Recent History
In November 2003 Harvey Rosen was elected mayor of the City of Kingston by a resounding margin. A major plank in his campaign was his commitment to solve the issue of the aging Kingston Memorial Centre, the home to the local OHL hockey team the Kingston Frontenacs, which had a game cancelled during the election campaign due to a leaky roof.
The Memorial Centre built in 1951 had not been kept up-to-date during its existence and did not now meet promoters and performers needs. Very few performers had performed at the Memorial in the prior 15 years. There had been a number of studies and attempts in the past two decades to address the issues by either renovating the Memorial Centre or building a new facility. Mayor Rosen had committed during his campaign to appoint a citizen task force to explore the problem and present a solution including funding suggestions within 100 days.
In April 2004 the Mayor’s Task Force submitted its report to the Mayor which contained 22 recommendations; the main recommendation was to build a new large venue entertainment centre (lvec) in downtown Kingston. The mayor presented the report to city council and city council constituted a five person council committee to verify the validity of the report. The committee and then city council verified the gereral validity of the report in particular the recommendation to build a 5,500 seat venue in downtown Kingston and constituted a steering committee of public and city council members to make it own implentation recommendations to see a lvec become a reality, including develop a funding solution, as the funding suggestions in the Mayor's Task Force Report were far from complete, it being implicit that a full funding solution would have to be presented to council for approval. Although selling a portion of the Memorial Centre was suggested in recommendation 7 of the mayors Taxk Force Report the steering committee made alternate recommendations regarding funding the new centre which did not include selling any portion of the Memorial Centre grounds to the joy of most of the community. Council endorsed the recommendations of their steering committee. Although controversial at the time, some in community thinking that the Memorial Centre had been saved from the abyss, the truth is that the recommendation of the volunteer member's of the Mayor's Task Force to sell a portion of the Memorial Centre was never brought to a vote at City Council.
Although council's steering committee had not tabled its final report regarding the implementatin plan for council approval, there was community pressure to address the volunteer task forces finance recommendation to use the Memorial Centre as a financing source. Though the sale of Memorial Centre was never more than a funding idea presented by a citizen’s task force, and although there was never an indication that it was going to be adopted by the steering committee, Council didn't remove it from the business plan for a year and a half and deferred a motion to do so in November, 2004. At the November, 2004 Council meeting delegations were made before Council including that by a local architect who presented her research showing Williamsville District has by far the least park, recreational and cultural space per capita (less than 2/3 of the next lowest District (Kingscourt Strathcona) and pointed out the Official Plan designation of Memorial Centre, singled out as a significant element in the recreational land use system,as Open Area Space and Recreational Space. The Official Plan provides that public open space shall not be sold or alienated in any way unless disposal is warranted by extenuating circumstances and that disposal of any public open space shall be discouraged. This delegation also noted that the Ontario Provincial Policy Statement promoted the equitable distribution of publicly accessible built and natural settings for recreation. Another delegation presented statistics on the importance of recreational facilities and park space to physical health.
Petitions presented to Council between March 30, 2005 and November 20, 2005 totaling 7,380 signatures opposed the sale of the property, the destruction of the building, and the loss of much-needed public park and recreational lands. The signatories recognized the facilities as a living Memorial to those to sacrificed their lives for our Country and, as such, should continue to serve their purpose as a focal point for the many and varied community activities in the neighbourhoods and the City.
In November, 2005, Kingston City Council unanimously passed the November, 2004 motion to save the Memorial Centre with some amendments:
- voted unanimously to endorse the use of the site as public community facilities - to strike a revitalization committee - to hold a public meeting before a report on revitalization was brought back to the City
Read more about this topic: Kingston Memorial Centre, History
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