Mayor Tony Winter's Reaction to Criticism

Below is a letter that was in the St Marys Independent from Jeff Taylor. The letter was also intended for the Journal the following Wednesday. However, on the Monday Mayor Tony Winter called Mr Taylor and threatened legal action if he did not write a full retraction. Mr Taylor got a lawyer who called the Mayor and told him the Town had no ground to stand on. Mayor Winter didn't pursue the matter and Mr Taylor didn't send the letter to the Journal.

So, it looks like the cabal that runs the town was able to coerce six of seven Councillors into voting in favour of the financial train wreck that the Living Life Project will become. The vote followed a process marked by a flagrant disregard for public input. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be that the average citizen could not be trusted to understand the details. They would therefore, be unable to help make an informed decision. How ironic.

There is much talk of a Tax Revolt, and perhaps it would take an action like this to get the message across. If Council thinks it’s acceptable to ram through a project of this magnitude without public support, they shouldn’t mind doing it without the public’s money, either.

Hands up those who want Bill Osborne to run for Mayor!

Jeff Taylor

Councillor Bill Osbourne's Vote

The April 5, 2006 St Marys Journal Argus reported St Marys Councillor Bill Osbourne's 3 reasons for voting against the St Marys Ontario Arena Expansion as

• The original Living Life Project recommendation had the arena expansion only moving ahead if there was provincial or federal funding for one-third of the costs. "I'm well aware that funding is not available."
  


• To come up with the annual financial support for the project the money has to come from other projects in the town. "I don't feel comfortable with that situation, there's too much stress on the system."
  


• The great urgency. "Many want the whole complex and they want it now and many want the second ice pad and they want it now." Even the feasilibity study indicates that "the time line is unrealistic."
  

The following week in a letter to the editor J Queenan applauded Bill Osbourne "for having the integrity to hold true to his principles." (see J Queenan letter)

$2.5 Million in Fundraising Required

The April 6 Beacon Herald editorial on the St Marys Arena Expansion said that St Marys residents 'will no doubt be asked to contribute to local fundraising efforts'.

There is no doubt - the amount cited in Deloitte and Touche's Financing Strategy is $2.5 million.

What is in doubt is who is going to do this fundraising and how they will raise the money. In the 2 years this project has actively been discussed no service club or other organization has come forward to volunteer for this role. The fundraising commitment by year is

Year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Amount	$265,000	$265,000	$265,000	$265,000	$265,000

Year	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Amount	$215,000	$215,000	$125,000	$125,000	$125,000

62% Facility Maintenance Going to Arena Expansion

In a postscript to his April 12 letter to the editor Murray Mitchell says 'It seems in the last year all our town buildings have become no good or unuseable. Also, the way they were run or used has been changed. Come on, let's use some common sense.'

This council raised taxes to create the Facility Maintenance Fund to fix the town buildings that were either no good or unuseable. Those 47 buildings cannot be in too bad a shape because council is allocating 62% of the fund ($185,000 per year) for the next 20 years to the yet to be built St Marys Arena Expansion. (see Supporting Project Operations)

St Marys Ontario $16-million Arena Expansion

From the April 6, 2006 Stratford Beacon Herald editorial on the St Marys Ontario Arena Expansion

A $16-million arena expansion and swimming pool project for a town of about 5,000 residents seems quite ambitious, especially when there is no provincial or federal funding in the plan. Yet, that is what St. Marys town council approved last week. The town will shortly be calling tenders and expects construction to begin this summer.

Mayor Tony Winter says he’s no risk taker, that he’s confident the project is workable and that community proponents will come up with the $5-million contribution to which they are committed. For the sake of Stonetown taxpayers, let’s hope he’s right because, even with that commitment, the town has to come up with the remainder of the money plus financing costs. Apart from those capital costs impacting property tax bills, local residents are expected to support the project and ongoing operational costs through program memberships for hockey, skating and swimming. And they will no doubt be asked to contribute to local fundraising efforts on top of that.

$385,000 Annual Operating Loss

Why would St Marys Ontario staff estimates of the annual losses for the St Marys Arena expansion be so out of line with the estimates of the professional consultants?

In June 2005 Monteith Brown on page 50 of their report 'Recreation Complex Expansion Feasibility Study' said the proposed St Marys Arena complex would lose between $398,832 and $383,149 annually from operations.

8 months later on March 9, 2006 Deloitte & Touche at their public presentation basically agreed with Monteith Brown and estimated the annual loss at $385,000 (see St Marys Ontario Arena - $385,000 Operating Obligation).

In between at the August 23, 2005 council meeting Jim Bryson's estimate was less than half at $166,000. Because he's the facilities manager its the one figure in his presentation I thought would be right.