Demolition of CSU Daycare Site to Cost More Than Initially Planned

Student Centre Fund Reallocated Into Student Space, Accessible Education and Legal Contingency Fund

NewsMiriam Lafontaine — Published December 8, 2016

Demolishing the building, which currently sits at the site on 1424 Bishop St., will be the first step in constructing the new daycare.

The cost of demolition was originally estimated at $40,000, but is now expected to cost just over $55,500. CSU General Coordinator, Lucinda Marshall-Kiparissis said this was because the CSU had initially been emailed documentation with an incorrect quota by their General Manager, Robert Henri.

Henri made sure to email Marshall-Kiparissis the correct quota just in time for meeting, on Nov 23 when the motion was first passed for the demolition. But Marshall-Kiparissis failed to see the email in time.

“This was a human error on my end,” said Marshall-Kiparissis.

The motion to increase the allocation of money passed. The money will come from the CSU Student Space, Accessible Education and Legal Contingency fund. They are allocating a maximum budget of $63,870 for the demolition—15 per cent above the given quota—in case any unexpected costs arise during the demolition.

“The sooner we get demolition done in the daycare centre, the sooner we can make the daycare happen, and fulfill an important part of our mandate,” said Marshall-Kiparissis.

A second motion was then passed to dissolve the Student Centre Fund and reallocate its funds to the SSAELC fund. $6,222,982 will be transferred from the Student Centre Fund into the SSAELC fund.

The change was made to reflect the recently passed referendum question to make an amendment to the CSU’s special By-Law I, which allowed for the creation of a new fund called the Community Action Fund. The CAF will now amass a portion of the SSAELC fund’s annual interest, falling within the $50,000 to $75,000 range.

While the main intention of the referendum question was to create the CAF, it also dealt with some “housekeeping,” which included removing the distinction between the SSAELC fund and the SCF, said Aloyse Muller, the CSU’s External Affairs and Mobilization Coordinator.

Muller explained that the SCF was originally created in 2005 in an attempt by the CSU to purchase a building they could use to create a space for students to congregate as a community, as well as for their own personal office space.

However the student population continuously voted it down due to its high cost. As a result its original mandate was abandoned and it was changed into a fund that could be used more broadly to purchase or renovate property to be used as student spaces.

Muller said that because the SSEALC fund was being used for “mostly the same purpose,” they decided to combine the two funds together.

As it currently stands, the SSAELC fund holds approximately $9 million, according to Marshall-Kiparissis.