[Moncton] Centre Avenir Centre | 26.65m |~6 Fl | Completed

[BlackYear]

We might as well rename "Highfield street" to "Gallant street - Dead End".

Yup, looking pretty sad with a big hole at the end of the road.

[Good2go]

Originally Posted by Budyser

We might as well rename "Highfield street" to "Gallant street - Dead End".

Yup, looking pretty sad with a big hole at the end of the road.

Gallant didn't prematurely tear down the mall. The mayor did...


@LetterickCBC · Aug 27
Mayor LeBlanc takes first swing at Highfield Square!

[MonctonRad]

A vacant mall would quickly become derelict and an eyesore. It would have had to come down eventually. Mayor LeBlanc has been on a noble quest. I wouldn't blame him. The true villain in this tale is our weak kneed premier, unable to stand up to the tyrant Dominic.

I personally wouldn't rename Highfield Street to Gallant Street. The true eyesore is the debris field itself. This is what needs to be memorialized.

If the garbage dump in the middle of the Petitcodiac could be nicknamed "Mount Rideout", I see no reason why the debris field on the old Highfield Square site couldn't be christened the "Brian Gallant Crater", or something similar.

Perhaps we should have a naming contest......

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

A vacant mall would quickly become derelict and an eyesore. It would have to come down eventually. Mayor LeBlanc has been on a noble quest. I wouldn't blame him. The true villain in this tail is our weak kneed premier, unable to stand up to the tyrant Dominic.

Was the Mayor still noble when he was seeking the nomination for the very party that this tyrant effectively runs in New Brunswick?

I think everyone is being a bit melodramatic in assuming that the Premier, Goguen, or Oliver can snap their fingers and make millions of dollars in funding available overnight.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Was the Mayor still noble when he was seeking the nomination for the very party that this tyrant effectively runs in New Brunswick?

I could go on about the factions that exist in the Liberal Party here in southeastern NB and the internecine warfare that goes on within the party; warfare far worse than seen in any election campaign - but I won't.

Suffice it to say that Mayor LeBlanc is not a member of the dominant faction, and that probably hurt his nomination chances. The dominant faction is ruthless and seeks power for powers sake. They do not care what sort of collateral damage they create.

Originally Posted by JHikka

I think everyone is being a bit melodramatic in assuming that the Premier, Goguen, or Oliver can snap their fingers and make millions of dollars in funding available overnight.

I will admit to being overly melodramatic with my prose (at times), but I take some umbrage to the "overnight" comment. The events centre saga has been going on for years and we are no closer to breaking ground now than we were at the beginning.

[BlackYear]

Point I was trying to make by this photo is simple. It was taken on a Sunday evening around 7:30pm. Highfield from St-George to Main was dead of life. As I drove down, a few things came to my attention other than the road condition itself.

Being a lifetime downtown resident, as a kid, I remember Highfield street being one of the most active and vibrant side streets in the downtown area. It was diverse with the Keddy's and Colonial Inn Hotels, a very busy Moncton library, a YMCA, a YWCA, a couple of restaurants, and a long string of large colonial homes all the way up to Mt-Road. And the street itself was a primary entrance to the city's busiest mall, Highfield Square.

Yes, the photo is from 2 weeks ago and the end of a harsh winter and the spring blooms haven't yet flourished, and it was a Sunday evening.

However, what if? What if the Downtown Events Centre was completed and open for business for this same Sunday evening with a Cirque Du Soleil event? What if the street it self would have gone through a resurfacing with perhaps new colonial type light poles? What if the homeowners of these colonial homes would have been offered beautification grants to upgrade their homes and landscapes? Crown Plaza would definitely look differently because they would have invested millions into whatever project they hinted on. The V Hotel and restaurant would be paying dividends on their already renovated expenses. Foot traffic on both side of the street would be busy from the new generation of downtown residents walking to the Events Centre. All of these "what ifs" are realistic visions. Instead, we have the above photo...a street with no life.

One last what if. What if, Premier Gallant would have seen the same vision and approved the funding within the first weeks of the job? He would have made his speech on how a new Moncton Downtown Centre will create new jobs, growth for the city, and continue to be the economic engine for the province. A new hero emerges. Instead, we have what we have today...a photo of a street with no life!

[MonctonRad]

Thanks for the context - it certainly helps.

I agree 100% with your analysis.

Gallant's government so far has been a disappointment on almost every level.

- Instead of making strategic investments early in his mandate (like the events centre), we see political investments that will pay no dividends (like the Bas Caraquet shipyard). There has been nothing but dithering and indecision on potential investments of much more consequence.
- Also the premier has been mostly invisible in the media since the election, leaving his cabinet ministers (like poor Cathy Rogers) to fend for themselves. Contrast this to Frank McKenna, who took charge of the face and the agenda of the government from the beginning. Granted, most of what McKenna said was hot air, but he was at least inspirational and he made people feel good about themselves. He spread optimism about and within the province, and on a certain level this worked. Gallant has not been in the least inspirational.
- We have new taxes, new fees and clawbacks on seniors savings. At the same time there is no indication of an actual vision for the future of the province. If Gallant keeps this up, there will only be growing despair in the province and people will begin to leave.

We need a premier with the balls to make the strategic investments the province needs to grow and prosper. We need a premier capable of ignoring those around him with a different political imperative; an imperative based soley on political opportunism. We need a premier actually capable of leading.

It's hard to imagine any premier capable of inflicting more damage on NB than Shawn Graham did, but Brian Gallant is beginning to show evidence that he could in fact be the worst premier in the province's history.

[L'homard]

It seems to me that every government since Lord has been run by backroom hacks and manipulators to a far greater extent than in the past.
Yes, I do realize that often the premier is the puppet while others the unseen puppet masters, but I'm an old grey-haired guy, and to my recollection, this has gotten worse and worse beginning with Bernard's Tory regime, and it's at its worst right now.
As for the events centre, the blood from its death is on Brian Gallant's hands and his alone. He had a chance to be a hero, he chose to let that opportunity slip by, and now I'm convinced it is too late. This is all notwithstanding that I didn't believe Robt. Goguen for a second that he had $25 million burning a hole in his pocket - totally irrelevant to my argument. Brian could have lobbed the ball into Robert's court and put the onus on the feds to act, but he chose not to. Now we're screwed.
That picture of Highfield Street up above looks suspiciously like a shot of Main Street on this fine Sunday afternoon Mothers Day - bereft of any people, no traffic, shuttered buildings and empty second and third storeys on the few buildings where ground-floor businesses have not yet gone bankrupt.
Awesome. Just awesome.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I could go on about the factions that exist in the Liberal Party here in southeastern NB and the internecine warfare that goes on within the party; warfare far worse than seen in any election campaign - but I won't.

I am well aware of this and I know other members of this board are as well. There are factions in every party. SE NB is no exception.

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I will admit to being overly melodramatic with my prose (at times), but I take some umbrage to the "overnight" comment. The events centre saga has been going on for years and we are no closer to breaking ground now than we were at the beginning.

When dealing with governments (whether Federal or Provincial) overnight can literally land anywhere between six hours to six years as a timeframe. I wish I was joking.

[MonctonRad]

So I see that the Gallant Liberals are on the cusp of announcing the new policy to be applied to funding requests for recreational infrastructure. Victor Boudreau gave the T&T a "sneak peek" today. I think the provincial government must be feeling the heat on the events centre issue.

Any application for funding will require:
- a needs assessment.
- a business plan
- municipal support
- strong community and private sector support
- sustainability without ongoing government assistance
- success indicators and tangible measurements of economic benefits
- demonstrate reasonable payback and return on investment for the province
- a written commitment to cover cost overruns, annual operating/maintenance costs and a reserve fund for capital repairs
- be in a strategic location that supports new or existing development initiatives
- demonstrate compliance with all relevant legislation, building code and regulatory requirements, and where possible use NB goods and services
- demonstrate that all required financing be in place prior to government funding being issued
- leverage funding from federal, local and/or private sources
- align with the provincial wellness strategy

Some of these requirements will already have been done by the city. Others might be hard to do without the councillors having a chance to actually view the RFP's and negotiate with the potential builders. There might have to be some give and take here, with the province giving provisional support based on the final design of the project.

Regardless, there has been some movement on this file, and perhaps we might yet see the RFP's being opened up sometime this summer. I certainly hope so. Right now, we are all arguing in a vacuum with a paucity of meaningful information out there to allow people to make an informed choice. It will be interesting to see what transpires in the next few weeks.

[NBNYer]

These requirements all seem perfectly reasonable to me and I'm fairly confident the Events Centre project complies with this list. I would expect all these points to be evaluated by any government before any subsidy! Not sure how this took over 8 months to write up.

[josh_cat_eyes]

I bring good news from the NDP! The say they will find the events centre!

http://lucleblanc.ndp.ca/an-ndp-governme...proposed-downtown-multifunctional-centre

[tmacdougall]

I will be attending tonight's city council meeting. Jacques Dube is scheduled to provide an update on the Centre.

I will give an update if there is anything new.

[habs33]

Just posted on the T&T twitter account: Update: #NB Premier @BrianGallantNB calls meeting to discuss #Moncton event centre

[Mattyyy]

Originally Posted by habs33

Just posted on the T&T twitter account: Update: #NB Premier @BrianGallantNB calls meeting to discuss #Moncton event centre

My hopes are finally beginning to rise. I'm encouraged by the fact they didn't write stipulations into their new policy that made the center in Moncton ineligible - there seems to be some promise here.

[Monctoncore]

If anyone watched CTV news tonight they did an interview with the Premier Gallant and he said they feel the Moncton Center would bring jobs, they need to just see if it fits all criteria met and they will let the city know in a timely fashion if it meets it. Let's hope this is good news. To be honest I think this new criteria is a good idea because it now gives NB an idea of what the need to meet to get funding for specific entertainment based projects.

[Franco401]

If the NDP is promising it, the Tories and Liberals will follow suit. That's a deal-breaker right there, and they're gonna want that seat.

[pierremoncton]

I didn't want to post this before, but I've had recent conversations with two different persons (one of whom is definitely abreast of this government's inner-workings) whose phrasing gave the message, if you read between the lines, that it's just a matter of time before the funding comes through; that this policy is a way to say 'no' to other communities who will come knocking after.

I was also emphatically told that there is no meddling from the federal Liberal overlords, and that the looming federal election (and its results) is of no consequence; that if there is any political resistance or maneuvering, its authors are the federal Conservatives, who - despite Goguen's assurances - are not committed to the project. Whether or not that's true, I can't know, but the premier's request for a meeting between the three levels of government seems to indicate that, at least on the superficial plane, there is an attempt to cooperate.

I'll repeat that I support this project, but its impact all depends on what other measures, if any, are undertaken by the municipal and provincial governments to curb sprawl in favour of density. Downtown at 125 looks almost entirely the same as it did at 100. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but if proper policies are adopted, it could look much different at 150: if we keep growing at 1.5% (admittedly, this can't be predicted long term), Moncton's population would hit 100,000 in 2040; if only 1/3 of that growth was focused in the core, then the central population would rise by 10,000 (to visualize the impact, imagine almost the entirety of Shediac & Sackville combined moving downtown). But if no other commitments are made to encourage residents and business to invest downtown, then the events centre is a waste of money; we'd be better off renovating the coliseum because people will keep settling in sprawling neighbourhoods.

[Taeolas]

Not positive on this, but from what others have said throuhg the years, the City seems fairly committed to working the core, but the province over the past 2 governments have especially screwed them, by not putting the Casino in the core (not too bad honestly) and more horrendously, taking MHS out of the core.

Now I'm sure the City can and should do more to work the core, but this Centre should be a good anchor for the future at least.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by pierremoncton

I didn't want to post this before, but I've had recent conversations with two different persons (one of whom is definitely abreast of this government's inner-workings) whose phrasing gave the message, if you read between the lines, that it's just a matter of time before the funding comes through; that this policy is a way to say 'no' to other communities who will come knocking after.

That's good. The last thing this province needs is a slew of municipalities looking for handouts from Provincial and Federal governments even more-so than they currently do.

Originally Posted by pierremoncton

I was also emphatically told that there is no meddling from the federal Liberal overlords, and that the looming federal election (and its results) is of no consequence; that if there is any political resistance or maneuvering, its authors are the federal Conservatives, who - despite Goguen's assurances - are not committed to the project. Whether or not that's true, I can't know, but the premier's request for a meeting between the three levels of government seems to indicate that, at least on the superficial plane, there is an attempt to cooperate..

This is incredibly difficult to believe. Even if the Provincial Liberals were telling the truth it is almost impossible to do anything in the country during a Federal election year without it having a policy/funding impact on the election down the road.

If there are things that Gallant has seemed to like doing in his first few months of Premiership it's: 1)Attending conferences, and; 2)Holding meetings. So far there's been very little bite from all this bark (and travel).

Here's to hoping this events centre will become resolved this year. I have no doubts there will be funding found by the end of the summer given the election and the amount of posturing from all levels of government. For the sake of NB let's just hope the Province isn't atrocious at the bargaining table and that all levels provide adequate funding moving forward.