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Originally Posted by TheoFleury
Blaming the mayor for the project dying seems weird to me. I think people need to separate their feelings for her and realize that plug was getting pulled one way or the other because the Flames just weren't committed to it fully. She didn't handle it perfectly but really.. who cares? It's worrisome that rising costs rattled their cages so badly... that's not something that's likely to get better as time goes by. If you're going to do it and you want to control the costs, delaying it for any length of time is probably not a good idea. Get to it asap or pay even more later
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I don’t think I buy that, but I don’t think it’s her fault entirely either. She was the last one to have the call before popping off on Twitter immediately after so she is definitely culpable. You can’t just pretend the mayor is just a messenger when they are the supposed leader of city counsel otherwise why wasn’t the city manager making the call, you know, the person with the authority who actually runs the city. Gondek has some blame rightfully here and so does the entire operating committee that basically restructured the deal for the Flames after the original MOU was entered into. There would have been meetings and communication between the CSEC and city in the operating committee meetings where I am certain CSEC let the City know “hey, this is kinda bull####”. I guarantee this wasn’t just some last minute surprise call from Edwards, give me a break.
I agree the Flames got cold feet and look idiotic as well but there should have been compromise on escalating costs- full stop. And frankly if the Flames said $0 to increases above a threshold and that was their position you should still take it as the city since you are not going to get a better deal than this, obviously.
Like you think now the City is going to be able to build this for less civic dollars than what they otherwise would have been on the hook for? These monstrosities do not make that much money and the “asset” is a giant liability at the end of its life. No private investor is coming into this city and outlaying a better deal than the CSEC was offering and it was obvious in December. This isn’t even a hindsight thing. Obvious to anyone with half a business brain that the Gondek call shoulda been you know what Murray fine, we will pay the full $27mm extra it’s a rounding error. Now this sucker is gonna to cost Calgary way, way, way, way more. And if the Flames leave, the city will end up building it anyway for 100%. You watch. This should actually cost Gondek a #### load of political capital now that I think about it.