Printed from the Review
‘Persuasive argument’ for convention centre: Tory
COREY LAROCQUE
Thursday, March 15, 2007 – 02:00
Local News – There’s a “very persuasive argument” to have the provincial government chip in $35 million to build a convention centre in Niagara Falls, says Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.
But the Leader of Ontario’s Opposition wouldn’t commit his party to a partnership with the federal government and local businesses to build one here.
“The one thing I’m not doing is going around the province and every time I’m in a meeting and somebody says, ‘Would you commit to the $35 million,’ that I say yes,” Tory said following a meeting Wednesday with representatives of Niagara’s tourism industry.
Dragan Matovic, the owner of Thundering Waters golf course, is leading a group of tourism operators with a plan to split the $100-million cost three ways. If the governments contribute to the project they will more than recover their expenditures through the sales tax the convention centre would generate and income tax its employees would pay, Matovic has said.
Tory said he understood the return-on-investment angle convention centre supporters were pitching.
“This convention centre is a much-needed addition to the infrastructure and that it will have a payback that is a reasonable kind of payback you would look for if you were in business or in government,” Tory said.
The Niagara Falls convention centre project will get the “business-like analysis” it deserves from the Conservative party, said Tory, a former chief executive officer of Rogers Media and Rogers Cable.
Matovic said it was an optimistic meeting with Tory, several Conservative MPPs and Niagara Falls candidate Bart Maves.
“Based on the conversation, and (Tory’s) comments, I thought he was very much in support of it. Maybe he needs a little more time to do his homework,” Matovic said after the meeting.
Matovic is scheduled to give city council members an update on the convention centre’s progress Monday at a committee meeting.
Coincidentally, it’s the same day federal finance minister Jim Flaherty will be delivering this year’s federal budget. Mayor Ted Salci held out hope last week Flaherty’s budget would indicate money will be available for a convention centre.
But Matovic said he thinks any announcement would follow on the heels of the federal and provincial budget speeches.
“I wouldn’t hold my breath for an announcement in the next week or two,” Matovic said.
Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor said he would be surprised if Tory were in favour of spending public money on a convention centre. Tory opposed the Liberal government’s move to spend $400 million building a hotel and convention space at the publicly owned Casino Windsor in 2005.
“I sat in the House dumbfounded when he criticized us for investing in Windsor,” Craitor said. “I’m sure there are other things he doesn’t believe in for our city.”
In a 2005 speech, Tory said the Casino Windsor expansion could have been done by the private sector. Public money could have been better used to help farmers, hire nurses or cut taxes, he said then in a speech whose text is posted on the party’s website.
Tory said Wednesday he wants to study information the convention centre group gave him and then make a “thoughtful and well-considered” decision.
Before the 2003 election, Premier Dalton McGuinty made a spree of commitments, Tory said, adding it led to “the longest list of broken promises in the history of Ontario politics.”
McGuinty has not said his Liberal party will contribute to the convention centre project either. When the Premier was in town a month ago, he said his government will “take a good look at this proposal.”
McGuinty said a convention centre in Niagara Falls would be “an essential part of any strong, mature, urban centre.”
clarocque@nfreview.com
ID- 444622
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