As the municipal election campaign gets into full swing, we have asked the three candidates for mayor in Steinbach to give us their position on recreational facilities. We spoke with each of them separately. All three say the facility should not be built downtown. But beyond that, their plans are different.

John Fehr says he is hearing plenty of support for a multiplex. He suggests it be a phased project that would start with a new arena, although he agrees arts space is also needed. Fehr says because provincial and federal grants for such projects have become elusive, he has come up with a local arena plan that would cost about $35 million dollars and would require $15 million in private sector support. He adds if city council would agree to extend the city's payback period for this debt beyond the current five-year limit, the project could soon be accomplished.

"I believe that if we change a little bit, how we do business, like our amortization terms and take the recreation and culture reserve (fund) and put that towards getting something done now, it could happen very, very quickly. I believe that we have the community support from what I am hearing. We just need to put a little bit of effort to this and I think we could see it happen."

Earl Funk says he has a plan for an affordable facility because previous large multiplex plans have been out of reach financially.

"Seeing as the funding is difficult to get from the other levels of government, then we have to look from within. We have to choose one item and so one item might be the arena. We have been saving money in a reserve. By 2020, we should have $5 million in that reserve. So, I think, this becomes doable. If we look at a $30 million price tag, that's our budget, we look at half of it ($15 million) being funded privately, $5 million from the reserve and then borrow $10 million."

Funk says, in the future, the city could use the annual funds that it has been setting aside in the recreation and cultural reserve to make annual payments on the debt.

Paul Neustaedter says his vision is still to accomplish a larger project with phase one being an arts space, a field house and a combined arena and events centre that would include things like a walking track.

"With private donations leading the way, I believe that federal and provincial governments will also follow. We will work creatively to achieve a few of these projects at once. Arts programming is affordable space, a field house gives you a great bang for the buck and the events centre, it handles all kinds of events including an ice surface. It works best to ask private donors and government to be behind one master plan. Currently, interest rates are low and building costs only increase over time. So, the time to do this is now."

Neustaedter adds, if elected, he will have a complete plan prepared within eight months, including the cost and how it would be paid for.