Paul Sloan believes he has the solutions to the city’s problems.
When the Red River Ward candidate reads the comments section on online news sites, he knows he could solve the issue.
“I could do better,” he said, citing the way the event centre has been managed as an example.
“I know that I can do better than what’s being done. The only way to do that is to get involved.”
With a career as an investment analyst, Sloan wasn’t putting the event centre high on his priority list coming into the election.
But with the latest numbers pegging the city’s share of the project at $40 million, it’s moved to the top of the list not just for him, but for many people in the community.
“For better or worse, the event centre really has become, for a lot of people, the issue on which they’re going to be voting. It’s understandable, but unfortunate in some cases because there are a lot of other things going on,” he said.
Originally Sloan was a proponent of the project, but he’s since changed his view; he’s for an event centre, but not the current version being proposed.
“Things have drastically changed in the last month. Anybody who has been a yes-sider supporting this event centre based on what they heard in the past, needs to come back and relook at all the numbers,” he said.
“It has spiraled out of control.”
Sloan said he only supports an event centre where an AHL team has signed a long-term contract so the city can see a return on the money they invest into the project.
“If the AHL doesn’t stay around long enough to cover the share of the city’s money, the city will be in a very bad financial way,” he said.
Other issues for Sloan include saving the Trinity United Church manse; he believes there are several options to save the building.
He also has plans to reduce the budgets for police, fire and transit and improve crime prevention related to policing, poverty and substance abuse.
Sloan would also like to see each ward have its own volunteer neighbourhood council with each ward receiving a yearly budget for neighbourhood improvement projects.
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