Town to decide Sport Aurora's role in Sport Plan following review

YorkRegion.com
March 5, 2019
Teresa Latchford

The Town of Aurora is set to review its Sport Plan and the role Sport Aurora will play in it moving forward.

In 2015, the town approved a Sport Plan that laid out 22 directives that would guide sport in Aurora for the next five years. The following year, town council had the option of hiring a sport development officer to begin putting the plan into play, but opted into a service agreement with Sport Aurora, a local organization dedicated to supporting sport and recreation opportunities in the community, to get the ball rolling.

Last December, the town’s contract with Sport Aurora was up and council decided not to extend it to March.

“Council gave town staff direction at that time to report back with alternative delivery models,” community services director Robin McDougall said. “Right now, we are doing an analysis to see where we are and where we should go moving forward.”

This includes reviewing what Sport Aurora has accomplished and what role, if any, the organization will play moving forward with the plan.

Sport Aurora vice-president Sandra Manherz recently addressed council at a public meeting to voice the organization’s support for setting aside $103,400 for future use to move the town’s Sport Plan forward. At the same time, she took the opportunity to set a few things straight.

“In addition to this, what I would like to accomplish is to correct some misconceptions and some inaccuracies that have been reported regarding the Sport Plan,” she said. “Comments have come forward from council suggesting the town take a leadership role in the Sport Plan. It is important to note the town has always had a leadership role in the Sport Plan.”

She pointed out that the town approved the plan as well as the 22 deliverables listed in the plan. Manherz also said Sport Aurora’s service agreement to execute the Sport Plan deliverables was directed by the town at every step, identifying the priorities each year, and created each of the deliverables for each area of interest, monitored progress and approved the results.

“Other comments have questioned the value Sport Aurora provides the taxpayer,” she continued. “Besides completing and meeting all measurables of the Sport Plan on budget, Sport Aurora has brought in $1.2 million in grants to this town, and that’s five to six times the town’s investment.”

Of those grants, every dollar was spent in the town of Aurora creating jobs, funding programs and giving advanced training to coaches and town staff to provide the highest level of programming to residents.

The cost of hiring one sports development officer to implement the Sport Plan couldn’t compare to the value offered by 60 knowledgeable members of Sport Aurora who are experts in their field and volunteered their time to execute the plan, she added.

As for the discussions surrounding the development of a sports board rather than a sport council, a sport council was one of the 22 deliverables listed in the plan, specifically Sport Aurora was to be transitioned into a council with a specific mandate. This was direction given by the town following extensive public consultation and was supported unanimously by the previous term of council.

“There continues to be questions regarding whether Sport Aurora represents all sports,” she said. “I will reiterate Sport Aurora’s position on facilities, sport policy or do not change based on who is in our membership as we have a global and universal view of sport in this community.”

Manherz insisted the organization represents all who have a sport footprint in Aurora, regardless of being a member or not. For example, she, on behalf of the organization, has advocated for a number of fields that would primarily benefit the one sporting group who is not a member of Sport Aurora, soccer.

“Why? Because we do what is in the best interest of this community, always,” she said. “We are inclusive.”

She also disagrees with those who believe the organization is funded by the town, as Sport Aurora sees itself as a vendor offering a service that the town required through a service agreement. Sport Aurora prepared a budget for the cost of implementing the Sport Plan deliverables, which was reviewed and approved by the town.

“At no time has the town subsidized Sport Aurora, rather you have paid for a service just like any other contractor,” she said. “The engagement of Sport Aurora by the town has been revenue positive, resulting in building a strong foundation of sport in this community like no other. We are leaders and we are proud of that.”

While Manherz respects council’s need to re-evaluate the Sport Plan, she takes offence to any statement that would suggest Sport Aurora hasn’t taken care when creating budgets and hasn’t provided value to the community. She asked council members to keep these points in mind when discussing where to go next with the Sport Plan, specifically when it comes to creating the sport council.