As promised, here is today's editorial from the T&T
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=10786
Show us the way on events centre
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Times& Transcript
We Say: Moncton Events Centre needs and deserves federal help
Downtown Moncton Centre-Ville Inc. President Louis Léger is absolutely right when he says it is time to act on an events centre for the city. We commend Mr. Léger for his latest effort to return to the attention of Monctonians what we believe is this region's most important economic development file for the next 30-plus years.
It's great the symposium will include the developers of London Budweiser Gardens in London, Ont. but this $46 million project, while done without federal help, is simply not in the same league as what is required for Metro Moncton. Here, we are not looking for a modestly sized 'hockey rink' for a city wedged cheek-by-jowl with other southern Ontario cities in the midst of an urban sprawl that stretches from Oshawa all the way to Hamilton and beyond to the U.S. border.
Metro's situation is entirely different. The events centre as envisioned by Monctonians is no mere 'hockey rink' but a sports and entertainment complex intended to draw from an enormous but relatively sparsely-populated catchment area. It is estimated to require $100 million and predicted to spur another $100 million in related development for that role. In short, we need this far more than London.
Indeed Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc has courageously said the municipality might be prepared to proceed with only municipal and provincial contributions but we remain convinced this project needs - and given the federal dollars that have gone to other Maritime cities for various projects - deserves federal help. We fully expect the April 17 symposium will pack the Capitol Theatre and we hope Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe's government Member of Parliament, Robert Goguen, is among the throng.
It has been almost a year since Mr. Goguen last spoke on the events centre when he attended an April 12 unveiling of several preliminary design proposals for the centre. He remarked then that Ottawa is in restraint mode, 'but where there's a will there's a way.' It's time for our government representative, who has said he is at work on the file behind scenes, to 'show us the way.'