RIM Park
Encyclopedia
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
(2 km²) city park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
facility on the northeast side of the city of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, close to the neighbourhood of Eastbridge. Key facilities and features include the Manulife Financial Sportsplex and Healthy Living Centre, the heritage Mennonite Martin farm, and the Grey Silo Golf Course. The eastern edge of the park borders on the Grand River
Grand River (Ontario)
The Grand River is a large river in southwestern Ontario, Canada. From its source, it flows south through Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Caledonia, and Cayuga before emptying into the north shore of Lake Erie south of Dunnville at Port Maitland...
for 1.5 km.
The name was selected by the park's largest donor, the employees of Research In Motion
Research In Motion
Research In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
, who contributed $2 million in 2001. In the planning stages, it had been called Millennium Recreation Park. The total up-front cost was $56.7-million, most of which was financed by a lease-style loan. Parts of the park opened in June 2001 and the grand opening was held on November 3, 2001.
Funding controversy
The park is notorious in local politics due to the cost of its financing. A Mississauga-based company, MFP Financial Services (now Renasant Financial PartnersRenasant Financial Partners
Renasant Financial Partners Limited is a computer supply and service company, which offers leasing, asset-based financing and equipment trading services to corporate and government clients to meet technology and computer needs.The company was established in 1984, and became a publicly traded...
) provided financing for the park. On September 25, 2000, Waterloo council unanimously approved a lease-style loan of $48.3 million after being told that the interest rate was 4.73 per cent, and the total payout over 30 years was $112.9 million. More than six months after the deal closed, after an investigation by The Record
The Record (Waterloo Region)
The Waterloo Region Record is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area...
, the city found out that the real interest rate was 9.2 per cent and that its total payout would be $227.7 million.
In June 2001, the City of Waterloo filed suit against MFP, one of its sales representatives, and two companies that bought part of the debt from MFP: Clarica —now Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial Inc. is an international financial services company known primarily as a life insurance company. Based in Toronto, Canada, Sun Life and its partners provide insurance, retirement and investment solutions for individuals and businesses around the world including Canada, the United...
—and Maritime Life
Maritime Life
The Maritime Life Assurance Company was a Canadian insurance company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was founded in 1922 and in 2004 it became fully integrated with Manulife Financial, with the Maritime Life brand being retired. In 2004 it had 2700 employees....
. The matter was settled out of court in 2002, reducing the city's payments to $145.7 million over 30 years.
A public judicial inquiry was held to look into the funding process, headed by the Honourable Mr. Justice Ronald C. Sills. He issued his report in October 2003, making 31 recommendations.
Not one member of city council during the RIM Park ordeal—including mayor Lynne Woolstencroft
Lynne Woolstencroft
Lynne E. Woolstencroft is a Canadian politician and former mayor of Waterloo, Ontario.- Life and career :Woolstencroft was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan...
—was re-elected in the municipal elections in November 2003. All were either defeated or chose not to run again (Mike Connolly ran for a seat on regional council and was elected; Sean Strickland had run for a seat in the provincial election a month earlier and finished a close second to incumbent Elizabeth Witmer
Elizabeth Witmer
Elizabeth Witmer is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1990, originally representing Waterloo North and later Kitchener—Waterloo for the Progressive Conservative Party.Witmer moved with her family to Ontario at a young age...
). The city's chief administrative officer and its treasurer both left their jobs as a result of the funding fiasco.
In August 2006, a judge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Ontario Superior Court of Justice
The Superior Court of Justice is the superior court of general jurisdiction for the Province of Ontario, Canada. It is the successor to the former Ontario Court of Justice , and was created on April 19, 1999...
threw out a suit filed by the city against former MFP employees who participated in the financing deal. The judge ruled that the city had already sued MFP and a suit against the employees would be trying to sue the same people twice. That ruling was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal in October 2007, clearing the way for the city to sue former MFP employees.