To the Editor,
Re: Residents respond to multiplex idea, Nov. 29.
I would not trust this council to spend $65 million on a multiplex in any situation.
I would like to know why this city spent $240,000 on a Toronto architect company to do a study on a sports and entertainment centre. With local architects in Nanaimo who have built many fine structures in our city, did they have a chance to bid on this?
I do not support any facility that is for the main purpose to get a major junior hockey team here. If any sports team wants a facility, let them pay for it 100 per cent.
The taxpayers cannot support another mega-project. I do not want my taxes going up even .01 per cent for some city councillor’s ego to be satisfied.
We need to get rid of every single one of these sitting councillors, before they bankrupt us and our city.
Bruce SamsonNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Multiplex won’t benefit economy, Letters, Nov. 29.
The irony, the irony.
I was floored to read ex-mayor Gary Korpan’s letter on the subject of a proposed multiplex.
In 2005, when Korpan was last elected as mayor, he was vehemently opposed by the Friends of Plan Nanaimo over his support of the proposed conference centre. The FPN demonstrated conclusively, after extensive research into the experience of other cities that had built expensive conference centres, that ours would become an equally insatiable ‘white elephant’ for years, feeding on the taxpayers of Nanaimo.
Finally it appears that Korpan has seen the light. This proposed multiplex must not become yet another huge burden for the taxpayers of our city. Let it be built and run by private enterprise or not be built at all.
Jolyon BrownNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Event centre designs, costs presented, Nov. 17.
Well, here we go again with this need for Nanaimo to have its own multiplex. They will try as usual to shove it right down the taxpayers’ throats like a bad pill, saying it will be so beneficial for Nanaimo, etc.
Why does Nanaimo need this? Just so that Nanaimo can keep up with their neighbours? It’s just like the monkey who sees the golden banana. He really wants it, no matter what it costs. It’s time to stop all of this monkey business with the taxpayers’ money on things we do not want or cannot afford. Know your limit and live within it.
Al MunroNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Mayor says view plan critically, Nov. 24.
I agree with Mayor Bill McKay when he says we must look critically at the proposal for a multiplex in downtown Nanaimo. I also agree with him that it should be privately funded. If individual businesspersons want to build it on the Howard Johnson site and take all the risk, well and good. But this should not be funded by the city.
The proposal does not have a solid foundation. First, it depends on the city getting a Western Hockey League team. Second, cost estimates range from $62 million to $83 million – a difference of more than $20 million. Third, the architects’ estimate that Nanaimo has a 400,000-person capture area just doesn’t add up. The entire population of Vancouver Island is 760,000, with Victoria making up 345,000 of that total. There are 147,000 in the Nanaimo Regional District within driving distance.
And as to Coun. Jerry Hong’s question, what’s the difference between this and a water treatment plant, the answer is simple. We all need to drink clean water to survive. It is not essential for life to watch a hockey game.
Kathryn HazelNanaimo