Quite a nice article from todays paper. I know people on here have bashed Dan Legere for publishing misleading information, but this article seems to sum up the argument quite well in my opinion.
Convention centre angst: clashing views and indecision
Sometimes it seems like this place survives in spite of itself, or perhaps in spite of its leaders.
Case in point: the flap over the new convention centre.
No matter whether you’re for it or against, the pussy-footing by our political leadership has not been helpful. It would be very refreshing if someone would simply take a stand, yea or nay.
A reading of tea leaves sug gests that the provincial govern ment will agree to help finance the project and that the city will tag along, to the tune of $57 million each. It’s expected, but not guaranteed, that Ottawa will chip in another $47 million.
But we don’t know any of that. The NDP government has been remarkably opaque about its position. Infrastructure Minister Bill Estabrooks promises a deci sion in “a few more days, weeks or months."
By late last week, Premier Darrell Dexter was making warm, fuzzy noises about the project, suggesting that his gov ernment’s “level of comfort" with the proposal “continues to grow." That sounds like a yes, too.
Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly has been nowhere to be seen. He relayed a copy of a provincial news release about it on his Twitter feed, but fell far short of taking an actual position. That’s disappointing, because if anyone should have something clear to say about a development that will have a massive impact on downtown Halifax, it’s the may or. But Kelly’s not much for clear stands on public issues.
It’s true that this issue isn’t simple or straightforward. Even proponents of the $500 million private-public development must see there are legitimate questions about whether the investment will turn out to be money well spent. Taxpayers are being asked for $159 million, money that proponents promise will be reco vered over the long term in taxes, wages and economic spinoffs.
The opponents counter that the economic impact studies are too optimistic, that the conven tion centre might not attract new business and taxpayers will be left on the hook.
The problem is, you can’t prove either argument. The pro ponents can’t really prove that “if you build it, they will come," because predicting anything in this economy is all but impos sible. You can make an educated guess. You can develop models that are accurate most of the time in most cities. But you can’t guarantee it.
Equally, the opponents can’t prove that it won’t work. Just because public-private part nerships have not worked well in the past doesn’t mean it won’t work this time. Uncertainty rules.
So the question boils down to attitude. On one side, the opti mistic view of Halifax as a place where people will want to visit, spend money, work and live.
That’s the business view and business people tend to be opti mists. After all, why even be in business if you don’t think you’ll do well and make a profit?
It feels like the opponents have a much more pessimistic view.
They’re saying that business can’t be trusted, Halifax can’t grow coherently and that we should simply cling to what we have now. “If you build it, it will fail" summarizes that argument.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that younger people appear to believe that Halifax can grow into a more dynamic city, where the modern lives in harmony with the tradi tional. That happens in great cities around the world. Fusion Halifax, an organization of young professionals, is a strong proponent of the project.
Maybe it’s a characteristic of advancing years that people conclude the city has grown enough and that new construc tion downtown should be limited to low-rise buildings resembling those already standing in the city’s historic heart. Maybe older citizens just know from experi ence that not every great plan works out.
Generational clash or not, the debate’s been obscured by cant and propaganda. There hasn’t been a single believable survey on the topic and we don’t know the public’s will.
That’s probably what’s hold ing up the decision. The Dexter government probably wants to go ahead, but doesn’t have a clear green light in public opin ion. But it can’t delay forever and if it wants to lead, it has to show leadership.
Dan Leger is director of news con tent for The Chronicle Herald. The views expressed here are his own.
(
[email protected])
Prev
Tim does make an interesting point though - it's sad that the downtown business commission isn't even in downtown anymore. But on the opposite side, if I'm not mistaken the Coast offices aren't in downtown either. Tim's article to me, really gave off the impression that the opponents of this project are grasping at straws now. They know the argument about the view is week (the pictures from Rank and on CBC showed nicely how George's island wasn't impeeded and the oil refinery actually got covered up - an improvement in my view). So now; it's a desperate search to find anything. It's like putting gauze in front of a semi truck and saying 'you can't come through' - not going to work.
), and then they have their flight and hotel.
Linear Mode
