The West Coast Multiplex Society is hoping to build on a recent wave of momentum by adding a high performance surf centre to its proposed ice rink and swimming pool facility.
“With the momentum and the conversations that I’ve been having over the last few months, I can honestly say I’ve heard more support and excitement around the (multiplex) than I have in the 10 years that I’ve been part of the project,” said society chair Samantha Hackett during a delegation to Tofino’s municipal council on July 23. “A project with this unique vision, of this magnitude and collaboration, takes years to form and, in its current form, we have a chance right now to really push it over the finish line.”
The proposed regional multiplex has been on the books since 2012, when a peninsula-wide referendum saw 62 per cent of the 1,094 votes cast agree to cover the ice rink and swimming pool facility’s operational costs up to $450,000 annually through property taxation.
Securing the capital costs to build the facility has been up to the society with the project’s latest estimates coming in around $50 million.
The surf centre, which the society is proposing to build adjacent to the proposed multiplex near Long Beach Airport on Alberni Clayoquot Regional District lands, would include a weight training room, an office with video reviewing equipment and a half-pipe facility with foam landing pits.
Hackett was joined in the delegation by former municipal councillor Cathy Thicke who said the idea of adding a surf centre to the project has been percolating for about a decade. She said surf towns in Portugal and Australia have similar facilities, but there are none in Canada yet.
Thicke said the multiplex lands would be an “ideal location” for a surf centre.
“In addition to being a logical spot next to a pool where kids are learning to swim so that they can surf, the airport location is in the geographical centre of eleven surfable beaches on the West Coast. This provides almost equal access to all eight communities,” she said.
She added the surf centre would be roughly 10 minutes away from Long Beach, which she touted as “the best and most consistent and iconic surfing beach in Canada.”
She noted Tofino was currently celebrating local surfing icon Sanoa Dempfle-Olin as Canada’s first-ever surfer to compete in the Olympics.
“Aside from our Olympic contender Sanoa, there’s a huge talent pool of young kids on the West Coast who aspire to the same national and international competitions,” she said, noting the annual Bruhwiler Kids Classic has grown to over 100 young surfers competing. “We have and are continuing to have a healthy competitive environment.”
Thicke asked council to support the concept of a high performance surf centre as part of the multiplex project and to take on a leadership role through the process.
“To nail down that idea of a collaborative recreation facility that may not be in the district of Tofino, but really helps all our children and our grandchildren on the West Coast,” she said. “In other words, we really need to rethink our regional approach to this recreation facility and I think that this council is the one that needs to maybe take some leadership role on that. I would love to see that we move the dial on the multiplex forward.”
Coun. Sarah Sloman suggested the half pipe addition could benefit the growing local skateboarding community as well and Hackett agreed, adding the centre would not just be for elite surfers.
“It’s really being able to bring a national eye to what would be very much a community facility,” she said. “All aspects of it would be accessible and usable from any age all the way up into adults and even people at that elite level. It’s just about creating a hub for it all.”
Thicke noted Tofino has been pursuing its own recreation centre, which would not include a rink or pool, and suggested collaborating regionally would bring more effective results.
“I’m hearing more and more from our MLA and our MP that if we don’t think regionally, we will not be getting a recreation centre,” she said. “I’m just imploring you, we’ve got to switch hats from thinking that this is the only place, or this is the best place to do it. We’ve got to do something regionally or we’re not going to get the funding that we need. I think there’s huge benefit in the whole West Coast collaborating together. This is just one piece of the puzzle that could help to change this from just a pool and an arena…to making something really unique that only the West Coast of Canada can offer and that will make us stand out. We need that fighting chance.”
Hackett said the society had a scheduled delegation with Ucluelet’s municipal council the following week, has been consistently communicating with local First Nations and is reaching out to the Alberni Clayoquot Regional District’s West Coast Committee.
Coun. Kat Thomas asked about the multiplex’s estimated operating costs, noting the project has changed since 2012 and costs are likely different now.
“When would we be able to expect a realistic number for operating costs and what our share would be?,” she asked. “I have a really hard time putting my support behind something where we don’t have any idea of what the financial impact is.”
Hackett said the society is expecting to present an updated business plan, which would include more specific cost estimates, in the fall.
“We are looking at about $1 million or just over for the actual operating of the facility of an arena and a pool,” Hackett said. “As things have changed, the cost is similar to what we’ve always looked at.”
She doubted the high performance surf centre would add much operating costs, adding the total project’s operational costs could be whittled down by grants, private funders and event revenue.
Thomas asked where the water for the facility would be coming from and Hackett responded that the regional district would be supplying it.
Coun. Ali Sawyer wondered if there were any concerns around delaying the multiplex project even further by adding to the plan.
Hackett expressed confidence that the new surf centre would not cause delays and added that the pool, ice rink and surf centre would be built at the same time, rather than a previously proposed phased-approach of the ice rink first and then the pool, suggesting constructing the facility all at once would decrease costs.
She added building all three at the same time would also likely attract more private funders.
“Something like this will bring more private interest to the table from the get go and so to have it as part of it right from day one helps,” she said.
Coun. Al Anderson said he liked the idea of the surf centre and suggested it would make a more dynamic offering at the multiplex.
Coun. Duncan McMcMaster asked if the phased approach could return, but put in reverse with the surf centre and pool built first, followed by the ice rink.
Hackett reiterated that phased approaches are often not as effective at drumming up support from funders.
“If you’re going to do a project of this magnitude, in a community as unique as we all are as eight communities, then you have to bring it together and really make the project stand out from every other project that’s asking for funding,” she said.
Mayor Dan Law said he liked the idea of the surf centre.
“I think it’s timely. I think it makes the whole project more appealing and more of a national draw as opposed to a regional rec. centre, which is what it’s always been sort of visioned as. So, I really like it,” he said.
Thicke responded though that she was hoping to receive a more robust endorsement from council, adding that the society was “not asking for any money,” but rather a letter of support.
Law responded that council seemed “amenable” to the surf centre and agreed a regional conversation was needed around the multiplex project.
“The regional eight- community discussion has to happen at a political level and I do hope that happens very soon,” he said.
The discourse then ended without a letter of support being voted on.
Thicke told the Westerly News after the meeting that the Multiplex Society had reached out to the district again and would be formally requesting a letter of support during Aug. 6’s regular meeting.
The society saw greater success in Ucluelet on July 30, securing a letter of support without debate.
The Ucluelet delegation was basically identical as the week prior’s in Tofino, though society boardmember Carrie Ho replaced Thicke and Hackett offered an additional thought around boosting access for youth, touting the surf centre as a potential “inspiration facility.”
“We have and are continuing to create a healthy competitive environment, but we need to create facilities and access to that year-round and really take away those barriers of it being a privileged sport,” Hackett said.
“A lot of people think that skateboarding and surfing seem to be accessible sports that anybody of any age and any income could access, but that’s not the case. I’m not a surfer and my kids don’t surf because I’m not taking them out surfing. For them to surf, we’ve got to be putting them into surf programs, which don’t exist at a low cost out here on the West Coast, all the gear is not accessible and if that’s the case for me and my family, I can’t imagine what some other families must be up against.”
Ucluelet’s council was unanimously in favour of the idea and approved writing a letter of support with little discussion.
“This is a great idea. I’m really excited about it,” said mayor Marilyn McEwen.
