To the editor:
So, another $8.6 million has been requested to cover cost overruns at the waterfront.
I think taxpayers should be angry. We’ve used our $37M in ISF, money that should have been put towards capital works in our city, or more modest public improvements at the waterfront.
There was certainly no shortage of things needing to be done, judging from the city’s own ticking time-bomb figures of a $15M annual infrastructure works defiticit. The ISF money wasn’t tied to private development.
Worst of all, it appears that much of this work revolves around the creating, remediating and servicing of the developer’s land. Land we agreed to sell for only $665,000. For a hotelier that doesn’t seem to exist.
The excuses are just excuses. It was known from day one that this was contaminated land. Yet our administration agreed to sell a “clean, serviced site” to the developer.
They’re trying to do too much in a short timeframe, then blaming the federal government. The city, not the government, chose this project for priority funding, but it wasn’t shovel-ready when the ISF was announced.
I have to question the quality of the supervision of this project. From what I’m hearing, much of the money being spent now is fixing problems due to poor project management at the site.
Why is Mr. Commisso speaking to this issue? Where’s Ms. Dugmore or Mr. Alexander, who were only too eager to request an additional $1.4M in December, and promising that things were “on budget and on time.”
All this for six more boat slips. And a skating rink.
So, another $8.6 million has been requested to cover cost overruns at the waterfront.
I think taxpayers should be angry. We’ve used our $37M in ISF, money that should have been put towards capital works in our city, or more modest public improvements at the waterfront.
There was certainly no shortage of things needing to be done, judging from the city’s own ticking time-bomb figures of a $15M annual infrastructure works defiticit. The ISF money wasn’t tied to private development.
Worst of all, it appears that much of this work revolves around the creating, remediating and servicing of the developer’s land. Land we agreed to sell for only $665,000. For a hotelier that doesn’t seem to exist.
The excuses are just excuses. It was known from day one that this was contaminated land. Yet our administration agreed to sell a “clean, serviced site” to the developer.
They’re trying to do too much in a short timeframe, then blaming the federal government. The city, not the government, chose this project for priority funding, but it wasn’t shovel-ready when the ISF was announced.
I have to question the quality of the supervision of this project. From what I’m hearing, much of the money being spent now is fixing problems due to poor project management at the site.
Why is Mr. Commisso speaking to this issue? Where’s Ms. Dugmore or Mr. Alexander, who were only too eager to request an additional $1.4M in December, and promising that things were “on budget and on time.”
All this for six more boat slips. And a skating rink.
Patty Bates,
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay
