The Town of Hinton will hold a plebiscite on the three options for modernizing the Dr. Duncan Murray Recreation Centre.
On Tuesday (April 1), council directed administration to hold the plebiscite in conjunction with the 2025 municipal election on Oct. 20.
“I think it’s the best route forward, setting up the next council for some marching orders in regards to this project,” said Coun. Trevor Haas.
The modernization of Hinton’s recreation centre has been a topic of public discussion for roughly 15 years. Last October, of the recreation centre and outlined for the facility.
These plans include maintaining the existing facility, renovating the facility and building a new fieldhouse and building a brand-new facility. The option to build a new facility could cost the Town up to $100 million extra.
The plebiscite will ask the voters which of the three modernization options they would like the Town to pursue.
To ensure residents are informed enough to vote on the matter, administration recommended hiring a contractor to educate the public on the options.
Coun. Ryan Maguhn acknowledged this process was important for public transparency and letting residents know that an improved recreation centre would come with significant costs.
“People need good information in order to make good, informed decisions come October,” Maguhn said.
Administration had recommended hiring a contractor, but council voted 2-2 against the decision, which means the work will be kept in-house.
Maguhn and Coun. Stuart Taylor voted against hiring the contractor, while Haas and Coun. Albert Ostashek voted in favour. The other three council members were not in attendance.
Maguhn asked why administration wanted to use a contractor instead.
CAO Jordan Panasiuk replied while the Town would be able to reach people who regularly paid attention to municipal business, it would be more difficult to reach residents who weren’t fully engaged.
“We can do a small portion of that, but we’ll still have our regular day-to-day duties as internal staff, so this is just a much more comprehensive education to try and get more of the population informed and motivated to go out and to vote and to participate in this process,” Panasiuk said.
Although the cost of the contractor was initially estimated at $42,000, administration lowered the estimate to $30,000 since holding the plebiscite in conjunction with the municipal election would yield savings.
Haas defended the $30,000 expenditure since it was necessary to reach residents who weren’t normally engaged to get the clearest picture possible.
“I just really, truly believe that it’s money well spent to get as much good information as possible from our citizens,” he said.
Taylor argued the Town already had two in-house staff who were more than capable of presenting public information.
Maguhn added they needed to trust residents to make educated decisions for themselves and didn’t feel the Town needed to spend $30,000 chasing down people at grocery stores.
“It’s significant enough to hurt the Town budget moving forward, but I don’t feel the net result in calling citizens to actions is actually going to be beneficial, not if $100 million is on the line and that doesn’t motion them to action,” he said.
