I wish (Ward 5 Greater Sudbury city councillor) Bob Kirwan would stop saying the last election was a referendum on the KED. He’s said it at least six times in the past month on his Valley East page.
The last election was an election for representatives and nothing more. I would know, because I voted for Bob Kirwan, particularly because he represents the Valley by giving them a strong voice in council and he supported projects that I thought would be beneficial to the city, like the Maley Drive extension.
At the time I didn’t have a strong opinion on the arena location and am unsure on how I would have answered in a referendum.
As the debate rages on, and I see comments like this from Bob on his Valley East page, I am left wondering, could there be others like me? Are our representatives giving us other misleading information?
There’s more about me you should know. I spent most of my life in the Valley, but I recently moved to the South End. I’ve also lived in the West End and Minnow Lake in the past. I’m not one to spend a lot of time downtown.
I have a good perspective on the issues from someone who’s lived both in an outlying community and lived in the former city. I like to think I keep myself informed by reading the news and official announcements from the city.
People in the core have a hard time relating to the importance people from the outlying communities put on driving and parking. The reality is when you live in an outlying community, you’ve made a commitment to drive everywhere in this city indefinitely.
The last thing you want to deal with is what the downtown core has. Unsynchronized lights, one-way streets and poor parking options were just some of the reasons I avoided downtown when I lived in the Valley.
But if there’s one issue that everyone has to deal with, regardless if you live in the city or an outlying community, it’s taxes. The reality is we all pay taxes and they seem to go up every year. At the same time the services we receive go down every year.
The KED, on paper, looks like it will bring in more tax revenue than a downtown arena, but that’s only if the casino and hotel are also built.
I saw somewhere on Sudbury.com someone had asked if the downtown taxes would be impacted and then I realized none of the councillors have even mentioned that.
I spent some time this weekend trying to figure out what percentage of the city’s taxes come from the downtown core.
I used the city’s tax calculator tool and the interactive zone planning map to query the taxes for most addresses downtown. From my estimate, almost 10 per cent of the city’s tax revenue come from the downtown area.
To put that in perspective, downtown accounts for less than one per cent of the total land in the City of Greater Sudbury.
While I think a lot of people would agree the downtown is tired or even sketchy, I feel like this is a big enough portion of tax revenue that it’s important. Why isn’t there more public information on this?
I was left wondering: what if the arena leaving downtown negatively impacts the property values downtown, and we see a long-term decrease in tax revenue from the core? And what if the casino and hotel don’t get built? Will we be in the hole on two locations in Sudbury? Surely there’s at least a small chance of this happening with the KED location, given the hotel and casino haven’t entered firm commitments. Who’s going to pay for the tax shortfall if it happens? Or will we end up having garbage picked up only once a month next?
I think that’s a major problem with this whole event centre. It’s a polarized world and everyone immediately took sides.
The councillors that support the downtown location never mention the downsides. But neither does Bob Kirwan or the other ones that support the Kingsway location.
Worse yet – the downtown's downsides are well known because it’s the devil we know.
Bob Kirwan’s Facebook posts are always outlining the benefits of the KED and he never informs us of the downsides. What are they? I’ve never seen a project in my life that only offered upsides.
Is there a chance that my taxes go up significantly? Will I be frustrated spending 30 minutes to get out of the KED like the Sens arena? Is there a realistic way to address the downtown parking issues?
If I knew the answers to these questions, I might have a stronger opinion on where the arena should go.
Which brings me back to my first point – the last municipal election was not a referendum on the event centre location. There has never been a referendum on the event centre location. This event centre will be one of the biggest investments in the city’s history, it will likely be in use for longer than many of us will be alive, and I could very well feel it in my wallet – shouldn’t it be up to us as citizens to decide? A referendum is hard to argue against.
We’re a little more than a year away from an election. I think council should adopt an approach of informing the citizens of the pros and cons of both locations for the last year of their term.
I firmly believe a referendum should be held on the event centre location. This will show the true will of the people on where they want the event center of the future located, and it will give the next council the mandate to get it done – they’ll have the backing of the people, after all.
To the people who are afraid a year’s delay will add more to the cost – it is going to add some for sure, but it would be a small amount versus what the impact to taxes could be over the coming years.
And to the councillors who are afraid of people thinking they won’t invest in the city – last I checked there is still over $100 million in capital investments going into the city this year. No politician has ever been faulted for good community engagement.
J. Gagnon
Sudbury