Penticton event centre of interest in lakecity

williams lake tribune Sep 12 2006
Williams Lake residents should be paying close attention to what is happening in Penticton these days. Penticton is a year or so ahead of us in developing an 'event centre.' In this city, Global Entertainment should be close to releasing a feasibility study on a 3,500-seat facility for Williams Lake. The study, due out in early August, is a little bit overdue. In Penticton, the community is at the stage where it is going to the community, in a referendum, seeking approval to fund the project. Here's where we should be paying attention. First, Premier Gordon Campbell has committed $40 million of provincial money to the project. For proponents of the Williams Lake facility, that is certainly good news. It shows that Victoria is willing to get behind such projects with more than words. The Penticton project, as with the one proposed here, is contingent on provincial and/or federal dollars. It's good to see the commitment is there. We should also pay attention to the fact that while Global Entertainment conducted the feasibility study on the Penticton facility and bid on operating it, Penticton chose a different company, the Giffels Group, to run the facility. While Global is conducting our feasibility study, the actual operating contract will be put out to bid. Mayor Scott Nelson confirmed this at a public meeting earlier this year. One other thing we should be paying attention to is that there will be opposition to the proposal. We've already seen that. There are lots of questions that still need to be answered. In Penticton, however, the opposition has come been fierce and from sources outside of the community. Penticton Mayor Jake Kimberley was booed at a recent public meeting on the proposal. In addition, opposition has come from the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The two groups are panning the proposal on the general principle of opposing P3s -- public/private partnerships. Kimberley responded that what is being proposed in Penticton, the same as here, isn't a public/private partnership because the facility will be owned by the city. In other words, the taxpayers is footing the bill. Kimberley is probably right in his assessment of public/private partnerships and, at least here in Williams Lake, that may be the source of the stiffest opposition. Until the open house in June, many in this community thought that the private enterprise involved in such a facility would be contributing more than its expertise in running such a facility. Granted, Global has ponied up $125,000 to cost share the feasibility study for the Williams Lake facility, but many thought the private company would be helping with capital costs. In fact, the proposal, just as in Penticton, will see the city retain complete ownership of the facility. Public dollars will be used to build the facility and a contract will be tendered for the operation of it. There is no doubt this issue will be the focus of plenty of debate over the next few months. We can certainly look to Penticton to see what they did right, what they did wrong, and to see how we can do things better here in Williams Lake. This is a complicated and controversial plan. It's nice to have a guinea pig.
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DON QUIXOTE NOTE:
Funding Not what it seems & Sleight of Hand articles show the amount of actual Provincial funding to be $ZERO