To the editor:
I have a few issues regarding Greg Alexander’s guest column published on Saturday on tbnewswatch.com.
First off, I object to a city administrator promoting city policies and practices. An elected official, such as the chairman of the waterfront development committee, Coun. Mark Bentz, should be responsible for carrying out this role. One may remember, Mr. Alexander stated a letter to the editor before the municipal election, Phase 1 was on budget and a hotelier would be announced soon after the election. Both of these statements proved to be incorrect.
Secondly, I think Mr. Alexander was being “overly optimistic” when he said, “More than 25,000 people have used the new skating rink." This would mean over 200 people per day would’ve had to use this rink, which would’ve made it be a very crowded rink.
Finally, this column does not make me feel the city is entering in a win-win situation with the developer. Although the developer paid almost $700,000 for the land, their associate Manshield Construction was the major contractor for the entire $65,000,000 project. In other words, the city paid this amount to get less than a tenth of it back.
I don’t believe our city’s interests are protected. Are we to understand, if the developer decides to walk away from this project uncompleted, they just have to give back title of the land to the city? Are we going to be stuck with a $65 million hole in the ground beside an abandoned railway station? If this site isn’t developed, will the provincial and federal governments come after us for not complying with the conditions of their funding?
In time, we will see what really happens and I’m sure our city officials will come up with more convenient excuses as to why things turned out the way they did.
Andy Wolff,
Thunder Bay
