Study: Centre would create tax bonanza
But opponents say convention business declining, facility would be waste of money
By BRUCE ERSKINE
Business Reporter
A new Halifax convention cen tre would generate more than $170 million in tax revenues over 10 years, says an economic impact study released Wednes day.
“What this study says is the industry is important to Nova Scotia, it’s one we can excel at and one that will generate sig nificant tax dollars and jobs," Scott Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of Trade Centre Ltd., said Wednesday in an interview.
Trade Centre is the provincial Crown corporation that operates the World Trade and Convention Centre in downtown Halifax, near the site of the proposed convention facility.
It commissioned the $10,000 study, done by Halifax consult ants
Gardner Pinfold .
The study concluded that the proposed convention facility, which would cost an estimated $120 million to $140 million, would also create about 27,000 person-years of employment.
That would be a gain of about 12,000 person-years of em ployment and $79 million in taxes, compared with the exist ing trade and convention centre. Opponents of the plan say the study is based on inflated visitor estimates Trade Centre has provided.
“It’s ridiculous in the ex treme," Allan Robertson, a member of the Coalition to Save the View, said Wednesday in an interview.
The coalition opposes the convention centre as a waste of public money that will block historic views of Halifax Har bour from the Citadel.
Robertson, a retired manage ment consultant with experi ence in the tourism sector, said the study’s revenue and em ployment conclusions are based on visitor numbers that are more than twice what the exist ing convention centre draws.
“If you make silly assump tions, you get silly results. The convention business is flat or declining."
Ferguson said the convention business is “rotational" and he defended the numbers provided for the study.
“I think they’re responsible numbers. We know a great deal about the industry."
Trade Centre has spent more than $50,000 on eight reports examining various aspects of the proposed convention centre. Critics say those expenditures have given proponents of the plan an unfair advantage over its opponents.
But Ferguson said it would be irresponsible not to examine a major public investment.
“You need to do your home work and we’ve done that. You can’t fault us for that."
If approved, the convention centre would be part of a $400-million commercial devel opment by Rank Inc. , which submitted its detailed plan to the province earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Infrastructure Minister Bill Estabrooks said Wednesday that he and depart mental staff were pouring over thousands of pages in four box es of documents submitted this week by Rank Inc.
The proposed convention centre rests on the “cold, hard facts" of the business case, Estabrooks said, adding that he was pleased by the level of de tail he has seen. Estabrooks plans to make a recommenda tion to cabinet by late summer or early fall on whether the province should help fund the project. He wouldn’t tip his hand on which way he’s lean ing, but said he is still listening to arguments, including from within the NDP government.
“But it’s not just the caucus and cabinet," he said. “We have to make sure that we are reflect ing the views of Nova Scotians." Jerry MacKinlay, riding asso ciation president for Halifax Atlantic, helped sponsor a reso lution at the NDP’s annual gen eral meeting in June opposing the new convention centre.
The resolution called for any provincial investment to be put toward “sustainable renova tions" to help expand Halifax’s current convention centre.
It never came to a vote, but MacKinlay said he believes there are better ways to spend government money at a time when the province is in debt.
With The Canadian Press (
[email protected])
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