Why I am against the present proposal on Water Street

 

Proceeding with this will add approx. $70 million to the present city debt of approx. $170 million, bringing it to approx. $240 million! Adding this much will likely cause our credit score to change, and result in higher rates. To service the present debt, we spend approx. $6.3 million annually. Adding the $70 million will cost around another $3 million. Add the operating costs of $1.19-1.4 if the lofty projections are reached, we will need another $4.5-5 million to balance the budget! We saw how tight things got this year,what will TB look like with this added? City staff should start saving,they'll be coming for your pay checks!

 

During the recent election, Shane Judge brought up that the province forecasted Thunder Bay to lose some 15,000 in population by 2030. He also brought up,there would likely be another school closure. Hammarskjold is at some 750 students with a capacity of 1400, and I've been told there was apparently discussions of merging it with Superior? LU is expected to be down 200 students in residence next year. At its peak capacity Fort William Gardens could legally accommodate slightly over 5000 spectators. Its largest crowd was just over 6000 for a Thunder Bay Twins Allan Cup Championship Game #7 in 1985. During its peak years, Thunder Bay's average age was much younger than it is presently, so it was possible to pull good numbers. The present capacity of FWG is around 3800, with LU crowds this season being around 2200, having dropped from better than 2500. With an aging and shrinking population, does this bode well for building a facility with a capacity 1900 seats larger? I think not!

 

I believe there are certain "Economic threats" facing Thunder Bay that should also factor into this argument, some unique to TB some not. As previously mentioned, our shrinking population, how will this affect our tax base, or our ability to afford to pay for the services & facilities we now have? With an Ontario government that has spent the last decade on a spending spree, the province has been warned to get the spending under control but to date have done little. The time will come when it must be dealt with,how will that affect us? Government practice based on previous behaviours of higher levels, could likely be, down loading to the municipalities & job cuts. The top ten employers in TB are government, I think that makes us very vulnerable to those cuts. For more then a century TB Tel has been a great asset for our city and remains such. Is the annual $17 million dividend sustainable long term? In business, record profit can be followed by a record loss. Should this dividend shrink or worse, what would be the result?

 

Hobbs says we need to replace FWG at some point. That would be true, the proposed facility does not! FWG will be rquired to exist in one shape or another to satisfy the long term lease with FW Curling Club as the heating system is apparently located in FWG. To alter the facility to change this, or to get out of the lease by building a replacemnt facility would no doubt be expensive. I've supported Innova Park, or a"central" location such as LU or the CLE. A location that included facilities accomodating FWCC and possibly PA Curling Club and the available floor space for shows that it would provide would likely work far better then the present proposal and its limitations.