The City of Prince George will not be providing a loan to the Prince George Kodiaks Football Club for a new practice facility, but they’re still exploring options to build one.
At Monday’s meeting, City Council decided against providing a $600,000 loan to the club to assist in the development of the new facility in the Hart.
Back in March, Kodiaks President Craig Briere came before Prince George City Council, requesting assistance in developing the facility.
Director of Finance Kris Dalio noted they’ve provided much smaller loans to other organizations in the past.
“Even then we weren’t necessarily successful in prompt repayment of that and we had to sit down, renegotiate terms,” Dalio explained.
“Looking at this request from the Kodiaks Football Club, it is a far greater loan in amount over a far greater term. Please understand I’m not a banking expert, but if this were me trying to put my own thoughts into this, I would consider this an extremely high risk loan, and administration does not recommend us getting into that kind of loan agreement.”
Multiple Councillors, including Councillor Brian Skakun noted they want the Kodiaks to stay and grow in Prince George.
“When they were here they told us about all the work they did, from under-privileged folks to gifted athletes,” Skakun said.
“I would hope that we could on perhaps work on getting them a new facility in the capital plan.”
Aside from provide a loan, city staff provided two other options for the city to pursue in terms of the project:
- Direct administration to add a capital project for Council’s considerations to a future capital plan for a centralized location within the existing recreation corridor at Carrie Jane Gray
- Direct Administration to provide a letter of support to the Kodiaks Football Club signed by the Mayor to assist the club with its external funding applications
Council was supportive of those options, but Councillor Trudy Klassen suggested removing Carrie Jane Gray as the sole option.
“Centralizing is great but on the other hand you’re isolating,” she said.
“The Hart has so few extra curricular activities available in that area. I’m not sure that it’s a great idea that we centralize.”
Councillor Ron Polillo made the motion, removing “Carrie Jane Gray” from the option.
“Not saying it won’t go there, but it gives us the option to look elsewhere,” he said.