Here's what I don't get about the reasoning by some of the "No" aldermen here though. I'm no economist but it seems to me that the right time for government to spend money is when times are tough. I mean, if you're going to build this thing, why wouldn't you do it when your economy could benefit from an injection of a large amount of money (which means jobs) like this? Why wait until times are good and people don't need jobs and the economy doesn't need public dollars to give it a boost?
Plus, when things are "down", land, materials and labour are cheaper so it actually costs less to build now than it does when things are booming. When you add all this up, I'm not sure why anyone who agrees that a new facility is needed would oppose building it now in favour of waiting for better days. If you don't think it's needed, fine....I understand opposing it no matter what the circumstance in that case. But it sounds like some of the "No" aldermen in the Hat actually want the facility, they'd just rather wait a few years and pay more for it than do it now. Crazy.
2 comments:
You are soooo right about this being the right time to spend money.
This wasn't really a rejection of the new arena, but a non approval of the proposal of how to pay for it. In the end, it may just be an excuse not to go ahead with the project. We have an older population that doesn’t want to support any project that could / would see an increase in tax however small it might be. It drives a lot of us nuts to hear the small minded view that it’s only for hockey. This facility would be available for so much more, and would in time return to the community many benefits. I know of 4 spin off business’s that have committed to moving into Medicine Hat, including a convention hotel, that should have been enough all by itself to get this thing going. Get with it Medicine Hat! Pull your head out of the sand and Join the rest of Alberta!
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