Paradise Arena? Don't Hold Your Breath.

I haven’t said much about our town lately as it’s been quiet around here. A nice change to be honest. After the clusterfuck of the last election, it seems that the mayor and a couple of councillors have learned a valuable lesson: listen to your constituents and try not to make a fool of yourselves.

I wonder how long it will last.

At least we have a good deputy mayor and a couple of new faces that seem to be in this for the right reasons. Ones who actually respond to emails inquiring about school kids saftey. But that's a post for another time.

There’s a petition circulating (again) to pressure the provincial government to pony up (again) money for an arena for the town. Lord knows we could use one. Various councils have promised a rink for well over twenty years. The town has set aside money to cover some of the cost, but I don’t see the government writing a cheque anytime soon. (Especially with yesterday’s announcement that they may have to fork over $200 million in clean-up costs for the AbitiBowater expropriation “mistake”. Now that’s a clusterfuck.) Throw in the millions from the province for the two new schools and Paradise is not likely to get more government coin for some time. Lord knows where the pool and fire hall are on the things to do list.

(BTW, if we ever get a rink, The Recycling Bin is as good a name as any. I think it’s kinda catchy. But I digress.)

Government monies – provincial or federal – don’t seem to be in the offing and with the towns go it alone approach long dead, the dream of a new arena will remain just that – a dream. And that’s unfortunate. For a town with a population of over 11,000 people and growing (fastest east of Montreal), you’d think we could afford our own hockey rink. Many smaller towns in the province have their own arena, swimming pool and fire station. Paradise has none of the above. And it’s not like we are a poor town. Far from it. But nope, we can’t afford an arena even though we’re growing so fast. Too fast really. The “let’s put in the 200 home subdivisions and pay for infrastructure later” approach to town planning is not working. Hello? It's no wonder we can’t afford a rink.

But still, if the previous council could build a new multimillion-dollar town hall, couldn’t it find the funds to cover the cost of an arena that would be used by thousands on minor league hockey players? And the longer the town waits, the more expensive the arena will cost. I should point out that I'm not a hockey parent, but there are thousands of them in town. Thousands who will be voting in the next election.

Quite simply, it is just poor planning. (One counsellor I spoke with blamed it on the town planner and another blamed it on former mayor and current provincial cabinet minister, Diane Whalen. I kid you not.) The previous council had a five-year plan (which included building the arena) but what good is a plan if there is no money to carry out said plan. That’s like me promising to take you on a cruise sometime in the next five years - if I win the lottery.

Who knows, maybe the arena money will be announced tomorrow. But like I said, I wouldn't hold my breath.