Quote:
Originally Posted by pierremoncton
Rad, do you have news to share on the events centre?
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No, I don't know anything for sure but I find the silence on this file absolutely frightening.........
Here are my suspicions:
- Although Premier Gallant and most of the cabinet heavyweights are from southeastern NB, they are
not from Moncton and are instead concentrated in Dieppe and Shediac. The sole provincial cabinet minister from Moncton is Cathy Rogers, who is primarily a social justice activist. I have it on pretty good inside authority that she is
not a supporter of the events centre and instead would like to see the provincial money go to soup kitchens and feminist groups rather than this vital piece of civic infrastructure. She should be the leading booster for this project in cabinet as she is the minister for Moncton, but her support is in fact tepid at best.
- At the same time, Mayor George LeBlanc (the primary booster of this project) has announced his candidacy for federal office. If he is chosen as the Liberal candidate for Moncton/Dieppe/Riverview, then he will take a leave of absence as mayor of the city. Without him at the helm, this will embolden the opponents of the events centre within city council (Councillors Hicks and Bourgeois) who will use this opportunity to question the value of this project and what this might mean for civic tax rates.
- Politically the events centre is a hot potato for the Gallant government. Even if they wanted to support the project, they would want to time the announcement so that they would get maximum benefit for the federal and provincial Liberal parties. If they announced funding now, this instead might make our current MP (Robert Goguen - a Tory) look good as he has already promised federal support. The Gallant government might therefore want to wait until after the federal election, (assuming George Leblanc wins the seat), announce then and give George the credit for securing the financing. Brian Gallant is in tight with Dominic LeBlanc, and I'm sure Dominic wants to do whatever it takes to sabotage Goguen and support George LeBlanc instead.
- As such, I'm worried that for political reasons, the Gallant government will hold off for another year before committing funding. By that time however, Moncton will have another mayor, who very well might be Brian Hicks (he has expressed interest). If Hicks is mayor, then the events centre will suddenly cease to be a civic priority.
- So, when both the feds and the province are finally ready to commit, the city might be in a position of having acute cold feet. Regardless, if the file is placed on the back burner for that long, the RFP's from the preferred contractors will no longer be valid and the process will therefore have to start all over again. Who knows if they will still be interested in the process at that time, especially after already having wasted millions of dollars the first time around.
- The whole thing therefore might just fall through and Moncton will instead end up having a hole in the ground on Main Street for the next 10 years before anything happens.
Geez I hate politics........ 