There is something wrong with this picture.
On the one hand, we have a duly incorporated not for profit group Sudbury District Sports Club, which has been working for years to create an inflatable dome sports facility.
They have formed a private public partnership with the Conseil Scolaire Catholique du Nouvel-Ontario (CSCNO) which would host the dome on their school property located at the corner of Notre Dame Ave and Kathleen Street.
The funding for this project is a combination of private funds and a loan, there will be no public money required from any level of government — municipal, provincial or federal.
This is a well-designed and thought-out project that is ideally situated and requires no modifications to any infrastructure.
This is a project that could be the poster child for 3P (public, private, partnerships). It’s a win, win, win scenario.
On the other hand, we have the former liberal government who, in spite of being fully aware that the SDSC project had been in the works for at least three years and was virtually shovel ready, decides to announce $4 million from the province to build a dome at Lasalle Secondary just weeks before the provincial election.
The location of this 100-per-cent taxpayer-funded dome project would require additional infrastructure modifications to the tune of $2.2 million, as well as an additional $750,000 for a fieldhouse, which would be paid for out of municipal tax dollars. The school board would kick in an additional $1.1 million, which ultimately comes from — you guessed it, our provincial tax dollars.
If this waste of taxpayers' money proceeds, we could end up with two domes within kilometres of each other, one funded by the taxpayers, and one funded privately, the net result would have them in direct competition with each other.
I’ve looked, and I cannot find where a domed sport facility is mandated by either a city bylaw, or provincial statute, so I’m not sure why the province, city, and Rainbow school board felt compelled to agree to this project in the first place.
One also has to question why the haste in proceeding with this project? They are claiming they will start construction this summer with a January 2019 opening. I’m sure that after years of inaction on the part of the past Liberal government, city and Rainbow board, the sudden urgency to quickly start this gouging of the public purse, has nothing to do with the not-for-profit SDSC projects construction start date of Aug. 1, 2018 with an opening of Nov. 1, 2018.
I would hope that Premier Ford would ensure that the proposed $4million in funding is immediately cut and the city ceases its consideration of shuffling of road work funding as a way to quickly accomplish the infrastructure upgrades to the Lassalle location.
The current council should not consider funding any part of this waste of tax dollars, both for the infrastructure upgrades, as well as the $25,000 per year in operating funding which it will be asked to pay.
There is no reason that can justify tax dollars being spent on a project that would compete with a privately funded dome project period.
I would urge you to lend your support the Sudbury District Sports Cub and their not-for-profit project, and send a message to the province and especially to the city that spending tax money on non-mandated projects is not acceptable, especially when those projects would be in direct competition with a not-for-profit project.
Dan Melanson