ALAN YOUNG
It’s a well-known fact that the City of Fernie is out of money. So the City’s proposal to divest itself of Max Turyk Community Centre to Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie-Britannique seems to make sense on some level. The rationale of putting money back in reserve fund coffers while extolling the virtue of saving taxpayers some money may resonate as common sense, but it is not. It is Fool’s Gold. As everyone has heard, we are being offered $3.4M for the school and 8.5 acres, a property used by a wide range of community groups. I say ‘we’ because we, the citizens of Fernie, are the true owners of this property. It’s not Mayor’s or Council’s, nor is it City staff’s. Once MTCC is sold, it’s gone from our community land portfolio for good and with it, control over how it will serve our community. Forever.
The public institutional zoning valuation is not the highest and best use designation, it’s merely how the property is currently used. Yet, that’s how the price was determined. The City controls both subdivision and zoning. Why not subdivide into two parcels, unlocking the true value of the property. Keep the fields and over half the land. Offer to sell the remainder of the land and the building to CSF then negotiate to enshrine the uses currently in place. I have been told that CSF won’t do that because they want the whole thing. Of course they do, it’s undervalued!
I’m not sure why we are allowing ourselves to be strong armed by an organization based out of Vancouver. The CSF’s mandate is to provide K-12 public education in French throughout the province. Our community welfare is not in their mandate. If they don’t want to purchase just the school then so be it, we’ll keep MTCC, stay in control and work on a long term plan that benefits everybody.
As for the taxpayers, the operating budget for Max Turyk is $63,379.53. Fernie has a population approaching 6,000. That’s $10/resident per year to cover the budget in order to maintain the important community services and activities operating from MTCC. If we continue to own the school portion and it becomes untenable to do so, we can always sell it at a later date. And find a better, newer space for the current users. We may need to do a deal at some point but not this deal and not now.
I have read all the Q&A, went to the public information session, spoken in person with fellow citizens, decision makers and wonder how we got here. It got me thinking of a community’s true organizational flow chart. We the citizens at the top, then Mayor and Council as our representatives, then City staff to execute what we want and need to happen. The overwhelming sentiment to this deal is negative and people feel this is being railroaded through. The dog wags the tail, not the other way around. I encourage everyone to pay very close attention to how each counsellor votes and how staff brings this forward. Then we’ll see who really has the whole community’s interest at heart and who’s willing to put their $10 where it counts. If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything and just because you can do something it doesn’t mean you should.
Alan Young, with CAO of the day, negotiated the City’s purchase of Max Turyk in 2008. He supports Ecole Sophie Morigeau, Fernie Youth Soccer, Fernie Childcare Society, Fernie Judo, Forest School, Fernie School Aged Care and pickleball..