Who Do You Believe At Lansdowne? MULVIHILL
Is Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe playing fast and loose with the truth at Lansdowne?
Based on data that Sutcliffe uses, a minute saving is cause for celebration and Ottawans should be overwhelmed at the savings at Lansdowne … $419 million is now $418.8 million. Does anyone actually believe these numbers are accurate?
Recently, the Professional Women’s Hockey League advised that seating in the new-and-improved arena is insufficient for its needs. Is Sutcliffe listening? Are councillors listening?
Sutcliffe felt the need to boost Lansdowne 2.0 in a pre-release of the final report to council. This report that council will accept and, as Sutcliffe anticipates, approve, lends itself to part fantasy and part fallacy. Council will decide which is which. One can only hope the majority of councillors have taken off the rose-coloured glasses since this redo began. Lansdowne 1.0 was an epic failure and 2.0 is simply throwing away good money after bad.
The public, for the most part, elected ward councillors to represent their financial interests at such critical meetings. Any councillor who supports this is doing their constituents a disservice.
Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a very heart-felt prime-time address speaking directly to Canadians about the status of our economy. Carney’s message was very clear, we must do more with less. The City of Ottawa is taking the opposite view, do less with more.
There are recreation centres, arenas, libraries, community centres, roads and sidewalks that are close to their best-before dates. It seems that budgeting for life-cycle renewal of city-owned facilities is a thing of the past. Why fix anything when you can let buildings rot and use those funds for a specific priority that does not benefit the city as a whole?
Once Jim Watson left the mayor’s chains of office behind, many hoped that his brand of self-interested of politics was a thing of the past. Sadly, Sutcliffe is a repeat of Watson and that is exactly what this city doesn’t need.
Does our mayor really have the taxpayers’ best interests at heart or does Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group top his list of priorities? That’s the $419-million question.
There are too many unknowns and not enough honest answers to convince concerned residents that Lansdowne 2.0 is financially viable. All indications point to failure.
Donna Mulvihill is a community activist and former hospital coordinator
For You:
Sutcliffe’s Slick, Vague, Unfair Lansdowne Video
Do The Right Thing At Lansdowne: BENN
Lansdowne: Sketchy Bluster From Denley: GRAY
Lansdowne Bad Economics: CHERNUSHENKO
Get Out Of Lansdowne While You Still Can: GRAY
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I don’t believe the mayor or the councilors supporting Landsdowne 2.0. I sat through a meeting with 3 east end councilors on Saturday and was told that we don’t understand the city’s stand that there are “long term savings” . I didn’t believe a word that they said about it.
As one knows, the city hasn’t made any money from 1.0, and I don’t believe it will be any better with 2.0. The only “people” that will benefit is OSEG. Any Public / Private partnership is geared to make money for the Private and not the public.
“Long term savings” …. Spending money on Lansdowne to save on cost escalation down the road is a shell game – as it just means the city defers renewing crumbling infrastructure elsewhere, including Rec centres and roads..and unlike places like Tom Brown arena, which is still in operation but should have been renewed years ago, Lansdowne has lots of years of useful life left – perfect? No. Are people having fun there at relatively low ticket prices? Yes.