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EDITORIAL: Province blindsided by city?

For all the due diligence city hall has conducted in preparation to build a sparkling new event centre, you’d think someone might have thought to give the province a heads up before going public with the figures.

For all the due diligence city hall has conducted in preparation to build a sparkling new event centre, you’d think someone might have thought to give the province a heads up before going public with the figures.

The city is asking Ontario taxpayers to come up with $36 million to help fund the $114.7-million project.

That’s 56.2 per cent more than they plan to get from the federal government – pending approval, of course – through the use of creative accounting and expanded ability to use the already-in-place gas-tax allocation.

The news caught MPP Michael Gravelle off guard.

Gravelle, along with his south-side colleague MPP Bill Mauro, have been huge backers of the event-centre project.

But he made it clear on Thursday he’d have a hard time selling the province on a deal that required them to fork over $13 million more than the feds.

The request also forced the city to scramble and call an emergency meeting with Gravelle to apologize for blindsiding him on the numbers.

Asked where the $13 million shortfall, assuming the province matches Ottawa, might come from, Mayor Keith Hobbs said he’d cross that bridge when the city came to it.

That’s a lot of money to magically find on a project that’s already got municipal taxpayers on the hook for $23 million through Renew Thunder Bay, $4.3 million from city-owned Thunder Bay Hydro and a $16.9-million debenture.

We ask again, where is it coming from?


 





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