The Forum - Project Status

On Friday, September 25th, Regional Council received a notification that the demolition application for the Forum was being paused. Municipal staff recently received an updated cost estimate for the Halifax Forum project. While the estimate still requires third-party validation, staff's review indicates that projected costs are now higher than the funding currently approved by Regional Council. As a result, staff are pausing the heritage demolition application process while they assess the updated cost information and prepare options for Council's consideration. Later that day, this informational Q&A (here) was distributed to council.

Prior to that, media had been reporting on Mayor Fillmore's desire to pause the Forum, and was continuing to pursue a partnership with DND:

• CTV: Mayor Fillmore pursuing DND partnership for arena to replace Halifax Forum
• CBC: Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore on infrastructure and the Forum
• Chronicle Herald: Councillor, community association in 'disbelief' after Halifax Forum demolition paused 'out of left field'
• Halifax Examiner: Mayor Fillmore is ‘at it again’ on the Halifax Forum. Or is he?

I can't speak to the Mayor's intentions or thoughts beyond what has been written elsewhere. What I can say is that I think a number of issues have become conflated: the desire for more ice space, the desire to have ice space during the renovation of the Forum, and the cost of the Forum itself.

If I understand the Mayor's intent, moving the project would be to DND lands. For better understanding, I did some investigation on the original proposal from 2014 (please see here). 

Hightlights from 2014:

CFB Halifax Partnership (Windsor Park / Connolly Street) 

• Project: Construct a 4-pad arena on DND lands at Windsor Park to open in 2017.
• Cost & Model: Estimated capital cost of $45M, shared 75% HRM ($33.8M) / 25% CFB Halifax. DND would provide the land.
• Ice Allocation: 3 sheets dedicated to HRM and 1 dedicated to CFB Halifax.
• Arena Closures & Offsets: Replaces Devonshire Arena, Shannon Park Arena (DND), and the municipal Halifax Forum and Civic arenas. The Forum site would be declared surplus and sold for redevelopment (estimated land proceeds of $18M–$30M), which staff noted could potentially offset HRM’s capital costs entirely.

This proposal was rejected by previous Council. Highlights for that decision include the structural complexities of the DND partnership. While the partnership with DND offered advantages (such as free or low-cost access to federal land), it also presented trade-offs: 

• Ice Sheet Allocation: Under the partnership framework, one of the four proposed ice sheets at Windsor Park was slated to be reserved primarily for exclusive military use, reducing the net community capacity gain for the municipality. 
• Control and Land Tenure: Municipal investments on federal crown land involved complex long-term lease terms and shared governance with DND, whereas HRM owned the Forum lands outright and retained full civic jurisdiction.
• Community groups argued that Windsor Park would only provide ice pads, stripping the peninsula of a mid-sized event venue that hosted concerts, graduations, bingos, trade shows, and the weekly flea market.

This structure was a major sticking point during community and council debates. Opponents pointed out that while HRM would be funding the lion's share of construction by selling off municipal assets (the Forum and Civic lands), the net addition to civilian/minor hockey ice on the peninsula was only 1 sheet, with the military holding dedicated priority over the fourth. Additionally, the event and community space would be lost, and precious HRM land would be gone forever.

I did find the minutes from the vote at Council from July 19, 2014 to advance the Forum Rehabilitation Project instead of pursuing the DND option (Item 14.2.1, minutes here). In favour: Mayor Savage, Deputy Mayor Fisher, Councillors Dalrymple, Karsten, Nicoll, McCluskey, Mason, Watts, Mosher, Walker, Adams, Rankin, Whitman, Craig, Johns and Outhit.  Against: Councillor Hendsbee.

It's important to note that there is nothing to suggest that the original 2014 proposal is still on the table. I suspect it's not. I only include this for information for historical context. 

When it comes to The Forum, there is also the matter of use. Hockey associations are quick to point out that HRM is already short 3 pads of ice to meet its target, and would be down another 2 pads during construction of The Forum. With that in mind, other options should be pursued instead of the Forum with more ice pads. Others argue that the Forum is much more than a two-pad of ice; the Forum hosts numerous events (Christmas at the Forum, Mystic Fair, Diwali - please see Halifax Forum Community Association for more details), and has weekly programming like Bingo and the Farmer's Market for the community at large. Event space will also continue to be in short supply, especially with the inevitable closure of Exibition Park. The north end of Halifax is also densifying quickly, with roughly 2,000 to 2,500 units delivered or actively under construction, and over 8,000 additional units formally proposed or in planning stages. Those folks need access to public and recreation space, too.

The debate continues. As always, please email me with your thoughts. The staff report on the new projected costs for the rebuild will be coming to Council shortly, and I believe the costs associated with keeping The Forum open beyond its end-of-life will be included as well.