We've received permission to post this letter to The Editor from John Thomas which was published by the Whig Standard today.

Here's a 75-page. PDF document from The Canadian Union of Public Employees. Looking past the obvious positional bias and the somewhat predictable rhetoric, the document contains a number of strong points about the downsides of public private partnerships in arena construction and operations, including, among others:

• The higher cost of capital,
• vastly reduced process transparency and accountability,
• little in the way of risk reduction, and
• a poor track record.

CUPE recognizes the need for improved and expanded sports and recreation facilities in the City of Oshawa. We do not believe that it is necessary or desirable to enter into a public private partnership (P3) arrangement, relying on the private sector to design, construct, finance (in part), own, operate and manage a new facility.

Numerous P3 arenas have been abandoned by the private sector in Canada.

Experiences in communities such as Guelph, Victoria, Cranbrook, Port Alberni, Maple Ridge, and elsewhere, provide important lessons for the City of Oshawa.

The higher cost of borrowing by the private partner and the need to generate profits make the projects more expensive, explaining in part why they fail. The projects would have cost less and been more sustainable had they been publicly financed.

P3s result in increased public costs, hide debt, reduce accountability, and do not provide value for money. They cheapen the labour pool and compromise quality and access to City services, with negative impacts on the community.

There are limitations to the amount of risk that can be transferred to the private sector. Once a deal stops being profitable, the record shows that it is the public partner who is ultimately responsible and the taxpayer who pays.

Derek Baldwin reports in the Saturday, February 26, 2005 edition of the Whig-Standard, that...

Mayor Harvey Rosen says the $5-million sale of the Memorial Centre is still very much part of a financial formula to build a $40-million riverfront arena on Anglin Bay.

In an interview yesterday, Rosen said in no way is the city abandoning a funding formula of a mayor's task force report of March 2004.

The report was "the basis on which the steering committee was to proceed and that hasn't changed. Nothing has changed in respect of the marching orders of the steering committee. "

The five-member task force recommended that the Memorial Centre site "be rezoned and sold and the full net proceeds be utilized to partially fund the new facility. "

Rosen's comments come three days after riverfront arena project manager Don Gedge told the arena steering committee, "we're not basing our financial rationale on the Memorial Centre [sale]. "

Gedge said he was hesitant to base the riverfront arena project on the sale of the Memorial Centre because "it's unlikely the property will be sold and redeveloped and we're trying to be accepting of that. "

Yesterday, Rosen told The Whig, "I'm sure there will be a business plan which includes disposal of the Memorial Centre. "

Read the whole thing.

As Mr. Gedge announced yesterday that six more drillings will be done today, Joché Katan sends us this photo of mid-afternoon drilling activity at Anglin Bay on the Marina site next to the tour boat in the dry dock. It's also near to the gas pump and pumpout, two revenue-generating marine services that would be lost if the arena is built right there.

Finally echoing what's been clearly evident for some six months already, today The Whig reports that the idea of selling the Memorial Centre and its site for the sole purpose of partially funding the LVEC is dead.

Dennis Brown just submitted this email to LVEC@cityofkingston.ca.

From: Dennis Brown
To: LVEC@cityofkingston.ca
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 12:22 PM
Subject: Opinions

If you want the public to support plans for a new arena, all you have to do is change the location. The one chosen is probably the worst possible in the city. If anything it will discourage attendance at major events. As a holder of seasons tickets for Junior A hockey since the first game of the franchise, I can assure you that I am amongst many who will not endure the hassles associated with the proposed location to attend games. The stubborness and arrogance of City council in this matter is only serving to create hostility amongst the public. We thought the message was clear around the Block D proposal that Kingston citizens do not want an arena downtown. Although the election is a couple of years away, look around the horseshoe and see how many supporters of Block D are still around. People don't forget when election time comes around, especially in the former townships where the city ignored their pleas for assistance following the recent flooding, and now wants to pour more taxpayers money into another downtown project where only a select few will profit.

It is a sad reflection on city council when only a couple of councilors will echo the wishes of their constituents.

Wake up before you agree what is sure to become a white elephant due to the location!

I know you will probably ignore this correspondence, just as the Task Force did (Oh excuse me; they actually cooked the numbers in their favour).

Gerard Wyatt just submitted this letter to LVEC@cityofkingston.ca. (Gerard also submitted this letter from October 26th to The Editor of The Whig which, incidentally, was never published. )

This page has been up in the LVEC section of the City Of Kingston website for the past few days.

It's probably a good idea for all concerned citizens to fire off an email or postal letter to make sure the committee knows how the citizenry feels, even though they show no sign of listening.

This letter from Bruce Todd was published in the Whig Standard on February 12, 2005.

Here is a copy of a letter Sharron Bonnici sent to the Whig February 8th 2005.

Sault Ste. Marie has finalized plans to build its new arena on the same site as the 55-year old Sault Memorial Gardens. Construction is expected to begin May 10th. It's notable that their financing model involves three levels of government. It's also notable that there is no private sector partnership at work here. The project is expected to cost $25 million,with between 35%-40% coming from the Province and the Federal government.

The capacity of the new arena will be around 4500, which is a minimal increase of between 500 and 600 over the old arena's capacity.

Searching for the term "LVEC" into popular search engines today yields the following rankings for this website.

• Google:2nd (Behind www.cityofkingston.ca)
• MSN Search:1st
• Yahoo: very deep.

Just found on the City LVEC Website, and also found in Report No: LV05-001 wherein it states "In the meantime, a number of individuals from this Committee are spending a considerable amount of time working on various aspects of the project. "

The Technical Advisory Committee is a staff committee appointed by the Commissioners of the various City departments. Its primary role is one of providing relevant data, technical information and professional opinions on various aspects of the project. The Committee was appointed on November 22, 2004, and is composed of the following departmental representatives:

DEPARTMENT	NAME	TITLE	PHONE
Corporate Services	Gerard Hunt Hal Linscott	Manager of Finance Director of Legal Services	2205 1296
Utilities Kingston	Jim Miller	Manager, Utilities Technical Services	2475
Community Services	Mark Fluhrer	Manager, Policy & Support Services	1342
Operations	Malcolm Morris Paula Nichols	Manager of Transit Manager of Parking	2260 1297
Planning & Development Services	Speros Kanellos Paul MacLatchy George Wallace	Manager of Engineering Manager of Environment Manager of Planning	3133 3134 3252
Chief Administrative Office	Don Gedge	Director, LVEC Project	1271

Councillor Rick Downes tried to warn us about this four months ago.

To the Mayor and Members of Council City of Kingston. The LVEC - Let's Rethink Fundamental Questions First.