The rink of whose dreams?
Remember all those councillors running in the last election on being good fiscal stewards of the taxpayers purse. Well, ten councillors and the Mayor threw a little doubt on that fact for me.
Yesterday, the Finance and Economic Committee (FEDCO) voted in favour of the Rink of Our Dreams. This rink will cost about City Hall $250,000 in capital dollars then another $250,000 in operating costs annually. That’s already at least $1M during the term of this council. To use Environment Committee chair, Maria McRae’s favourite time measure, that’s $5M over 20 years; the exact same amount her committee “earned” from Hydro Ottawa’s solar panels. Of the ten councillors on FEDCO, couldn’t at least one of them say there are other priorities on which the city could spend $5M?
So while food banks and community associations struggle to pay the soaring food costs and while seniors have to struggle to find affordable transportation, FEDCO has made it a priority to ensure that we have a smooth ice surface right beside the World’s Largest Skating Rink.
Our City Council has to realize that not every “good idea” can be pursued because in the end, they all cost taxpayers money. In the case of the rink of our dreams, whose dreams?
Let’s see how the other thirteen councillors at full council feel about the rink.
Here are the ten councillors who support spending $5M of taxpayers money over 20 years on a redundant rink:
Rick Chairelli, Peter Clark, Diane Deans, Keith Egli, Allan Hubley, Peter Hume, Maria McRae, Mark Taylor, Doug Thompson, Marianne Wilkinson
Good points Blake. Why is it that our leaders don’t understand “spending within your means”, or, “setting priorities?”
This definitely falls in the category of “nice-to-have” projects. The city should not be spending money on this.
A rink is good politics for Councillors, but bad economics for taxpayers. We need more open, transparent and long-term planning for capital projects.
roads, sewers, tax rebate…not a skating rink at 250k a year…if we want to skate outside we can do so in our backyards, community rinks, the big long thing called a Canal and oh yeah, the old Nepean City Hall outdoor rink. We have enough ice surface. We do not need anymore…
I think the good folks out in Orleans who were flooded in the storm today could think of what to use 5 million for….
On the other side of the ledger column, The Rink of Dreams can and probably will make this venture expense/revenue neutral.
But I agree with many of you on your comments, as a city we have a whole lot of other priorities on our plate. With a budget envelope that can only increase by a maximum of 2.5% for the next three years, this council will have serious challenges to meet Mr. Watson’s election pledge.
Last night I attended the city’s Draft document to “Term of Council Priorities” as a member to Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee. We have some serious challenge ahead of us to retain services to the public.
I’m not optimistic that this project will be expense/revenue neutral. The city has a poor record of setting spending priorities or delivering projects on budget. If the mayor and Councillors were already struggling to keep the budget in check, how can the city afford this rink?
we can call it rink of losers for all of the people that contribute to your blog. Sad to see all of these defeated municipal candidates congragate to their queen bea, Blake.
This is a great addition to city hall and supported by $ 1million from The Senators.
Quit the whining and lace up losers
I feel compelled to respond to “Karen’s” comment.
Sure, if you look at a small number of contributors, they all have campaign experience.
Except that there are many more people that make comments too.
Each comment, even yours, makes Perspective Ottawa a good read.
You should not underestimate the points that Perspective Ottawa readers make.
Often, they represent the thoughts of a majority of Ottawa voter.
Under no circumstances you should take them for granted. Blake doesn’t.
Just because, “Karen”, you support the councillors doesn’t mean others are wrong.
It surprises me you would even write such a comment.
Maybe not though, since you hide behind a girl’s name.
I have to agree that we do not need the RINK. Enough of blowing the Taxpayers money out the door on frivilous items.
I’m personally not against the idea of new recreational facilities, or city building initiatives generally, I am just reasonably questioning the rink’s affordability, which is suppose to be the prime responsibility of the Councillors. Every Councillor voted for this project. But do they know whether it will actually be expense/revenue neutral? Will it only cost $250,000 in operating costs annually? Only time will tell, because there was no open discussion over the issue at the Council table. Previous experience shows us that the city has a history of cost overruns for capital projects. In order to maintain the 2.5 percent per year tax increase target, better long-term planning will be necessary. That is the hard work we expect from Councillors.
Let council deal with core services and just dream of such unnecessary rinks. Wonder how many community rinks this money would pay for?
A few days ago, the local CTV news did a report on the terrible state of Queen street. Norm Fetterley asked a cabbie what he thought, and the reply was that this downtown road is a disgrace for such a capital city. When Norm asked councillor Diane Holmes when Queen street would get a new layer of asphalt, her answer was: “the city has no money for this.” And then, she added something to the effect: “unless we increase taxes.” So a 2.5 percent tax increase was not enough? We don’t have money for a new central library, but we have money for a new football stadium. We don’t have money to pave Queen street, but we do have money for a fancy skating rink. Neglected water pipes, aged sewage system, cutbacks to Transit, etc. etc. What happened to municipal government that just looked after essential services? Forget the Timbits, time to put this city council on a diet of bread and water.
I find it a little odd to build a rink a couple of blocks from our Canal. A bit like building a pool on your beach front property. I would love to see the stats on the number of days each year the canal is open for skating. I like ideas that would support downtown businesses but the public should be made aware of the projected numbers.
I hope the city will prove its “Dream” of success with actual figures later on.
We could be supporting the arts to draw revenue year round.
@Karen
It is sad to see that you have to validate your arguments with verbal abuse. When you have the strength of your convictions let us know ok?
it’s the same stupid move as the p.m. building an artificial lake next to a lake, at t.o. summit !!!!
who votes for these idiots, or is it
the idiots that did not vote
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