This week, we feel a number of issues of varying degrees of importance deserve some comment in this space.
These issues range from the costly, to the confusing, to the convoluted and comical.
In regard to costly, it’s hard to imagine a Canmore town council giving the nod to a $30- to $40 million-plus conference centre/parkade, no matter how many events the town might be missing out on.
While it’s fine Canmore Business and Tourism has completed a lot of the legwork needed to create interest in the project, it’s hard to picture the sell job needed for taxpayers to pick up the tab for a Town-owned operation.
To us, the idea of a large conference centre that could host up to 1,000 attendees sounds like an ideal P3 (public private partnership) project, where possibly Town dollars, along with provincial or federal funding and buy-in from a commercial operator, might make it happen.
No doubt a conference centre would result in a lot spinoff for the local business community, but it would be a massive pricetag for the town council of a small municipality to wrap its head around.
Elevation Place was built for about the same amount, but with the vast majority of the dollars coming from provincial MSI funding and, being an athletics and social centre complete with pool, climbing wall, library and art gallery, it was a relatively easy sell as something that would benefit the majority of the community.
Speaking of big bucks, at least Canmore doesn’t have a millionaire NHL commissioner like Gary Bettman riding into town from New York to pump the tires on a proposed nearly $1 billion arena complex.
Bettman, apparently, isn’t aware that Calgarians and Albertans don’t like to be told, particularly from someone on the outside looking in, that the southern city will end up a poor cousin compared to Edmonton, which okayed a multimillion downtown project to support millionaire Daryl Katz and his team – before Mayor Stephen Mandel walked away from office.
And lest one assume that all Edmontonians were all for pouring their tax dollars into an arena complex, the project saw all kinds of opposition from those whose butts will never feel the plush upholstery of a luxury box seat or lower bowl chair of an Ice District event.
Then there’s the confusing situation with Bob Grundie (page 5), who has now been vindicated in his proposal to have national park wardens armed.
At the time, when a large kerfuffle ensued over the arming of the wardens, we wondered why it occurred. Wardens are tasked with enforcement duties of the Parks Act, they are tasked with enforcing illegal hunting and poaching activities while dealing with armed members of the public – there was no reason they shouldn’t be armed like other members of forces whose job requires them to be in danger.
Finally, and this is certainly of no real importance in the big scheme of things, there’s former Dragon’s Den star Kevin O’Leary, who must be missing the television spotlight.
O’Leary, a self-proclaimed raving capitalist interested in nothing more than making money, offered $1 million to oil companies if Premier Rachel Notley would resign.
It’s comical that the far right wing former star of the taxpayer-funded CBC Den and Lang & O’Leary Exchange shows feels the need to weigh in on Alberta politics.
As with the above comment concerning Bettman, nobody’s really interested in the comment of a millionaire from Eastern Canada who thinks he’s got the answers to Alberta’s financial situation. After all, oil prices were going down the toilet before the provincial NDP was elected.
