Sault Ste. Marie city staff will look into the idea of having a private operator take over managing the Essar Centre as a way to stem the huge operating losses the city faces each year.
The motion was brought forward at last night’s meeting by Susan Myers and Sandra Hollingsworth—both are ward 2 councillors—and the motion was approved by council last night.
The motion specifically asks staff to look into examples of other similar sized municipalities with a similar facilty operated privately and what process and time line would be required for council to consider such an option.
Myers says the motion calls for a report to be brought back to council by August—-she says that would give council more than enough time to be able to deal with the issue prior to the fall campaign and election.
Myers says over the last five years the Essar Centre has lost an average of 430-thousand dollars and is budgetd to loss over 620-thousand dollars in 2018.