Most news items published in The Coast, The Chronicle Herald, Metro News etc. are posted on the Facebook page "Help Save the View from Citadel Hill" regularly. The Facebook page is a member of the Save the View Coalition.

Save the View (STV) is a coalition of eleven non-partisan groups that support smart development for downtown Halifax. Smart development is culturally, socially and environmentally sustainable and it has open and transparent citizen participation.

The coalition is opposed to the proposed P3 convention centre for downtown Halifax because it isn't smart development for many reasons. For example, under a last minute policy change in HRMbyDesign-the new plan for downtown, a new clause was created so that if the developer receives any taxpayer money  the project's two towers will double from 7 and 9 storeys to 14 and 18.  This will block the view of George's Island from the roadway on Citadel Hill.

The coalition knows from research that the convention centre industry is in decline, that P3s cost more and that all levels of government are short on money for core-services.  Now it has new evidence that the Halifax Regional Municipal and provincial governments' decision to support the new convention centre is based on supposed benefits put forward a faulty Trade Centre Limited (TCL) Internal Report:  "Market Projections for a Proposed New Convention Centre, June 2010".  This report is seriously flawed and incorrectly cites increases in international conventions, in the Canadian share of these conventions and in the attendance whereas in each case the source documents show decreases. Misinformation in the Internal Report of Trade Centre Limited of June, 2010 )

The fate of this proposed private-public development for downtown now lies with the federal government. Transportation Minister Bill Estabrooks has asked the federal government to allocate $47 million from the federal government's Build Canada Fund to the P3 project.  This would take money away from much needed infrastructure such as roads, bridges, public transportation, or water, waste-water and sewage treatment projects for all Nova Scotians.  It would also bring the total net loss of the project over 25 years for taxpayers to ~$374 million.

Want to get involved? Please contact Peter MacKay (426-4414 or mackay.p@parl.gc.ca) and tell him that the convention centre doesn't make sense and that it's a bad deal for Nova Scotian taxpayers. Let him know that the Trade Centre Ltd.'s Internal Report is an unreliable, unsupportable, overblown promotion and yet it is being used by governments as the basis for the decision-making process for spending $374 million in public money over the next 25 years.

Below are 10 good reasons the P3 convention centre is a bad idea:

 

1. As a P3 project, at the end of spending approximately 374 million tax dollars, the private developer owns the project. If this is such a great investment why isn't the business community paying for it?

2. The municipality and the province cannot afford this project: the cost is too high. The city and the provincial governments need to ensure that they can afford to pay for core government services, not bankrupt the public on a mega-project that will harm Halifax’s major asset. (800,000 people go to the top of Citadel Hill each year. Less than 2% of these go to a national or international convention at Halifax's World Trade and Convention Centre.)

3. Research by Heywood Sanders shows that the convention centre industry is in decline all over North America. 44 cities with new convention centres have declining attendance. As well overcapacity from the proposed new large office tower and a new large hotel will negatively affect those already in the downtown.

4. The demise of the downtown is the result of a tax structure that has subsidized the development of Bayers Lake, Burnside and Dartmouth Crossing. Also, large projects such as Cogswell Interchange, Scotia Square, the Metro Centre and other office towers removed huge numbers of residential dwellings. The convention centre won’t increase the number of people living in the downtown or improve livability.

5. The quality of the jobs created is poor. Of the current 213 WTCC employees only 35 are members of a union. Four out of five unionized WTCC workers earn minimum wage. Spending over $7 million dollars per year for the lowest pay category of work available demonstrates a lack of vision.

6. The Halifax public opposes this project – STV has collected over 3000 signatures against the project and in 4 polls by Save the View. In two polls by the Chronicle Herald the public opposes the project. The same was true in the city of Nanaimo, which went ahead and built a convention centre. That decision is a financial disaster for the Nanaimo taxpayers.

7. The Cunard Centre is a federally owned convention centre operating on our waterfront near the new farmers' market and the new Nova Scotia College of Art & Design building. This facility is also adjacent to the train station, the bus station, a large hotel and parking lot. It has 45,000 square feet of column free space, can host formal banquets for up to 2200 guest and receptions and concerts for 4,000. Why would the federal government contribute to a facility that directly competes with an existing one which is owned by the federal government?

8. The federal government Department Parks Canada, has written a letter of concern about the commemorative integrity of the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site being compromised and stated "a development of such height and scale in close proximity to the Citadel will negatively affect the context and setting of the Site in terms of its relationship with the downtown and the harbour..." and "The Commemorative Integrity Statement for the Citadel intended to define the historical significance of the Site and its heritage values, describes the importance of the setting and the need to ensure that future development respects the historic scale of the fort and its surrounding topography."

9. Sustainability into the future has to be factored into our decisions in the present. Building economic visions based on attracting folks from far and wide to come to HRM for a few days doesn't seem relevant when our entire society will be confronting sea level rise, energy insecurity and unpredictable shifts in global and financial markets. There are other models; visionaries and collaborations to be inspired by.

10. By now there's got to be some personal reason why you think the convention 'bunker' shouldn't be our next big investment so it's important that you tell that to the city.

 

 

YouTube: Podium TV - Halifax Convention Centre... Sept. 2010
Part 1 - Introduction by Peggy Cameron, presentation by Phil Pacey	Part 2 - Andrew Harvey followed by Beverly Miller
Part 3 - Allan Robertson	Part 4 - Judy Haiven