Mayor Mike Savage G. MacLeod
HRM Councillors 2053 Old Sambro Road
Halifax NS B3V 1C1
As a citizen of HRM, I wish to question why HRM Council has deferred the question for the cost of a CFL stadium to City Staff. The cost of this request is sure to amount in the tens of thousands of dollars which taxpayer money is being used to determine. So, right off the bat the taxpayer is bearing the brunt to establish a business case for a stadium when it should be the Maritime Football Group that should be footing the bill.
The idea for a CFL football franchise and stadium has been tossed around ever since the second day Mike Savage was sworn in as HRM Mayor almost six years ago when he began conversations with CFL officials. It is no secret of his desire for a football franchise. It is also clear that the hiring of CAO, Jaques Dube, former CAO of Moncton and the chief driver behind the 9000 seat, $100,000,000, Moncton stadium figures nicely into the scheme of acquiring a football stadium for Halifax. Since then, it seems there have been private conversations with the Mayor and members of HRM Council citing, since, this was a privately run initiative the public could not be informed of the details as to how the stadium would be financed, even though things like tax concessions and infrastructure were being considered. The public was told many times by HRM councillors they would have to see a business case to determine if taxpayers would/could/should financially support a sports stadium,
Judging by what has happened during the recent HRM Council meeting, July 17, 2018, the public did not hear of any business case presented by the Maritime Football Consortium, instead it was HRM Council who has asked city staff, at taxpayer expense to do the work the consortium, as told by the Mayor, councillors and Premier McNeil, would have to do to determine if the stadium should be partially funded by the taxpayer. This is purely an exercise of duping the taxpayer to support, once more, to make already rich millionaires, richer. In my mind, Council should not have passed the buck to city staff and instead should have stuck to their word of waiting for a business case from the Maritime Football Group. Unless I missed it, the consortium was not even present at Council.
Where is the Maritime Football Business Group business case to build a stadium? Why is Council not doing their due diligence of requesting to see a business case from the group wanting this stadium in Halifax? HRM, as stated by Steve Craig, is not a bank. This consortium, like any other business, should be taking to bankers instead of HRM.
Hensbee had the option when he first became councillor but opted not to pay into the Municipality's pension plan, too bad, so sad, no one pressured him to stay on as Councillor and the city should not be obligated to cover his poor decision.
There are six super redevelopment agencies in this province under the umbrella group Nova Scotia Association of Redevelopment Agencies. At one time there was only ACOA, created in 1986 by the federal government to provide Financial assistance to fledgling businesses in economically depressed areas of Atlantic Canada . Since these agencies have been created it seems that they have been a creator of very lucrative, high paying jobs for friends and cronies of politicians. Where funding was suppose to be used mainly for job creation, it seems that financial assistance has been diverted for things like golf courses, yacht squadrons, paper mill bailouts, fish farms, Michelin, LED Roadway and corporate welfare for companies like the Irvings. The list is long. Billions have been paid out in this manner causing a $15,000,000,000.00 provincial debt that taxpayers and their grandchildren will be paying into infamy. Taxes are through the roof, as a result and the jobless rate is among the highest in Canada. More jobs will be lost as the provincial government attempts to save money and reduce the provincial debt. More young people will be forced to leave the province and round and round we go. Until there a forensic audit done on the development agencies and we get a handle on where the money is being spent we can expect to go further into debt, higher taxes and continued job losses. On top of all this doom and gloom, as pensioners continue to lose ground in their meagre cost of living raises, more older people are continuing to work in order to subsidize their pensions making it difficult for younger people to become gainfully employed. I wish the young people luck in finding jobs in this province.
This project should not go through unless the developer is going to cough up the money to do it. Why should the taxpayer finance anything that is going to benefit the developer when someone like Fred Morley has to pay $5000.00+ out of his own pocket for sewage upgrades? People in the Eastern Passage area are going to have to do the same to the benefit of developers there. Seems like there are two sets of rules, one for the rich and one for the rest of us.
Read the blog for Bringing Timberlea Sewage Downtown. HRM has turned off 82 year old Fred Morley's water for not complying to update his sewage pipes and must pay $5000.00 or more to do the update before his water is turned back on. At the same time the taxpayers of HRM are going to pay millions of dollars for sewage infrastructure so that a developer in Timberlea can hook up sewage pipes for his planned subdivision. What is wrong with this picture?
Just on the radio talk show, again this morning, the same economic professor from the University of Toronto, stated that even though Detroit city is bankrupt it is going ahead with plans to build a new hockey rink for the Detroit Red wings. The people driving this must be out of their minds. It is so bad there that when a house is on fire they let it burn to the ground because they can't pay their firemen.
Recent Comments
Mayor Mike Savage G. MacLeod
HRM Councillors 2053 Old Sambro Road
Halifax NS B3V 1C1
As a citizen of HRM, I wish to question why HRM Council has deferred the question for the cost of a CFL stadium to City Staff. The cost of this request is sure to amount in the tens of thousands of dollars which taxpayer money is being used to determine. So, right off the bat the taxpayer is bearing the brunt to establish a business case for a stadium when it should be the Maritime Football Group that should be footing the bill.
The idea for a CFL football franchise and stadium has been tossed around ever since the second day Mike Savage was sworn in as HRM Mayor almost six years ago when he began conversations with CFL officials. It is no secret of his desire for a football franchise. It is also clear that the hiring of CAO, Jaques Dube, former CAO of Moncton and the chief driver behind the 9000 seat, $100,000,000, Moncton stadium figures nicely into the scheme of acquiring a football stadium for Halifax. Since then, it seems there have been private conversations with the Mayor and members of HRM Council citing, since, this was a privately run initiative the public could not be informed of the details as to how the stadium would be financed, even though things like tax concessions and infrastructure were being considered. The public was told many times by HRM councillors they would have to see a business case to determine if taxpayers would/could/should financially support a sports stadium,
Judging by what has happened during the recent HRM Council meeting, July 17, 2018, the public did not hear of any business case presented by the Maritime Football Consortium, instead it was HRM Council who has asked city staff, at taxpayer expense to do the work the consortium, as told by the Mayor, councillors and Premier McNeil, would have to do to determine if the stadium should be partially funded by the taxpayer. This is purely an exercise of duping the taxpayer to support, once more, to make already rich millionaires, richer. In my mind, Council should not have passed the buck to city staff and instead should have stuck to their word of waiting for a business case from the Maritime Football Group. Unless I missed it, the consortium was not even present at Council.
Where is the Maritime Football Business Group business case to build a stadium? Why is Council not doing their due diligence of requesting to see a business case from the group wanting this stadium in Halifax? HRM, as stated by Steve Craig, is not a bank. This consortium, like any other business, should be taking to bankers instead of HRM.
Disgusted and disappointed,
Gary MacLeod