One of major downsides of the COVID era, aside from the virus itself, was the encouragement of people to more or less stay home. I’m kind of a loner to begin with, so that’s really nothing different for me, but still, I don’t think I’d be alone in saying that a lot of things that once were in our lives suddenly weren’t.
One place in town that people could still access to a degree was the Ma Te Way Activity Centre, especially the outside aspects of the facility. But aside from those, given Ma-Te-Way’s location, many folks never went too far off the beaten track to take a spin down Ma-Te-Way Drive, which, without the facilities, essentially becomes a dead-end street.
Many people then, myself included, would have missed the progress being made on the significant expansion going on at Ma-Te-Way. And progress, quite evidently, is being made.
The expansion is a $16 million project to significantly upgrade the facility into a modern, community-centred operation catering to the needs of several local interests, such as the public, schools, and organizations/groups within Renfrew and the surrounding area. The 76,500 square foot expansion brings with it an NHL-sized ice surface, an Indigenous Cultural Centre, a really cool elevated walking track, a regulation-sized gymnasium, and a fitness centre, along with all the equipment and accoutrements that make these things run the way they’re supposed to. As well, there are plans for meeting rooms, multipurpose rooms, offices, and a home of sorts for Renfrew’s Department of Parks and Recreation. In addition, space within the concept will be available for lease for any endeavour that wishes to have a significant footprint at Ma-Te-Way.
Exciting to be sure.
The fact that the whole thing is projected to be $12 million over budget (on a $16 million dollar contract) is obviously not the best, and that’s something Town Council and the contractor (the unfortunately-named BUTTCON project management group) will have to hash out amidst growing taxpayer criticism of a project that some feel is spiralling out of control. It just makes me wonder what this whole thing would look like if a pool was part of the expansion.
For me, I’m going to leave the discussion of that to other reporting, but I will say that the last couple of years have been brutal in the construction industry, for all kinds of reasons, and it was probably the worst time in recent memory to be building anything of any significance. Nevertheless, it would have been awfully difficult to foresee COVID coming along to set everything on its ass, so I have some degree of empathy for well-meaning officials who got caught in the COVID vice. We see it in the prices of almost everything, especially food and gasoline, and are constantly educated on the viciousness of supply-train issues that seem to be at the root of all of us being poorer than we were, unless of course you’re rich and found yourself making more money than you ever did before. (When Scotiabank says “You’re Richer Than You Think,” they’re not talking to you) Construction materials and costs have been particularly impacted.
I took a spin out to Ma-Te-Way this morning just to get a look at what might be going on and, hell’s bells, it’s not the same place. I mean it is if you go in the front door the way you’ve always done, with everything seemingly in its place other than a museum in the front lobby. But beyond that, inaccessible to the public obviously, there’s a whole other world rising from the snow. (It’s January 27 today). I could only get a look at the exterior as things are taking shape, but I have absolutely no doubt that this place will be something residents will have great pride in. It promises to be current, vital, exciting, and better than anything else, revenue-generating, which makes it more of an investment than a golden egg. Of course, an overrun of 75% on the initial cost of the investment hurts, but it’s not like we’re gonna stop now and walk away because the budget has been blown. So we’ll sit down and identify what happened, see what we can do about it moving forward, and when all the political, financial, and contractual finger-pointing is done, we can, as a community, enjoy what will be a world-class facility in a town of under 10,000 people. A facility that, by itself, is a draw to any family considering a move to Renfrew.
We all know that Renfrew is going to grow, just like Arnprior did, but maybe better. The tax base will rise commensurate with the growth of the town, and the Ma-Te-Way expansion, with its attendant costs, will no longer dominate discussion at that hotbed of political gossip, the Horton Dump.
And we can just go ahead and enjoy the place.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 
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