I guess I'm in the CP minority opinion, but why is this necessary? Of the big YYC capital projects this one is arguably the most useless and wasteful.
We already have 2 adequate sized convention centers, and this will render the downtown Telus center obsolete while still incurring maintenance costs.
A convention center of this size is not needed. The thinking of "if you build it they will come" is BS. Calgary is not a premier destination for conventions, particularly of large size, and never will be over the life of this expansion. The relevant touristic convention draw is Banff/Rockies etc, and those are well, not in Calgary.
The argument that not doing it will "lose" money from federal/provincial funding is flawed, because it still costs the city 200+ million to build, and this ignores the ongoing maintenance costs. What happens if/when the provincial government pulls their contribution?
Stupid use of capital funds.
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