UPDATED: Canadian International Hockey Academy to be funded under Building Canada. Project relocates from Embrun to Rockland

The Canadian International Hockey Academy (CIHA) will be receiving funding under Building Canada — but it won't be in Embrun.

Backers of the academy have changed the project's location to Rockland, only one week before a funding annoucement scheduled for July 8.

The sudden change was announced at a press conference on June 30.

CIHA representative Mathieu Mault said officials from Infrastructure Canada recently cited an objection to the proposal, which prompted the change.

Building Canada requires projects to be funded in equal parts from three tiers of government, and the CIHA's initial request did not include municipal funding.

The academy's initial proposal was to be partly owned and operated by a nonprofit group on private land.

"Senior levels of government told us that they wanted the municipality or a public institution to take ownership of the facility," Mault said.

As a result of this news, Mault said, the CIHA project approached the municipality of Russell to see if was interested in paying for one-third of the price of the NHL-size arenas and then assuming ownership. The other two-thirds would have been paid by the provincial and federal government.

The municipality declined and the project was snapped up by Rockland.

Project founder Robert Boudreau sent a letter to Russell's council and residents. "After seven years of emotional and financial investment, I have come to the realization that in order for this dream to finally come true a new partnership is required. This new partnership is with the municipality of Clarence Rockland," he wrote. "In the end, uncontrollable circumstances made it such that a decision had to be taken which was either to abandon the project all together, or more it somewhere else where it would flourish."

Lemieux supports project
Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MP Pierre Lemieux said his office had reviewed the application before it was submitted to Infrastructure Canada.

Lemieux said Infrastructure Canada did not disqualify the application; rather it reccomended a way of increasing the project's chances of being funded.

"The hockey academy is a non-profit group which is different than a for-profit business. It is possible to provide funding within Building Canada under those circumstances. However Infrastructure Canada told us funding was more likely if the municipality is involved," Lemieux said.

He added: "I must admit that it is very difficult to plan for every contingency, especially when two levels of government are involved, but I think Mr. Mault would confirm that by working together we overcame many many hurdles all throughout the past 18 months to finally bring this project to where it is today."Lemieux reiterated his support for the CIHA. "This is a very good project; it's going to be the only hockey academy in all of Eastern Ontario. A jewel within the riding, it's one of those things the riding will be able to boast of," he said.

Russell mayor responds
Russell Mayor Ken Hill recently published an open letter, saying council was right to decline the CIHA's request for millions.

Hill said he supports the project, but said council could not justify spending the amount required for two NHL-sized arenas in Embrun.

While it was a closed meeting, an estimate based on previous plans would put the project at abuot $20 million, with one third being about $6.2 million.

"Council received an offer that was not reflective of the needs of the people," Hill said. "The reality is that taxpayers would have had to make a significant contribution, one large enough that council through a unanimous registered public vote was not prepared to support on behalf of the community."

When Russell had first been approached by the CIHA, the municipality had been asked to provide 'lobbying and moral support' without a demand for funding.

However, the CIHA later changed these conditions upon learning its Building Canada funding was in jeopardy.

Rockland Mayor Richard Lalonde
When the municipality of Russell announced it would not fund one third of the CIHA project, Rockland jumped on the opportunity to invest $6.8 million.

 

Rockland Mayor Richard Lalonde said the municipality owns 33 acres of land in Rockland beside the Ottawa River which is zoned as industrial.

If funding under Building Canada is approved, the municipality would retain ownership of 10 acres of land where the two NHL-size rinks would be built at a total cost of $20.4 million.

Rockland could then sell the remaining 23 acres of land to the CIHA, where the project's founders would construct buildings such as a fitness centre for athletes and their dorms at a cost of about $4 million.

Lalonde said those acres usually cost $55,000 per acre with services, but he said the municipality might reduce the price.

Details about the land sale have yet to be negotiated, but Lalonde calls the situation mutually beneficial.

According to the plan, the municipality of Clarence-Rockland would get 70 per cent of the ice time at the rinks and would therefore no longer have to build a new arena in 2013.

Maintenance of the arena would be paid by the CIHA.

"There is definitely a demand for more ice time. We have five Cobra competitive teams and some cannot even get one hour per week," Lalonde said. "We also know this will have excellent financial repercussions for the community."

Lalonde added that council has not yet decided if they will borrow the $6.8 million, or dip into the community's reserves.

Lalonde also said Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MP Pierre Lemieux and MPP Jean-Marc Lalonde were scheduled to make an announcement in Rockland on July 8, but said he did not know if it was going to be the announcement of Building Canada funding. Lalonde is the brother of MPP Jean-Marc Lalonde, whose former press secretary was the CIH representative Mault.

New school selected
Mault said the school would initially have 80 students, but could expand to house 200.

 

The CIHA originally had an agreement with the Upper Canada District School Board and the new Russell Public High School so that its 200 students would have a place to study during the day.

If the CIHA receives funding, students will now go to Rockland District High School, which is also in the Upper Canada District School Board.

Construction would be delayed
Mault said the architectural plans for the academy would not change, despite the new location and a slightly smaller terrain.

He said the CIHA now had to reach an agreement with Clarence-Rockland about buying land if funding is approved. The entire projects still depends upon the approval of Building Canada.

"If this does go through, it will be an unprecedented announcement in the sense that arena projects don=t usually get this level of funding. Some aspects of this arena go far beyond what a regional municipal arena would hold such as larger dressing rooms, 2,500 seats, meeting and conference facilities, press boxes and therapy rooms. This is a much larger facility than a traditional municipal arena, and that is because of our 10-year agreement with Hockey Canada which would use the centre as a training facility," Mault said.

As of press time on July 7, the CIHA website still referred to the school in the present tense, as though it were already built in Embrun.

Watch for more on this story as it develops . .

LINKS ON THIS STORY:
—Read mayor Ken Hill's letter to the public

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