Sport Centre Should be 100% Provincially Funded

Friday, January 27, 2006 03:47 AM

by Ben Meisner

I for one agree with Regional District Board member Bob Headrick, that borrowing 1 million dollars to go towards the sports facility at UNBC should have gone to a referendum.

Of course Headrick, who is a former Chair of the Regional District, knows full well that if there were a referendum, the idea would bite the dust . Board member Don Zurowski says it’s an investment in education in the region. He also is aware that same facility is operated by the province.

If we have $600,000 million for The Olympic Games, then surely someone in Victoria should be looking at the overall picture of education for the entire province. Simply saying that it is an opportunity to fill the gap in sports at UNBC is not enough.

If you are going to grow UNBC, then the provincial government (under whose control it falls) should host the party. Instead, we have a group of people who have committed the taxpayers of the region, to an interest free bill of $247,387.00 a year starting in 2008. Most importantly committing the new Board and Council to that bill.

Prince George gets a bill for $160,200.00 , Mackenzie $16,200.00, but in addition the area north to Mackenzie gets a bill for $23,937.00, little old McBride will pay $1,148.00 , while the rural areas around McBride and Valemount will have to come clean for $11,686.00 a year. Valemount will need to dig into its own pockets for $2,393.00 for that towns share. South of PG to Hixon and area, their share is $10,631.00. Bearing in mind of course that in addition, there is a request in for a further $400,000.00 dollars as a grant from the Northern Trust.

It is a classic case of the province down loading onto the rural areas a responsibility that clearly is theirs. Small communities are being called upon to pick up the tab for big brothers lunch and when the province comes along to announce it will throw some money into the ring for the structure, we are supposed to be all warm and fuzzy.

Headrick is right, its a pity the other members cannot see above their rose colored glasses.

I'm Meisner, and that is one man's opinion.

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Friday, January 27, 2006 03:47 AM in Views by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: lunarcom on January 27 2006 6:17 AM

My whole problem with this sports centre is they also want to run it as a P3. So yours and mine tax dollars are spent building it and then some company is going to come in with a minor amount of capital money and get the right to run the building for a profit and take those profits with them and not return them to us, who paid for the building.

Posted by: Percy on January 27 2006 8:45 AM

I would be more interested in the user base of this facility. How many of our local residents are the users of this facility.

If we break it down to a percentage, probably less than 20% of our population are enjoying the use of the facility.

Is it possible to include financial support from other communities in the province who send their students to PG to further their education.

It would only seem fair to me that everyone who has a vested interest in this facility be a part funding it also. A provincial perspective makes sense to me, rather than a local one. Percy

Posted by: Palopu on January 28 2006 8:29 PM

In addition to our share of the money given to the Regional District, dont forget that the City of Prince George wants to donate 5 Million for this project , with I beleive the balance coming from the Provincial Government.

With the Static population of the City of Prince George, and the flat lining of enrollments at UNBC and the decrease in enrollments in school district 57 along with the dire consequences to the economy of Prince George and surrounding areas because of the beetle infestation. The predicted loss of thousands of jobs in the next 10 years, it hardly seems that this facility will ever be feasible.

Whether it is feasible or not you can rest assured that it will be built with taxpayers dollars and sit on the hill as another expression of our inability to get it right.

This will be a good thing for UNBC and some construction companies in Prince George, however at the end of the day, there will be little benefit to the Taxpayers of Prince George. I suggest we have more facilities and are taxed more than any other City of similar size in Canada. In addition we are probably further in debt than any City of similar size in Canada. A lot of this money could have been spent to get some kind of industry going in this area that would produce jobs that were paid for by the private sector, rather that jobs that are paid for by the taxpayers.

Government ie;Federal,Provincial,Regional,Municipal, are the biggest employers in this area, and they are all being paid by our tax dollars.

Remember, Governments have no money, they just spend ours. So if you think building this monolith on the hill, will have any long term effect on the City, your just kidding yourself.

Go to the Art Centre, or Civic Centre on any given day and look at the empty spaces, this City is overbuilt and under utilized.