It’s the number one issue Thorold City Council just can’t put to bed: Who actually owns the Canada Summer Games Arena?
During last night's city council meeting, councillors finally got their answer — and it is not Thorold.
To build the Canada Games facility, a consortium agreement was drafted up between the four partners: Brock University, Thorold, St. Catharines and the Niagara Region.
In the agreement, the four parties are commonly referred to as the co-tenants, while Brock University is also referred to as the landowner. The terminology has led to some confusion as to Thorold's actual stake in the arena.
To clear things up once and for all, City Hall asked a municipal lawyer to look over the consortium and leasing agreements, and his findings were presented in a letter to Thorold City Council last night.
According to the solicitor: “The Buildings are, and shall remain, the property of the Tenant until the termination or determination of this Lease, at which time the same shall, subject to 18.2 hereof, become the property of the Landlord without any payment or compensation to the Tenant.”
With the lease up for renegotiation after 38 years, some councillors worry that Brock will take the building back and leave Thorold with nothing.
“I brought this up three years ago and nobody wanted to listen,” Councillor Anthony Longo told his fellow councillors. “Nobody wanted to ask the questions before we signed it other than a few people and now we are stuck with it.”
Councillor Longo saw support from Councillors Jim Handley and Carmen DeRose, as they were the sole dissenting votes on council when the Canada Games deal was approved back in 2019.
“I think this was a crappy deal,” Councillor DeRose said. “I don’t understand how lawyers would have agreed to this. If it was their money they never would have. They’re calling us an owner now because we’re paying for capital renewal and all the expenses. Once 38 years go by we own nothing."
While this was certainly not the first time the councillors voiced their discontent with the deal, others council members want to move on already.
“We have been doing this for four years,” said Councillor Ken Sentance. “We had this information in front of us. We had a democratic vote. I think this was a great deal that came at a good time. We got it pre-Covid prices. I understand you guys are against this but this was worth it for what we needed. I’ll vote for this 100 times.”
But Councillor Longo thinks that vote was not democratic at all.
“This was never in front of us, this was behind the scenes,” he said. “The public had no chance to look at it and when council even voted on this agreement it was not included in the council package. It was done in ways that things are never done.”
“We followed procedure that we were guided by by our legal advice,” said Mayor Terry Ugulini, in response. “That’s the way it happened. We hired lawyers and we followed their guidance.”
Now that the question of ownership has finally been cleared up, will city council be able to let the issue go? Only time will tell.
