I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t understand why the majority of city councillors want to wait until June to move the arena process along.
To recap, two motions were introduced last week to speed up the process. One from Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan would have seen the RFP for the project released in January, and close 30 days later (a motion that deserved to be defeated; 30 days isn’t much time).
The other, a reasonable amendment to Kirwan’s motion from Ward 11 Coun. Lynne Reynolds, would have put the RFP out for 90 days, but still have it released in January.
Both went down to defeat after heated discussion, Reynolds only narrowly, indicating council is pretty divided on the issue. I confess, I don’t understand why it’s necessary for the process to last until June.
Those who voted against speeding up the process offered no real arguments to back up their vote, only the vague we-have-to-make-sure-we-get-this-right arguments. Everyone wants to get it right. Why do we need nine more months to do that?
Greater Sudbury needs a new arena and event centre. This isn’t just a want. This is a need. As venerable as Sudbury Arena is, the barn needs to be put to pasture.
Councillors all know this. After all, they voted to make a new arena and event centre a municipal priority.
And yet, as Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier aptly put it last week, they’ve dillied and they’ve dallied and they’ve dithered.
Kirwan has pointed out — rightly, I think — that if the request for proposals (RFP) process lasts until the end of June 2017, there’s a distinct possibility nothing will be done before the municipal election in 2018.
Government grinds to a halt in the run up to an election and takes a while to pick up speed once a new council is in place. By the time our new city government could take firm hold of the reins, who knows what will happen or when the project could move forward. The funding ship may set sail before that.
So why the delay? If council is looking for some hard numbers on how moving an arena outside the downtown could impact businesses in the core of the city, come out and say that.
Right now, we hear whispers that a determined downtown lobby is bending ears to push for a downtown arena. If that’s the case, move it out of the backroom and onto the floor of the council chamber and let all of us hear the arguments for and against. That’s transparency.
I consider myself a downtown booster. I love our downtown core. I work downtown. As a service sector, as a place for art and music and cuisine, downtown is developing its own unique flavour and character. At Northern Life and Sudbury.com, we’ve witnessed that evolution first hand.
Frankly, I would like to see the arena go downtown. It would certainly add to the skyline and make a pleasing architectural triumvirate with Tom Davies Square and Laurentian’s School of Architecture.
As nice an image as that might be, it’s not a reason to locate a new arena in the core. I haven’t heard a single argument or seen a single piece of data that convinces me downtown’s current and future health and development rests on the back of an arena.
I’ve heard some passionate arguments, to be sure. But beyond the passion, what is there?
I haven’t heard a single bar owner or restaurateur say their business thrives on traffic generated by Sudbury Arena. This leads me to believe any residual business impact of hockey games or concerts is marginal at best. If I’m wrong, please, someone set me straight. I don’t mind being proved wrong.
What I have heard are several arguments against it, from daunting infrastructure challenges to construction costs that are tens of millions of dollars higher than in other parts of the city. Those are real things and real concerns.
I have to confess, I can’t make heads nor tails of council’s decision to prolong the process until June 2017.
Why do we need nine more months to get this project moving? What new information — in a process that has been ongoing for a decade —will come to light in the next 200 and some odd days?
Good decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. And that’s where we, the public, are sitting right now. In a vacuum.
Here’s hoping, in a year from now, we aren’t talking about this as a lost opportunity.
Mark Gentili is the managing editor of Sudbury.com and Northern Life.
