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[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Wolf13

The first part is true. I don't blame TNS for getting the money. If there is blame to go around, the councillors and the mayor.

I hope it's justified somehow here, but I admittedly say that because I really like this project! My personal opinion is that Winnipeg has done nothing for a while, and clearly not gotten far for it, so if an injection comes along for a game changer, I'm hopeful.

That also depends on the confidence inspired by the developers... I obviously have more faith in TNS than SkyCity


It's common practice for any city to provide some forms of incentive. In Winnipeg, we actually need some injections. In our case, we fall victim to our market... our rents too low, our prices too high, and not enough competition to drive costs down, and a ho-hum office market.

I lament Winnipeg's attitude to always look to the government for blessings like a child asks its parents if it's allowed to play in the backyard, but in the case of mid/large scale projects downtown, we need the boost. There are a lot of understandable factors that contribute to our high construction costs, but on some levels we have a few trades that dominate their segments and keep their prices high.

The cynicism kicks in if we evaluate the need for such an extravagant project and the associated huge grants, at the expense of more smaller yet successful projects. If I were applying for a TIFF grant with a small/medium scale project and got turned down because TNS got it all, I'd be pissed.

My post was so last week, I've now changed my tune, TN should actually get double what they asked for, all public spending is a good thing even if there are no public benefits, my negativity just got in the way of rational Manitoba thinking!