Guelph council approves additional $35.5 million to build South End Community Centre

The building will have two ice pads, an aquatic centre with an eight-lane lap pool and a smaller teaching pool, a double gymnasium, walking track and multi-purpose rooms. (Council agenda package/City of Guelph)

Guelph is moving ahead with building a rec centre in the city’s south end despite the increased cost of construction.

At Tuesday’s meeting, councillors approved an additional $35.5 million for the project, bringing its total budgeted cost to $115.5 million.

The planned facility, which will be located off Clair Road beside Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School, will have two ice pads, an aquatic centre with an eight-lane lap pool and a smaller teaching pool, a double gymnasium, walking track and multi-purpose rooms.

The increased cost will be mostly funded from development charges, although staff acknowledged there is some uncertainty about how much the city will be able to collect from developers in the future, given major changes coming under Bill 23.

Still, council felt it was important to move ahead with the project, the concept for which has been in the works since 2003.

“This has been 20 years in the making,” Coun. Ken Yee Chew said at a committee of the whole meeting on March 7, where the increased costs were given preliminary approval. “I think we have to take a calculated risk as well with cashing in the development charges for this project, this is something the community has been expecting us to deliver for a long time.”

Construction was originally approved in 2020 with a budget of $80 million, but inflation pushed the cost to $129 million by the time tenders came back in 2022.

The city ended up cancelling the tender and revising the building design to bring the cost down to $115.5 million.

Cost-saving measures included removing a rear courtyard and some hallway space, simplifying the design of the exterior façade and pausing a plan to commission and install public art unless money is left in the budget at the end of the project.

The city says construction on the South End Community Centre is expected to begin this fall with doors opening in late 2026.