An organizing committee in Sudbury, that is ready to put shovels in the ground on a new soccer bubble, says the project is now on hold.
It says the Ford government is yanking $4 million in promised provincial funding that was announced in the spring by former MPP Glenn Thibeault.
The new year-round facility was to be built next to Lasalle Secondary School in New Sudbury, but the local committee says it recently got a call from the new government this month saying budget slashing has cancelled the funding.
Government officials encouraged the group to apply for other forms of provincial funding that would be contingent on city and federal money, as well.
The other indoor sports facility project in the works between the French Catholic school board and Sudbury District Sports Club is still a go. It is to be built at the Sacré-Coeur field on Notre Dame Avenue in the Flour Mill neighbourhood.
Mike Graham of SDSC says site plans and permits have been submitted to the city for review and construction will begin in the spring. The project is expected to take 14 weeks to complete.
In a statement, Fabio Belli Foundation board member Dr. Michel Lariviere says:
"This announcement was certainly disappointing for our Board of Directors and hte Foundation's many supporters. Not only had significant efforts and resources been expanded on this project over the last several years, the funding that had been officially promised last Spring was announced publicly with the Belli family and several comunity partners in attendance for the celebration.
The Foundation remains concerned that the youth in Northern Ontario continue to have fewer opportunities for sport, recreation and health than their Southern Ontario peers. It is the Belli Foundation's ongoing view that a facility that is accessible to the community at large is a worthy investment that decreases the longer-term costs (financial and otherwise) of inactivity and outmigration."
Full statement here
