When it comes to the downtown area, what is the return on our investment?

Whether it be capital, operations or subsidies, are we getting are monies worth?

Capital expenses are enormous. Spending 230 million on Riverlands, to relocate the civic yards, re-align roads, upgrade services, demolish buildings to give us a 23 acre starting point.. Add in the new arena, the proposed Aquatic Centre and the proposed concert hall and we are looking at a 500 million dollar capital investment before interest in the next few years.

Throw in subsidies like entertainment, shows and parking. Toss in maintenance, law enforcement and advertisements and you start to wonder if we are getting fair return for our tax dollars?

Intensive tax-funded man power, time and expenses goes into the downtown, so how does it compare with the revenue side?

Law enforcement appears to be heavily weighted to the downtown. If 30% of our law enforcement budget goes into the downtown, does the city get 30% of our tax revenue from downtown? No not even close.

I am not totally against having a nice downtown, but like most people I do not spend much time downtown. Making the downtown such a high priority at the expense of other sections of Red Deer, does disturb me.

If we were to look at Edgar Industrial Park, my sense is that the Return on Investment is high, that the tax revenue far exceeds the expense to the city. That same sense tells me for downtown the expense to the city far exceeds the revenue.

The city is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to bring 23 acres to market, how much will they spend to bring 3,000 acres north of 11a to market? Downtown they want to spend millions on trails, millions to paint the old railroad bridge, tens of millions on a pedestrian bridge only a few hundred meters from Taylor bridge. They spent millions on extras on the bus terminal. 10s of millions rebuilding the arena, without asking if it was still in the right place. They want to spend 100s of millions on buildings like the Aquatic Centre and a concert hall downtown.

For the 3000 acres north of 11a, where they expect 20,000 plus new residents, the city will spend “0” dollars on a swimming pool, zero dollars on an indoor ice rink, they are not even planning on building a high school.

High return for their investment north of 11a and a negative return on their investment downtown for many years to come. Like areas like Edgar Industrial Park, North of 11a will subsidize the downtown. I guess we should be happy with that, but I am not. Are you?

It is nice to have a downtown, would it not be nicer to build facilities in other areas, where they are needed but cannot be built because the city over extended itself downtown? I wonder who else may feel this way.

Thank you.