To the editor:
Recent events point to a dilemma at city hall. A desire exists to get on with the proposed events centre, but do residents have appetite for its tax implications without prospect of revenue generating investment at the waterfront? Will they have a choice?
Just as the five-star boutique hotel and waterpark proved unrealistic, so too did the suggested raison d’être for investors, throwing private investment into limbo. Is administration betting a downtown events centre will rescue the more modest four-star hotel? Is there a rationale for the hotel without one? These are the questions being asked in the community.
Apparently, the decision to construct a 6,000-seat event centre downtown is an extraneous consideration for our mysterious hotelier - according to the city manager. Is this a stretch of credibility? Agreements have been tweaked to allow for the land transfer with, as far as we can tell, no hotelier or requirement to announce one. So tweaked, a case may be made for the city to transfer questions related to the hotel and condominiums to Winnipeg developers for years, certainly beyond any confirmation date respecting the event centre. In the meantime, the city may wash its hands of the development issue – clearing the way for its next legacy project.
The city is very mindful of the importance of the event centre’s location, and it will not leave it to chance. As Coun. Aldo Ruberto observed, the pubic is not capable of making an informed decision about it, as it doesn’t understand the full picture. How humble at election time - how imperial once elected. We should be outraged.
Citizens already know where the event centre is going to be located (should it be funded) and for what reasons. I don’t know if they agree with it. I know they do not look forward to the shell games that will surround its funding, or the political theatre surrounding its location.
The event centre will be served-up downtown, appetite for it or not.
William Olesky,
Thunder Bay
