To the editor:
It was apparent in news reports some time before the city administration submitted the request for funding of the multiplex that the federal government looked upon arenas unfavourably, but we proceeded anyway.
Did we state our multiplex was a hockey arena with a convention centre attached or a convention centre with a hockey arena attached? Sometimes presentation is everything. But that is history. Now we are told pats may qualify.
Assuming this is accurate, does this mean taxpayers will have to absorb the portion of the $20 million original request that didn’t qualify for federal funding?
It was noted our new application must show that projected revenues from the convention/trade centre side of it would support the facility’s operations.
Why didn’t we know or break down revenues in the first place when submitting the earlier application?
Is this another “we will build it, they will come” project? We can say anything on paper to get funding. Reality is something else. Remember all the buses we were told would be at the casino everyday bringing tourists from out of town? Why aren’t they there?
I recall as a child watching the comedians Laurel and Hardy. Oliver Hardy had a line he often used to say to Stan Laurel: “It’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”
Here we go again.
Fred Johnson,
Thunder Bay
