Worried that the borough plans to sell the Snowdon Theatre on Décarie Boulevard, Flex-Art gymnastics club director Julie Durocher is wondering about the future of the CDN-NDG gymnastics training centre.
Durocher was at the mic during question period at the April council meeting, accompanied by a couple of dozen anxious gymnasts. “The facility currently houses 400 girls from the recreational to the highly competitive level,” she mentioned.
Her question about where the borough planned to relocate its gymnastics facility was passed to borough director Stéphane Plante, who said that discussions had been ongoing with the club for almost a year.
Plante says that the building needs around $500,000 in renovations. It has been reported that the borough plans to sell the building because of its dilapidated state, and that if work needs to be done, the gymnastics club will have to cease operations.
Plante said that repairs need to be done and the borough wants to avoid asking the club to leave on short notice. Plante also noted that many members of the club are not from the borough.
“There is no intention for the borough to sell the building right now. We want to make sure that if something happens, we’re able to find a solution with the club to relocate them,” he said.
One of the problems is finding a permanent gym for the club, according to Plante. “Obviously it’s not something we have right now in the borough,” he said.
Durocher also expressed the need for some kind of guarantee that the gym will stay alive. She referred to a Gazette article a few months ago reportedly stating that the City of Montreal has a few million dollars for sports and recreation for the borough.
“You know, if this were a hockey arena, if this was for something considered a boy’s sport, I think there would be no question, that if you’d be closing a building in an arena, that would create an uproar,” she said. “Does the borough value girls in sports? Residents in every other borough in Montreal have a gymnastics club that is well supported by their borough.”
Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand noted that the building is costly to heat, light and keep safe, and that the gymnastics club only uses part of the space - a large part of the building is empty.
Rotrand suggested that a solution might be to consult with city partners elsewhere as well “given that this is a metropolitan group with members not just from the borough, but from all over.”
Part of the solution might be to look at what is available elsewhere, he explained. He suggested that for the next little while the group look beyond a CDN-NDG solution. “It could be an interborough or intermunicipal solution,” he said.
