Funds make event centre an easier sell (PENTICTON)

http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=102&cat=48&id=715285&more= Aug 25 2006
Supporters of the South Okanagan Event Centre will likely have several million reasons to smile today. It is expected that the province will announce that the city will receive a significant amount of casino money to help finance the project, which has a total cost of $56.1 million. We confess we do not know how big the cheque will be. Rumours about the amount are rampant and we have already heard of people who have entered wagers about the amount. We are certainly expecting a significant amount that will exceed the $9.7 million granted by the province last year. We are also confident that today’s announcement will boost the yes-side as the Sept. 16 referendum approaches. How important is that funding? Mayor Jake Kimberley said the city would have had to cancel the referendum — and likely the entire project — if the province did not agree to the request. The timing of today’s announcement — little more than three weeks away from the referendum date — is certainly not coincidental heading into that referendum. The announcement will not only redirect some of the media attention away from the no-side, it will also reach voters at a point in time when they are still making up their mind. Some parts of the public may still not understand how much they need to pay and what they are actually going to get after the most recent round of redesign. But the province would have been accused of desperate pandering if the announcement had come closer to voting day. This won’t happen now and the announcement gives supporters a chance to campaign with an improved hand. But the announcement also shifts the political burden. It highlights the ongoing absence of financial support from the federal government and the failed efforts of this current council to secure that funding.Those two levels of government are likely to receive the majority of the blame if the referendum fails. As for the province, it can wash its hands, watch the results come in and distribute the money to somebody else if the referendum fails.And the cheque — regardless of its size — won’t shoo away concerns the public continues to hear about the proposed management structure. How valid are those concerns? It actually does not matter. Those who say that the hiring of private management is the thin wedge of privatizing the local public sector have successfully muddied the waters. When the facts are not on your side, the first and only recourse is to create doubt about them.