Quote:
Originally Posted by Travis Munroe
I'm voting yes because I'm sick of a dying Calgary with no end in sight. I'm voting yes because I believe there is a deal to be had with the flames which looks much better for tax payers than the previous deal. I'm voting yes because it means billions into this city we would never see without the olympics. Taxes are going up either way people.... We either try something drastic or slowly bleed out.
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There is no deal with the Flames, it's been made abundantly clear that there are no plans or funds in the bid for any arena work besides Saddledome renovations and a new small arena for figure staking. If we added a new arena, the provincial and federal governments will have no par tin the funding. The city would be on the hook, minus whatever the Flames kick in. Hosting the Olympics doesn't give the city any additional bargaining power.
And a bunch of temporary jobs and volunteer positions won't revitalize Calgary. Even if we keep the project on budget, not all of that money is staying in Calgary. We'll be using it to pay Whistler to host part of it, we'll be paying Canmore for their share, Olympic workers will be going home with good portions of their cheques and pretty much all security personnel will be from out of town.
If spending all this money on renovating existing facilities and building two small new ones would generate a significant long term revenue stream, maybe it would be beneficial. But really we'd probably see a small blip in our economy while things get built and then we'd be right back to the status quo. There is also no estimate on the cost of the additional strain on our infrastructure for that period. Yes, people will come here and spend money on food and hotels, but can we actually handle the logistics of tens of thousands of people dropped into the city all at once