The City of Moose Jaw will provide Mosaic Place with $1 million in subsidies by the end of 2020, which one city councillor says was predicted would happen years ago.
Mosaic Place’s finances were part of the third-quarter report that city administration provided to city council during its Nov. 23 regular meeting. The overall report looked at municipal finances from July 1 to Sept. 30 and the year-to-date picture.
For the third quarter, Mosaic Place — which Spectra Venue Management Services operates — had a deficit of $55,750, while year-to-date (YTD), the building has a deficit of $703,776. Spectra had projected the overall deficit to be $582,638.
Meanwhile, the balance sheet showed Mosaic Place has a deficit of $703,835 in current retained earnings.
Council discussion
In reviewing the balance sheet, Coun. Heather Eby said she was reminded of creating budgets for Mosaic Place as a member of the Downtown Facility and Field House board. The thought among board members then was that the building would need roughly $1 million a year.
“We tried to sell that and prove that and make that case many years in a row, to no avail,” she added. “Now here we are at $1 million. I know it’s a different year … (but) the cat came home to roost.”
The municipality had budgeted around $526,000 this year for the building, but has provided $345,560 so far and is expected to give another $614,835 before January, finance director Brian Acker said. These payments will be reconciled at year-end and added into the overall subsidy of roughly $1 million.
He noted that Spectra has run Mosaic Place at a deficit since taking over in September 2019. One reason for the negative retained earnings, he added, is because the municipality hadn’t provided the building operator with all of its subsidies to bring it to balance.
There were two concerts there in mid-March, which were the last events Mosaic Place held before the pandemic shut down everything, including hockey games, explained city manager Jim Puffalt. All of that caused revenues to drop “right off the table,” while expenses also decreased to some degree.
The municipality had to lay off some employees but brought them back in the fall to install the ice, he added.
Recovery plan
General manager Ryan MacIvor will have to answer whether Spectra is working with its partners on a recovery strategy, Puffalt told Coun. Crystal Froese. Right now, city administration is waiting to hear from the Western Hockey League (WHL) and the provincial government about whether hockey will return in January. In the meantime, the building is open and groups are using the ice.
“The news that there is a possible vaccine is promising,” he continued. “The news that the WHL is proposing to start in January is promising. The future is looking good, but … it is a very, very, very tough year, especially when running (recreational) facilities … .
“There is a cost to keeping buildings open that we minimized in the summer. But when facilities reopened, there were expenses such as cleaning and extra work for spacing. It’s fairly detailed.”
Derek Blais, director of the parks and recreation department, echoed Puffalt’s comments, noting there were several reasons for less revenue. These include reduced attendance due to capacity issues, extra cleaning as required by the province, and even the cost of those cleaning products.
“It’s been trying times and we’re working our way through it,” he added. “There are still a lot of people accessing the facility in a safe manner and we continue to provide that service to them.”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Dec. 7.
