The chair of the Downtown Sudbury BIA reacted quickly to the 2018 municipal election results, issuing a statement shortly after the polls closed, in which he called the result of the mayoral race “a loss for the KED,” referring to the Kingsway Entertainment District project.
Jeff MacIntyre has been very vocal about his opposition to the KED and for how city council, and in particular Mayor-elect Brian Bigger, handled the decision. Beyond the cost of the project, MacIntyre has said the decision to remove the arena from downtown violates the Downtown Master Plan, which called for further investment in the core of the city.
He called the election results a loss for the KED.
“This election has been pitched by both candidates and the press as a referendum on the KED, and it’s clear that it is a loss for the KED,” MacIntyre said. “The 71 per cent of Sudburians have spoken, and they voted for mayoral candidates that were against the city’s handling of the KED.”
Excluding Bigger, the front-runners in the mayoral race were clear that the city should be waiting on the decision of the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal before proceeding, he said.
“These candidates spoke loud and clear that either the city should be waiting to hear the results of the LPAT decision or that they should abandon it all together.”
Bottom line, MacIntyre said vote-splitting may have produced a win for Bigger, but it didn’t produce the result voters deserved.
“We should not confuse a win, due to the wide splitting of the vote because of too many viable candidates, with a mandate to continue blindly on this project,” he said. “Voters have been clear: this project is not what they thought they were getting; it’s not the free arena that was pitched.”
