So heres a a little commentary... Some people love to frame this as the city being obsessed about the event centre, including a few of my friends. Its pretty clear its anything but, and in fact huge amounts of due diligence have been put into the proposed project. Let me expand. Hopefully youll read it and not turn a blind eye. If you want to debate, fine, but if youre just going to make snide remarks, dont bother. The proposed events centre has NOT been approved nor is it even close to final approval stage. The city has spent years studying the project to make sure its the right fit for the city, and they have still not gotten to the point of giving it a final stamp of approval. This project started with the previous council. That final decision will be up to the next council. Many people have asked whats wrong with FWG? The answers are simple. By arena standards it is old, there are structural issues, the boiler and ice-maker are substandard, the ice surface is not regulation size, there is a shortage of accessible seating areas, a lack of box seating, a lack of convention space, insufficient dressing room space... the list goes on. The acoustics are sub par which is part of the reason we dont get a lot of concerts there anymore. Another issue is a lack of seating for bigger ticket acts. Some people have said... why not just build a new arena to keep the price tag lower? Short answer? It will cost us more. The Feds and Province have already said they wont fund an arena by itself. It must be a multipurpose facility. An arena by itself would be in the neighbourhood of 50 Million Dollars. Assuming Federal and Provincial government comes through on funding, our share would be 42 Million max. Less the 25 Million we have saved for the project. Less any private investment. In all likelihood our final amount owing will likely be in the neighbourhood of 15 Million, which would likely be debentured over a 15-20 year period. That would barely even register on the city budget. People have asked about the increased operating deficit... expected to be double that of the Gardens... sure it will cost more... but it will also draw more events in the long term. Much of that loss will eventually be erased. Add to that the increased tax base (600+ new homes, over a half dozen major multi-unit residences including two coming soon 15 story buildings near the university, the proposed Costco (which will likely draw about a million per year in tax revenue), the new Delta Hotel and other major developments... it wont even be a drop in the bucket compared to new tax revenue, let alone the overall tax base. People have asked... what about other priorities? Well for starters, the city is spending more than 10 Million per year more on infrastructure than the previous council. They are building new roads, sidewalks, bridges and sewers faster than any previous council... trying to make up for the huge infrastructure deficit we had. The city has redeployed police to focus on neighbourhood policing, and though it will take a few years to see the bulk of the results, it will certainly have a positive effect on crime reduction. Ill highlight a bunch more positives later today... but my lunch break is over.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 16:00:50 +0000
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