Done deal?

The majority has spoken – or at least it appears it will on Monday night.

A Tbnewswatch poll of city councillors suggests barring a change of heart by several city councillors, the north core will be given the go-ahead as the location for the proposed $106.1-million event centre.

Council is expected on Monday to vote on whether or not to approve the Phase 2 feasibility study surrounding the 5,700-seat facility and to OK moving ahead with Phase 3.

The decision, if made, will end a vocal and controversial debate over the event centre location.

All but one municipal politician who spoke with Dougall Media on Thursday said they would support putting the event centre in the north core.

Couns. Rebecca Johnson, Ken Boshcoff, Aldo Ruberto, Andrew Foulds, Paul Pugh, Mark Bentz, Iain Angus and Mayor Keith Hobbs all said yes the recommendation, made by an outside consulting firm, while Westfort Coun. Joe Virdiramo said he was leaning towards the north core as well.

Hobbs said that he has to go with the experts' recommendations. He said the consultants have done their homework and held three open houses, giving the public their say.

“I haven't heard one expert opinion that can contradict the consultants’ report,” Hobbs said via email.

Johnson said it was important to move to Phase 3 so the city can get the design done and seek out for funding proposals, particularly from the private sector.

“After a lot of research, listening to the community and my own though process, I am prepared to vote for the downtown area,” Johnson said in an email. “This was not an easy decision as I still have some reservations about the foot print.”

Boshcoff said most councillors campaigned for the multiplex and having it in the north core meets many requirements , including the embellishment of the downtown and their own desire to develop an entertainment district.

The time has come, he added.

“The Fort William Gardens is nine years passed its due date,” he said, reached by phone in Toronto.
“We really need to make a decision.”

Ruberto said he looked at the credentials of the consultants and thought the city couldn’t have found better people to do the job.

“We have to look at the future,” he said. “The Gardens has to be replaced. I think we are doing our due diligence and I think we are doing it the right way. I believe the people want us to go ahead, but cautiously. They don’t want us to do it without the funding from the federal and provincial governments.”

Ruberto was at Wednesday night’s open house at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium and said he was surprised at the amount of misinformation being put forth by some members of the publc . Most of the comments were anecdotal, emotional and used unreliable source materials, including questionable polling.

But not everyone on council is happy with what appears to be a fait accompli.

At-large Coun. Larry Hebert vowed to vote against the recommendation because he felt the timing is all wrong. He argued the city needs to look at other priorities, such as the aftermath of the May 28th flood and sewage back-up disaster and would prefer to delay the vote for another few weeks.

“I’m in favour of a complex. I have no problem with that but we have to deal with some fiscal realities here,” Hebert said. “There are other pressing issues that we’re going to have to put our assets toward and our funds. To me we have this backward in terms of timing. We have the infrastructure priority meeting on Tuesday night so I would like to see this in the context of all the priorities.”

Hebert said he also wants to know more about the report on the Atlantic Avenue Sewage Treatment Plant. If the city has to pay for the rehabilitation of the treatment plant, that could be a major issue for funding the event centre itself, he said.

Tbnewswatch.com attempted to contact Couns. Brian McKinnon, Trevor Giertuga, Linda Rydholm, but were unsuccessful.