Here comes Neil, huffing and puffing...
A fairly dopey concept
By NEIL WAUGH
They say timing is everything in politics.
And if that's true then Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel needs a new watch.Because his decision to disappear to Zaragoza, Spain -- without a peep from the city hall PR machine -- couldn't come at a worse time.
Especially when the purpose of his jolly junket to sunny Arragon was to kick tires for a World's Fair bid for the city in 2017.
A message on the Zaragoza Fair website pretty well says it all about where these extravaganzas now rate with folks, who see more than enough goofy architecture in their own cities without travelling halfway around the world.
Yes, the blurb pronounced, they do still have world's fairs.
But it also revealed that there are a few grassroots efforts to again host a world's fair. One of those grassroots singled out is the City of Edmonton.
'Hayseeds' would be a better way to describe Edmonton city council after taxpayers got hit with another triple whammy last week.
The first came in a consultant's report that claimed property taxpayers will face 4% tax increases for the next decade to repair crumbling neighbourhood roads and sidewalks.
The next was the result of a probe by city auditor David Wiun of why the price tag of the 23 Avenue interchange shot up from $73 to $261 million.Not only were the materials costs wildly underestimated, project planning was largely left in the hands of a junior employee who the report describes as relatively new to the engineering field.
Unbelievable.
If there really is a credible professional engineering organization in this province, they have no choice but to be all over this blunder, especially when Mandel is in Spain pondering the risks and benefits of a fair, which would last only a few months, but likely cost billions to build in Alberta's super-heated economy.
Then it was revealed that the city administration is now $12.6 million over budget and spending cuts are coming.
This is not exactly the magic moment to start talking about frills like a fair.
Making matters worse, Mandel and his committee haven't come clean about where the fair will go.
The only piece of city real estate that appears big enough are the controversial city centre airport lands -- while the mayor still hasn't revealed how he intends to build a new hockey arena for Oilers owner Daryl Katz and not raise taxes.
Except maybe he now has. The presence of two Alberta PC MLAs on the mayor's airplane further adds to the suspicion of a done deal, especially when Edmonton-Castledowns Tory Thomas Lukaszuk gushed: "The impact of a world's fair in Edmonton would be of huge significance."
It would also present taxpayers from all levels of government with a huge bill. And there's only one taxpayer.
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