Day after day,
Alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he’s just a fool,
And he never gives an answer,
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning ’round.
– Fool on the Hill, Lennon/McCartney
Event centre remains priority: mayor
Hobbs also wanted to highlight the economic benefits of the event centre, which includes $109 million of direct economic impact during construction, $79 million worth of employment income growth, and direct tax revenue to the federal government of $19 million.
“It’s like that with most issues we tackle on city council,” he said. “The vocal minority did not want the waterfront development. The silent majority was all in favour of it. Now that we built it, the vocal minority are part of the majority. They love it. Look what it has brought to the city in terms of tourism. This is another piece of that.” – Chronicle Journal
read full article here
…economic benefits of the event centre, which includes $109 million of direct economic impact during construction, $79 million worth of employment income growth, and direct tax revenue to the federal government of $19 million….
- Those economic benefit numbers mean absolutely nothing. I covered that in a previous post. Even the consulting firm that produced those numbers does not stand behind them. Economic and financial volatility make predicting impacts and benefits to such a degree of accuracy impossible. Best educated guess by the consulting firm should be shown as a range not a single number anyway. That is why statistics such as an employment growth of $79 million is immediately suspect. The consulting firm is trying to make their calculations look more accurate than they really are.
- If the City of Thunder Bay spent $100 million on ANY single project in the city or even SEVERAL smaller projects in the city, there will be the same if not greater economic benefit to the local economy. Its simple math. Pump a huge pile of cash into city building ANYTHING, its going to get spent.
Speaking of economic benefits, if the federal, provincial and municipal governments gave ALL those hundreds of billions of infrastructure dollars directly to the people to spend, that will create even more of an economic benefit to the city, province and country. That is the idea behind helicopter money which was covered in a previous post. Give the money to the people who will spend it, ALL OF IT!
I think that its time that the government stops putting money into the pockets of corporate elite and into the pockets of the people.
That is what this $120 million hockey rink will never do. Put $120 million INTO the pockets of the people of Thunder Bay. It WILL put tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer cash into the pockets of the corporate executives. It WILL cost millions of tax dollars annually to run and maintain. It WILL allow the mayor to save face.
.…”The vocal minority did not want the waterfront development. The silent majority was all in favour of it. Now that we built it, the vocal minority are part of the majority. They love it. Look what it has brought to the city in terms of tourism…..
I go down there almost every day. I have been going down to Marina Park for decades. I do not see an increase in tourists down there. I’d be very interested in seeing the data that the mayor uses to link any tourist visitation to the construction of the $60 million City of Thunder Bay tourist destination. I don’t believe it.
What exactly do the tourists go down there to see? Weed filled shrub/flower beds? Cracked concrete? Ice covered rec trails? A fountain? A neglected train station that is more of an embarrassment than a tourist attraction? A pedestrian overpass that is filthy? What exactly?
