Hotel Free Money? Give Us All Free Money: GRAY

Germain Hotels wanted to be forgiven $13 million in property taxes refunds over 25 years.

Well you know at my house your agent erected a $13,000 gazebo and put up a $6,000 retractable awning because my house was so small I thought I could make it bigger for the summer. That way I wouldn’t have to go outside to change my mind.

And you know I could read books or listen to a night Jays game without catching malaria from bugs or being accosted by one of the innumberable skunks in the neighbourhood or a rabid raccoon.

So there you go. Just south of 20 grand to keep workers with astonishing numbers of tattoos, muscles on top of muscles and skin like leather from decades baking in the sun in sun-tan lotion. I was very nice to these people. I could enjoy the humid beauty of an Ottawa night without some of the downside.

Twenty big ones. During the pandemic. Your agent was an economic stimulus.

So what I would like to know is where is the cut in my property taxes for spending all that money? You know I’m not a welfare case like Germain Hotels but I wouldn’t mind a piece of that action.

Storm Chat Yields 24,000 Page Views. Who Knew?

Now Germain would still pay property taxes, just not as many. Look, I’m good with that deal. If Germain gets it, I should get it. I employed people, contributed to the economy and even bought a beer or two for the Jays games from Ontario’s oligopolized suds retailers (because our brewers and their campaign donations require all the money they can get from we baseball fans. Always happy to help a charity in need. God bless each and everyone of them).

So where’s the cut in my property taxes for those improvements from ex-mayor Jim Watson, current mayor Mark Sutcliffe or Kitchissippi Councillor Jeff Leiper. Damn, if they gave me that kind of cut, I would have voted for them.

Germain got some blow-back on the grant from Sutcliffe so they hired a lobbyist (that was the problem, I didn’t hire a lobbyist) and decided it didn’t need $13 million.

So according to the Ottawa Citizen the new proposal is something like this: “Germain has retained lobbyist Jeff Polowin, who said this would reduce the amount of forgiven municipal taxes from $13.1 million over 25 years to $3.7 million over 10 years. The city would still collect just 25 per cent of the development-induced increase to property taxes over a decade, totalling $1.2 million, but then resume full property-tax collection after 2034, rather than after 25 years. Polowin passed along a chart from city staff, confirming these figures.”

How Do We Fix Ottawa’s Light Rail? BENN

Well thank goodness city staff confirmed those figures because they recommended the original figures in the first place … now they’re changing them. Situational ethics. On the subject of skunks …

You know, if you don’t understand a deal or its implications, don’t make it. Look at Lansdowne. That sure worked out well. If we wanted the Germain inn to fail, we could just plop it in Lansdowne. Then we could bail it out. Yes, what a deal that Lansdowne tricklefall was (which no one understood). The city pumped in at least $175 million, probably more, to get $1 million back now and then to repair its facilities at Lansdowne (were these the same geniuses who squandered $2.2 billion on a light-rail system that doesn’t work. Why by golly yes). Then they gave the repair money (through some arcane process) back to the proprietors because there was a pandemic. Memo to city council: there was a pandemic everywhere … not just at Lansdowne.

So what you got here is that, strangely, Germain didn’t need the original deal. And then the principals decided to create a tricky new formula that means something and perhaps even means Germain gets less free money (somewhere I hear the sound of a waterfall). Anyway I want a cut of the same action Germain’s getting.

Germain and your agent, doing the same thing, propelling the economy to new heights.

What Germain is saying by accepting less (kinda) is that they didn’t need $13 million in first place but who’s to turn down free money? I’d like some free money, too. Bet we’re all in on that one. But I don’t like paying it out to people who don’t need it.

And then of course there’s the question that if Germain needed $13 million, just how big and reliable is this company that is putting an important structure into our airport? Why don’t they do what the rest of us do? Pay for it. Then at the end of this, they get money, lots of it. Money as in profits. And they’d like more money from us. Who do these people think they are? A Porsche dealership?

You’ve probably never heard this before but money makes the world go ’round. Yes, altruism just doesn’t cut it. Be nice and look what happens to you. People would steal your eyeballs when you’re not looking. Some people screw you up because they just like doing it.

So people like money. Socialists like money for universal dental care. Liberals like money so they can keep themselves in white wine and canapes. Conservatives like money so they can buy something better than a BMW because the Beemer just ain’t cuttin’ it in the neighbourhood.

So we all like money. Take Aaron Judge for example. The baseball god plays the game for its heritage, its integrity, its wholesomeness, for the spirit of the Yankees, for his city New York and for nine years and $360 million. Judge makes so much money the City of Ottawa should give him a grant. And coindidentally last year Judge had a season for the ages, in the final year of his previous contract and on the cusp of negotiating the aforementioned deal. Coincidence? Ah, the romance of the game.

So let’s get back to Germain. The hotel chain is erecting a hotel at the airport because it wants to make a big profit. God bless ’em. We all want to make some money. And they want a grant to make more money, or pay out less money. Profits make people take risks which create jobs and related services. Nice. But I’m not interested in paying other people money so they can make more money unless they give me the same deal they’re getting. And let’s not forget that the risk in taking risks is that you go bankrupt. The Bulldog would just like to go on record that this publication is in favour of profits and going bankrupt. That’s what keeps the system efficient and producing more jobs … in the long run.

So Sutcliffe is right. If there’s a market for the hotel, then Germain will build it. If there isn’t, it won’t.

Now it’s easy for Sutcliffe to politically die on the cross for a paltry $13 million. I mean that’s not $2.2 billion. Yes we shouldn’t be handing out grants to people who are taking the risk of making great profits and probably didn’t give money to his election campaign. Yes, the free marketplace. Bloody out-of-towners.

Now let’s see His Worship stick to his guns when the local guys come pleading for more money for Lansdowne 2, which is to bail out the failed Lansdowne 1, unless you take into account the real-estate deals that went with it. Or when the new hockey owners come begging for an arena, though how Sutcliffe justifies free money for one professional sport but not for another will be interesting to watch.

But this is politics. He’ll figure out.

He better. We’re paying for it.

Bulldog editor Ken Gray has been a journalist at five major Canadian newspapers over a career that has spanned four decades.

 —

Don’t miss our regular features

Everything Ottawa      Full Local     Bulldog Canadian

Opinion    Comments    Breaking News

Ontario   World    Get Cheap Gas   Big Money

Pop Gossip   Your Home    Relax …   Must Reads

Bulldog Weather    Full Local Sports

Page 2   Page 3   Page 4   Page 5   Page 6

Other features:    Full Bulldog Index    Return to Bulldog Home