Cathedral’s fate now seems to hinge on a Government lifeline

Tuesday, 25 June 2024

Catch a glimpse of the work being done at the Christchurch Cathedral open day.

Mike Yardley is a Christchurch-based writer and commentator on current affairs, and a regular opinion contributor.

OPINION: The clock is ticking on keeping the mothballing wolf from the door of Christ Church Cathedral.

It’s been 10 weeks since Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd (CCRL) rocked the city with the big reveal on the monumental blow-out in cost estimates. As of April, the project had been re-costed at $248 million, leaving a gaping shortfall of $114m. The completion timeframe had also galloped by four years to 2031.

Amid the gloom, some fresh rays of hope have finally emerged that this project can still be salvaged. June’s fully booked cathedral tours suggest public affection has not flamed out. Saturday’s gathering of the Anglican diocese’s governing body, the synod, endorsed some eminently sensible moves that CCRL chair Mark Stewart foreshadowed with me in April.

The Anglican bishop, Peter Carrell, and Mark Stewart, chair of ChristChurch Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd, at the cathedral. The reinstatement project has received some good news as efforts continue to keep it on track, but the threat of mothballing remains, writes Mike Yardley.

The synod has approved rescoping the project, that could shave nearly $40m off project costs. Like the Arts Centre, the Cathedral will meet 67% of new building standards, without the complex and unnecessary installation of base isolators, bringing forward the delivery date to 2029.

Deferring the construction of the ancillary buildings has also been agreed to. The resulting funding gap has duly been revised down from April’s bombshell to $75m-$85m.

So where are we at? The project has $134m in current and planned funding in place, including $25m from government, $10m from the council, $24m from donations, and $33m from insurance proceeds. CCRL has committed to fundraising another $26m from philanthropists, and the Anglican Church is contributing $16m, via the signalled sale of the Transitional Cathedral, upon the completion of Christ Church Cathedral.

That’s what the synod agreed to. It also approved requesting Parliament make a change to the Church Property Trust Act, which currently prohibits other parishes from contributing capital funds from a property sale to the cathedral project. But no such legislative change will happen overnight.

So the synod’s decisions don’t actually move the needle on what we were led to believe is the most pressing issue. Somehow, from somewhere, CCRL needs a $30m funding injection by the end of August to avert the spectre of mothballing.

That’s what CCRL ominously warned of in April: $30m is needed to complete the strengthening work. It is urgently required to avoid this building becoming a barricaded eyesore brooding over the central city for the foreseeable future, gravely undermining the potential for Cathedral Square to rediscover its mojo and reassert its central role as the thriving heart of our city.

I caught up with CCRL chair Mark Stewart, who is currently in the United States. He praised the synod “for stepping up” on reducing project costs, which provides greater clarity on the funding challenge ahead.

A public tour of the cathedral reconstruction in mid-June. The high interest in the tours, plus recent decisions by the Anglican synod, have given rise to new hope for the project.

Stewart indicated that he’s made progress on attracting more philanthropists to the cause, “but there are a lot of moving parts”, and his focus is on “getting everyone to the same place”.

Rather than simply seeking a $30m funding lifeline to get over the initial hurdle, Stewart seems determined to pursue the bigger prize of stitching together a wider multi-party deal and longer-term funding structure to meet the $75m-$85m shortfall.

He wouldn’t be drawn on how he envisages that shortfall should be split between taxpayer, ratepayer, church and donor. However he confirms that a specific funding request will be put to the Government within the next month. And the council.

As the project’s single biggest individual donor, Stewart isn’t ruling out contributing more of his own money.

So has the mothballing threat been neutralised? Not yet. Has a quick cash injection been secured? No. Finance Minister Nicola Wills confirms that the cathedral reinstatement team has formally asked the Government to consider providing additional funding for their project. “It’s still at a very early stage with ministers yet to receive formal advice. Cabinet will weigh this against other funding requests,” Willis tells me.

If any immediate funding lifelines are to be thrown – and they will need to be substantial, the Government is surely the more likely source. Don’t expect the council to play sugar daddy.

Stewart reaffirmed his confidence that mothballing can be averted, but notes the CCRL board meeting on August 20 will be a pivotal moment. You’ve got to admire his tenacity, but the reinstatement project could still well need a miracle.

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