Tuesday night I went to the
open house for the Crowsnest Centre site. Prior to the meeting I was asked by
one of our residents that I have known for a long time. If I was surprised to
see this happening, and if I wanted it to fail so it would be a black eye for
this council.
To clarify that statement
there are people that disagree with me on some sensitive political issues in
this community, that are running around telling people that I have my own political
agenda, that people need to keep that in mind when they read or hear my
comments.
Well I’m going to shock you,
yes I have my own agenda, some politicians call it a “vision” or “goals” etc.
Any politician that tells you he does not have his own agenda or vision is
either full of crap or should not be doing the job because who needs leaders
without vision? Yes I am going to shock you even more I will be running for
council this fall, it is just eight months away I think it is time for people
to start stepping forward, speaking up and getting involved in the political
process. Personally, I was never impressed with people that showed up for the
first time in their life at a council meeting a month before the election, or
the night before nomination day suddenly feeling the urge to save their
community. Now you still have time to
learn about the process, see how council works and get a feel for the issues
that are important to the community and it’s people and decide what your “vision”
for this community will be.
To the Crowsnest Centre Site
and the comments that have been directed at me. Was I surprised to see this
happen?
No for six years I argued
until I was blue in the face that this property was the most logical piece of
land in the Crowsnest Pass
What did we see Tuesday night?
well it started with Bruce spending ten minutes patting himself, council and
administration on the back for all the hard work they did to put this together.
I am sure there was a lot of work involved and I give credit to them for that,
but they should have sat in that council chamber 4-5 years ago if they wanted
to see the real “work” that went in to this issue.
Then he introduced the people
from Medican, the Architect, and Vachon group and turned the floor over to
them. They all spoke well obviously educated people that have seized an
opportunity in the Crowsnest Pass
What did they have to give us?
When everybody walked in they were met by a large board with a picture of a nice
hotel across from Summitt Home Hardware, a McDonalds and a Boston Pizza behind
it. Green spaces, smaller businesses, a park that we the taxpayers will be
paying for, and lot’s of large trees on the side facing Drain Brothers yard.
Exciting stuff, then Mr Day
from Medican told us this is only a conceptional diagram there is no guarantee that this is
what the hotel will look like, or that these restaurants will be here, they
were here tonight to get a feel about what the community wanted to see. He went
on to talk about how they have to find all of these businesses, then he
introduced the other people in the party who all gave a little information
about their backgrounds.
When that was finished the
different members of the groups went to separate tables and allowed the public
to approach them with questions.
What do we have “today” for
the Crowsnest Centre site? We have a group of businessmen that have signed a
contract with the municipality (most details of which we will never know) that are
going out to attempt to attract a hotel, with possibly some type of convention
centre. Later it will be followed up in
phases with restaurants, and other smaller secondary businesses coming in. Do
we have anything more solid that that right now? No.
Do I want this project to
fail because it will be a black eye for this council and help my political “agenda”?
Not a chance, this community needs commercial development we need tax base, we
need employment.
I hope for the sake of this
community that this is very successful. Myself and the other politicians past,
present and future can decide later who takes the credit for this.
