A candidate in Ward 12 says incumbent councillor Joscelyne Landry-Altmann can’t ask the tough questions when it comes to the Kingsway Entertainment District.
Shawn Ouimet asks a lot of questions in his most recent news release, regarding the KED project and certain aspects of the project. He also questions the need for a convention centre downtown.
Read the full text of Ouimet’s release below.
I believe that the negotiating that council has directed staff to do is terribly wrong and should be reviewed, because it’s our tax dollars for this event centre, a centre that had a starting price of $50 million two years ago and has doubled to $100 million.
I do ask neighbors questions if a developer is building a neighborhood, who pays for that infrastructure? Who pays for the blasting of rock to place homes on that land, the city or the developer? I use another example: if Costco is the anchor business do you think they paid the developer to clear the land or did they sign an agreement for 25 years?
We are already agreeing to 30 years for our centre. If our $100-million event centre is not built, the project fails, meaning we are the anchor. Should we not have better negotiating rights? Why did we split 50/50 on a basketball court? Why are we paying other upfront costs? Tough questions the incumbent never asked.
Does the incumbent understand the intricacies of this building? Has she asked the questions regarding the Junction as to why we will have two venues costing $200 million and why two centres will compete against one another? The final council meeting for 2018 that question was asked by a different councilor.
The answer was the event centre is for large events and the Synergy Centre will be for small events, because it will hold 900 people. The reason they are called event centres and not arenas (if designed correctly) can hold large and small events. An example, the Skydome, a 50,000-seat venue, hosts a 1,000-seat Disney on ice. If that venue can host various-sized events, our venue should be able host 900 to 6,000 people with ease.
We don’t need the Synergy Centre and waste our tax dollars, that money could be better spent on other city projects. An additional point, the STC seats 850 and our tax dollars subsidize them. Would we be in competition against that building, too? Who then covers those losses?
This is one of the biggest undertakings the city has ever taken and Joselyn Landry-Altmann is not able to ask the tough questions. Council needs to have a councilor that understands this project wherever the event centre is built.
My name is Shawn Ouimet and I am that candidate that will ask the tough questions and get the best value for our tax dollars.
Learn more about Shawn Ouimet’s candidacy by visiting his election page on Sudbury.com.
