concern is, what if the YMCA decides they’re going to charge a 15, 20, 30 per cent operational fee to transfer money out of the Town of Cochrane and into the broader YMCA organization? So then you’d have the brand new state-of-the-art Cochrane facility probably subsidizing a bunch of failing facilities in other jurisdictions.”
At one point, it appeared there wouldn’t be a public hearing on the proposal — a concession Nagel and other councillors finally won.
“There were people on council suggesting we didn’t need a public hearing. We’ve been talking for so long and should have had all the information already. But that’s really, I think, a misleading statement, because I’m telling you with full confidence and honesty, council was just told for a year and a half, ‘Just wait, just wait, just wait — you’ll get more details.’
“And then when it came time to ask the questions to get those details for ourselves as well as the public, the details just weren’t there, and a lot of the things weren’t even properly thought through.”
Nagel said the current operation is not without issues, but it’s not the major money pit some portray it to be. Before the swimming pool was added, the SLS Centre was operating in the black.
“I don’t think that the current situation is necessarily perfect, but I also don’t think it’s that bad. Now, with all that being said, I think the next step is going to be engaging with the board and seeing if we can address some of these concerns.
“Something that was mentioned to me when I discussed this whole issue with the people at the SLS Centre was that they felt completely blindsided by the RFP coming forward in the first place. They expressed to me that they didn’t feel there were concerns brought forward from the board to management, saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to do things better.’”
He expressed confidence in the current management team and the community’s ability to guide the facility toward a more effective and sustainable future under the existing governance model.
“I believe that if we were to ask the current management team to tighten things up a bit, to reduce the budget deficit and improve standards — including addressing recurring maintenance and lifecycle issues — they’d be open to it. I really think if we engage with them, they’ll be willing to improve the delivery of service at the rec centre.”
He was pleased by the surge in public interest.
“With the way this has gotten the whole community riled up and pulled together, I think you’re going to see renewed interest from residents wanting to volunteer and participate on the board,” he said. “If there was ever a question of whether we can attract qualified board members, I bet a large number of people who attended that public hearing would put their names forward. They’d make fantastic members.”
He also believes the outpouring of support from the public may have sparked a renewed sense of purpose within the SLS Centre’s staff, whose future was left dangling in the wind.
“I think that you’re probably going to see better results coming from the existing model than we saw previously, because I think everybody got united and fired up again.”