Councillor Comments On Mosaic Place's $1,000,000 Budget

It was a bit of ‘I told you so’ during the quarterly reports but the question is though who is saying it - the No side on the Multiplex question or the Yes side who were requesting more funding beyond what was made public during the initial referendum debates.

During November 23rd review of the quarterly reports Councillor Heather Eby said the $1,000,000 to operate Mosaic Place was something the former board of the Downtown Facility and Field House (DFFH).

“I was reminded in the very early part where the City Manager and some people were here we were first putting together budgets for Mosaic Place it was felt around the DFFH table at that time a realistic budget was about a $1,000,000 a year. And we tried to sell that and prove that many years in a row to no avail and here we are at a million dollar year,” Councillor Eby said.

It needs to be noted Councillor Eby sat on an ill fated DFFH board where the former CEO Scott Clark - according to a report by KPMG - mislead the DFFH board as well as Council while wracking up deficits of $1 million annually without properly reporting the losses. The DFFH financial scandal led to major changes in how the facility was operated including establishing an interim board.

“Here we have a different year, a pandemic, but yeah it kind of come home to roost,” she said.

In questioning surrounding the costs to run Mosaic Place Councillor Dawn Luhning asked “why are the expenditures so much higher at Mosaic Place when there isn’t anything and no events happening over there?”

City Manager Jim Puffalt said that despite not operating the facility for months and then opening later in the Fall there are still costs associated with operating the facility.

“A lot of what you are seeing is revenues are way down. But expenditures are down to some degree. We were able to lay off people. We did that and looked to bring back people in the Fall,” Puffalt said adding with the facilities now open there are added costs associated with more cleaning and cleaning products. The restrictions on the numbers of people who can access the facilities is also having an effect on costs, he said.

“We clearly see customers want to see facilities open and have something to do…the second quarter of the year was brutal when we had shutter everything. It was not a pleasant situation,” he said.

Councillor Crystal Froese asked if there was a recovery strategy to bring the facilities back on line.

“We are waiting and in constant conversation with the WHL and the Province about what happens in January,” Puffalt said, adding “it’s tough sledding the number of people you can have in the building to some degree is impacted…The news is the WHL is talking about starting in January is promising. Future wise we are looking good.”

The statement also contains an unbudgeted line Ticket Rocket Reconciliation with a loss of $224,654.

In a split vote the previous Council decided to give vouchers to purchasers of concert and Moose Jaw Warrior tickets sold through Ticket Rocket as a a means of maintaining confidence in the facility after Ticket Rocket failed to pay promised refunds to ticket purchasers.

At the time Ticket Rocket blamed the problems on cashflow problems brought on by the COVID - 19 pandemic but it was revealed the City was having problems with the ticketing service prior to the pandemic.

SEE RELATED - Ticket Rocket Fiasco

Councillor Eby asked if Mosaic Place receiving its full subsidy in 2019 would have made a difference in offsetting the books.

Finance director Brian Acker said it may have had a minor impact but the true culprit was the pandemic and the loss of events.

“There are significant expenditures to operate that facility in these difficult times with the pandemic,” Acker said.

So far the lack of events because of COVID - 19 restrictions has caused a sea of red ink to bleed from Mosaic Place. To the end of September the facility was $703,766 in the red most due to the lack of events being held due to the COVID - 19 restrictions.

Puffalt said that there is no facility in the world that is not subsidized but through such things as in house ticketing and the ability to retain the funds as well as franchise out ticketing services elsewhere in the province were two positive things which have the potential of reducing the subsidy.

“Again working with Spectra I believe there are many opportunities to generate funds. That will help to offset this subsidy.”

Meanwhile Council was also told during budget discussions that despite increasing water rates and a planned increasing base tax for cast iron water main replacement that the program remains short about $500,000 annually.

During the Referendum Debates surrounding what was called the Multiplex the No Side often pointed out funds spent on building and operating the facilities could be used to fund core infrastructure.