With the municipal election campaign in full swing, the Sudbury race is seeing a lot of focus on the planned new arena and entertainment district.
The city is pushing forward and is prepping the land owned by the developer at a cost of $8-million. That's raising the eyebrows of several mayoral candidates because there's still a provincial appeal to be heard.
Sudbury’s Mayor, Brian Bigger, originally backed a downtown location for a new taxpayer funded arena, but as the vote played out in council last year, he changed sides.
"I supported the decision of all of the councillors that represent constituents around our community." said Bigger.
The incumbent mayor has embraced the Kingsway location, something that could play well in the October election.
"It is important that we continue to move forward… part of the understanding is that we're working in partnership and there are a number of partners on that site." said Bigger.
But among his fellow candidates, it's not winning him much favour.
Many candidates are actively campaigning against the Kingsway entertainment district. And even some who support the plan or are on the fence, don't seem to mind criticizing the mayor over the process and the money.
With construction on hold, pending the outcome of the appeals, the city is still going ahead with more than $8-million of prep work on the land, which is irresponsible to some.
"We're going to spend eight plus million dollars on a developer's land without knowing the outcome of the appeals." said Sudbury city councillor, Mark Signoretti.
He worries that will tie the hands of the next council.
"We'll move a project forward so far that you can't overturn it, even if you want to." said Signoretti.
At least three mayoral candidates agree:
"Spending $8.5-million of taxpayer's money to prepare private property that hasn't even yet been zoned for an arena is the height of fiscal incompetence." said Bill Crumplin.
"To expend $8.5-million without the clarity of the LPAT rulings, and for the sole purpose of expediting the [project], does not fit the definition of financial prudence." said Dan Melanson.
"It's irresponsible. The city will have no power to negotiate after it spends $8-million on preparing a site they don't even own. This can go south very quickly." said Patricia Mills.
But the current mayor says it's easy to criticize from the outside looking in.
"Part of the understanding is that we're working in partnership and there are a number of partners on that site.There's a lot of misinformation out there and perhaps they haven't actually watched the council meetings or actually reviewed the materials that all of council have." said Bigger.
The Kingsway isn't taking a back seat in the campaign any time soon.
Developer Dario Zulich said he's happy the election is becoming a referendum on the Kingsway entertainment district and he's challenging all candidates running in the race to declare which side of the fence they're standing on.
