A last-ditch effort to stop the Flin Flon school board from buying a vacant church proved futile last week, as the board chairman heard from concerned taxpayers without realizing the purchase had already been finalized.
Greg East, one of those taxpayers, appeared before trustees and insisted their plan to buy the former St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church will entail renovation expenses beyond the $30,000 purchase price.
He said he spoke with officials who confirmed the decades-old church had not undergone fire or electrical inspections. When he gave trustees a chance to correct that statement, none did.
“The due diligence, therefore, has not been done,” said East, addressing trustees at their Tuesday, April 11 meeting.
“Unless I’m completely living on the wrong planet and in the wrong town in the wrong province, you will need an inspection by the Office of the Fire Commissioner and some electrical inspections before you can even contemplate putting students into a building that’s 68 years old. Then you will need to set up tenders and then you will have to receive proposals back…and then you will find out what it’s going to cost.”
East, who himself has purchased older buildings, said the St. Mary’s renovations could cost $50,000 or $300,000 – “it’s an unknown number” and that’s “very, very troubling.”
He told trustees the public needs “to know those numbers and so do you before you spend money on our behalf that we haven’t got, but which will be borrowed money.”
East asked trustees three times to confirm whether the St. Mary’s purchase had been completed before receiving an answer that satisfied him.
Board chairman Murray Skeavington initially said trustees would respond to East within two weeks. This is a standard timeframe for providing answers to the public.
When East asked why trustees could not confirm the status of the purchase that day, Skeavington replied, “It’s not that we can’t. We don’t want to right now.”
Skeavington then advised that no contracts had been signed, which East took to mean the deal had not been concluded.
But two days after the meeting, Skeavington issued a press statement in which he said he had “misunderstood the process and misspoke.”
According to the statement, the division had taken possession of the building the previous week and was informed only after the board meeting that, since there was no mortgage on the building, no contracts had to be signed upon closing.
When reached for comment about the statement, East reiterated that he felt the purchase represented “foolish spending” and the board still faces an unknown cost to renovate and operate the building.
“I’m saddened that the process went the way it did just because it’s…part of the reason why we have a $23-billion deficit in Manitoba, is that bureaucracies are running amok,” he said.
The school board voted in January to co-purchase St. Mary’s along with the Lord’s Bounty Food Bank, which will operate out of a portion of the building. The purchase price of $60,000 is to be split between the two parties.
The board plans to use the building as “breakout space” for programming for at-risk students. Educators would also partner with the food bank – and potentially University College of the North – on new programs based in the building.
East told trustees that when he first heard of the planned St. Mary’s purchase, he “described it as an egregious assault on the taxpayers’ pocketbook” because there is “quite a large amount of space” available at both Hapnot Collegiate and Many Faces Education Centre.
Trustees have said the uptown location of St. Mary’s is vital since students who would use the building live in the core area and may have no means of getting to Hapnot or Many Faces.
East agreed educational space will be needed uptown, but he suggested the board instead move its administration offices out of the Ruth Betts Community School building and into either Hapnot or Many Faces.
Also appearing before the board last week was long-time Flin Flon resident Bruce Reid, who said he was concerned about the St. Mary’s purchase.
He said the board already spends $2,600-plus more per student than the provincial average.
“It’s a bit of a concern,” Reid said.
New programming
The Flin Flon School Division has produced a two-page rationale outlining its purchase of the former St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church on Hiawatha Avenue.
The document lists some of the programs that could be offered in the building, including:
• “Breakout space” for at-risk middle-years students in a setting that allows partial integration with classes at nearby Ruth Betts Community School.
• Clinician services for families that use the Lord’s Bounty Food Bank and for at-risk students who will use the building.
• A work placement program for students that places them in the food bank’s commercial kitchen, helping them develop employment skills.
• A partnership with UCN to develop training space to allow students to take safety training courses at a reduced cost.
• Performing arts and business entrepreneurship programming in an “acoustically sound building.”
• Dedicated space to offer after-school and lunch-hour programs for at-risk students and students in need.
• Space for smudging and other culturally appropriate activities
without impinging on students with allergy problems.
• Instruction on sustainable development by having students help with the community garden the food bank wants to operate.
