Elliot Lake's CAO Daniel Gagnon says the city is in a holding pattern with plans for the Elliot Lake Arts Hub.
In a report to Elliot Lake City Council at its virtual meeting Monday night, CAO Gagnon wrote that funders are oversubscribed and no decisions have been made.
Last fall the city applied for and got funding for the renovation of the former movie theatre in the downtown. The idea is for the city to use the former Reel to Reel Theatre site as a temporary home for arts and culture activities.
As for progress on the Arts Hub planned for the site of the former Lester B. Pearson Civic Centre site on Hwy 108, Gagnon wrote, "Staff applied for the Green and Inclusive Community Building program (GICB) which provides substantial grant dollars for undertaking a net carbon zero approach to the building.
"Although this increased the costs of the facility substantially, the grant offsets the additional costs."
He said the net zero design includes a 6,700 sq. ft. theatre with retractable seating (400), a museum, gallery, four arts studio rooms and a multipurpose room.
"Total estimated cost for the build is $21.5M. If approved, the GICB grant will offset the cost by $11.4M. The city has $3.5M to contribute, leaving a balance to source at $6.5M," Gagnon concluded.
Those funds would come from a combination of the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF), NOHFC funding (potential for $2M), other unknown sources and/or further municipal contributions.
There's nothing in writing but the federal CCSF has suggested that the city could get around $4-5M in funding there.
If Elliot Lake doesn't get the GICB program funding, the design can be changed to cut some of the costly net carbon zero design items, lowering the build price.
If the city renovates the old movie theatre for the arts community, removing arts studio space and some of the net zero components of the Arts Hub could lower the build cost to $14M.
That still leaves big gaps to fill for funding but council is not being asked to decide how to deal with them for now.
Any recommendations on how to go ahead will be vetted by the Arts and Culture Centre Advisory Committee before it returns to council when the grant picture clarifies.
Monday's council meeting will be live-streamed on the city website at 7 p.m.