EDITORIAL: Council decision doesn't mean public won't have an event-centre say

There will be those who think city council did them a grave injustice Monday night.

Asked by Coun. Linda Rydholm to consider adding an event-centre ballot question to the Oct. 27 municipal election, they overwhelmingly shot the idea down by a 10-2 count.

Only Rydholm and at-large Coun. Larry Hebert voted in favour of the idea, which would have asked voters if they were in favour of continuing the event-centre process.

Almost immediately opponents of the $106.1 million facility cried foul, stating democracy had been usurped.

Not so.

Council, instead, voted to continue a process already under way. A Phase 3 study will provide many of the answers voters need to make an informed decision, such as a business plan and final costs. Those answers are needed to take funding requests to senior levels of government. The public also needs those answers.

What the vote didn’t do was approve construction.

As Mayor Keith Hobbs and several of his council colleagues have repeatedly said, if no other funding is forthcoming, the project is dead in the water.

With $22 million or more already set aside by the city to pay its share of the project, council has also promised an extensive scientific survey to gauge public support.

The plebiscite question, as worded, would have only satisfied those who are opposed to the project at all costs.

And if it passed, some on council might have seen it as a mandate to proceed with the project at any cost to the taxpayer. 

If the public is to have a say in funding the project – and we’re not opposed to this – it should be once all the facts are in order and they can make a fully informed decision.

Any earlier was just too soon.