Sudbury councillor outlines his opposition to KED project

A small but passionate crowd at the Northbury Hotel Thursday night heard city councillor Gerry Montpellier explain why he opposes the Kingsway Entertainment District. ( Ian Campbell CTV News Northern Ontario )

A small but passionate crowd at the Northbury Hotel Thursday night heard city councillor Gerry Montpellier explain why he opposes the Kingsway Entertainment District.

The event was billed as an opportunity for taxpayers to ask anything they want about the proposed project.

Montpellier was the keynote speaker for a meeting of the ‘Our Towns Our City Institute.’

It was a chance to ask the councillor questions and to hear all the facts behind the city’s plan to move ahead with the Kingsway Entertainment District (KED), Montpellier said.

"It's been dragging on now for a lot of years, I don't know how many years. As we've gone through the years, people have asked me many questions. I don't know how to say this, but environmentalists look at it one way, economists look at it in another," he said in his opening remarks.

The room was filled with interested participants, a few friends of Montpellier, and members of the Minnow Lake Restoration Group which is taking the city to court over the arena deal.

"In all honesty, people ask me 'what the hell is going on?' So I'm hoping to put this in the box for you," Montpellier said.

Over the course of the evening, he outlined his opposition to the KED.

He spoke about how he was approached with the project through his work with cars and racing, and how that's led him to declare a conflict of interest and abstain from voting on the matter.

Montpellier said his opposition to the development has always been about the use of taxpayer dollars, citing how costs have skyrocketed since COVID-19 and now a war in Ukraine.

"I'm the guy who looks out for our dollar and gets us the best bang for our buck," he said.

He said the current evolution of the project is not what was marketed to city council six years ago.

Montpellier had asked for a pause in the project while things could be re-evaluated and a referendum, both of which were voted down by council.

Ward 1 Councillor Mark Signoretti was the only one of Montpellier's colleagues in attendance. He has also been an opponent of the KED. Signoretti, however, has been supportive in the past of exploring the idea to renovate the current arena downtown.

"Some people are well off and they can afford a tax increase, some aren't in that position," said Signoretti.

"If you look at our population, one third is retired and one third will soon be able to retire. That's a sizeable population that you're relying on to make this happen and where's the money going to come from," he said.

In the end, Montpellier said he was pleased with the turnout.

"The intent was to explain that this thing is very confusing at best. And it was to explain that this information is all available since it's not held in secret. It's just, and I'm going to be a little critical, people don't see the information. It is there," he told CTV News.

The KED hearing involving the City of Greater Sudbury and the Minnow Lake Restoration Group returns to court on April 11.