There is no question that the Mayor of Edmonton is a master of the art of manipulation. And he has taken his latest round to the Edmonton media, who have come out with various titles like "Public tired of Edmonton arena discussions" and "Six weeks left to strike arena deal".
Well Steve, you are right. The public is tired of hearing about the handout of 700 million dollars of taxpayer money given to a billionaire who in all practical terms is not putting a cent of his money (other than perhaps some land deals that some people are calling shady) into this project... and where it's been projected that the same billionaire could potentially pocket a good 400 to 600 million dollars in profits over the term of the deal.
And I have to ask, why is it that we only have 6 weeks left to nail this, otherwise it will never be done? Would it have anything to do with the fact that the majority of Edmonton taxpayers do not like this deal, and you are afraid that a new council to be elected in 2013 will not approve of the theft of taxpayer money?
I mean after all, the Oilers are certainly not going anywhere, they can still play at the current Rexall place until a proper deal can be reached... so why the rush?
I think you will find most people are passionate about keeping the Oilers here. But we are not passionate about having public dollars going to a private company into the pocket of one of the (supposed) richest men in Canada.
In my humble opinion, if you try and force this through, you and the others on City Council will be committing political suicide. Remember when you said that no tax money would be going towards this? And what about your council partner Kim, who stated that a pleb would be needed? It would seem that both of you are liars.
Citizens will hope for a pleb to be called, and in the past you have proven with the City Center Airport that you will do everything in your power to make sure that the people will not be heard. This will naturally place a damper on having a citizen driven pleb successful... and I can envision you rubbing your biased hands together with glee because that is exactly what you want.
But that will not stop a newly elected Council from putting a halt to this. Which of course will result in lawsuits flying all over the place. And I think that might just be a really good idea, because then the truth will come out, and taxpayers will see all of the dirty deeds done. And I'm betting there is a lot of "dirt" to dig up.
Of course, you do have the opportunity for Council to actually call for that pleb, and to make it a part of the election coming up, which will minimize the costs to taxpayers. You are totally aware that a pleb called for by Council will not be legally binding, where as one called for by the citizens would be.
But then.... that would mean you would need to do the right thing. Something we know you probably won't do because you have already proven your word means nothing. Add in how people are comparing Katz to Pocklington, with the former now smelling worse than the latter...
Ah.. you don't care. And the people see that. We are not as blind as you want us to be.
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