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Background History on Sudbury's greatest financial fiasco The KED Proposal and Demise Special Note: As a public service this website presents historical material related to the Kingsway Entertainment District (KED) the most expensive endeavor ever undertaken in the history of the City. Due to the City Council decision on July 12th of 2022 to abandon the construction of a new arena on the Kingsway site the divisive project is now effectively "dead". For those interested this information will remain available as it details extensive material related to the issue that has caused so much concern for a number of years for so many citizens. The Divisional Court rejected an application by the Minnow Lake Restoration Group which experienced the same fate as other appeals previous (a total of 12, more than another other for a civic project in the province) Also public meetings in which most spoke against the project and a petition of over 3,500 names was ignored. The MLRG application and an appeal was filed in 2022 but also rejected but no reason given. It is felt that the courts were reluctant to overturn decisions by a municipality, even one that was only approved by a majority of one. Nevertheless our action resulted in the city deciding due to financial restraints to cancel the project in responding to the information requested by councillors and in particular Councillor Landry Altman who asked for financial information which was provided by staff indicating the cost had growth from an original $60 million to a budgeted and borrowed $100 million and finally an estimated $250 million. A motion to borrow another $150 million was turned down. A request has been made to review the KED a "post mortem" here Letter in Sudbury Star - May 2023 KED Resource Material - Application - Response Media Releases - Other Information Copy of the "factum" statement of facts and argument sent to the court on behalf of Minnow Lake can be accessed here City of Greater Sudbury responding record document here. Why this court action? Because not all relevant information with respect to the KED was made available to city Councillors in order for them to make an informed decision on the project – to quote Councillor McIntosh “ I think it’s only fair that we get our questions answered” Councillor McCausland in a published letter said "I feel now that we were lied to”. Other Councillors also expressed concern especially as the Mayor and senior staff had assured council that all information would be provided. Lacking in particular was an economic impact study and review of environmental concerns. For further details click on the access to the court documents above. The case was held via Zoom on April 11th 2022 and many members of the public plus city staff attended but could not participate. No decision as of June 1st 2022 Decision in Sudbury Court Case could affect other communities Trevor Farrow, a professor, and former Associate Dean at the Osgood Hall Law School said “this is not a small issue. It may seem like a neighborhood issue in Sudbury, but it is important across the province. The matter is about public trust and confidence in elected officials. You have got to be able to trust your decision-making officials, this is the kind of thing the court cares about. You have to be able to trust your officials and have faith in the regime we've set up, and that's ultimately what the court cares about" Links to local News News and related stories and Media Releases below: NEW: Latest media release with updated information of interest can be accessed here Real Cost of KED exposed (letter) plus full report here Learning from Mistakes of others For Review: UrbanMetrics KED Economic and Financial Analysis here City proceeds at potential peril Oct 9th 2021.pdf Anti-KED Group says City continues to Hide Information City court filing confirms MLRG claims - Nov. 18th 2021 Petition presented to City Council Patrick Crowe concerned comments How did we arrive at this point in time with respect to the biggest possible expenditure in the history of Sudbury and that has created so much dissention throughout the community? To find out click here. There has been a lot of expressed concern over the Big Projects proposed by city council which we have provided on this site which you can review. Thanks for your interest. An on-line petition has been created - sign up at: www.change.org/stoptheKED
More information? Comparison of site locations for a new arena proposed for the Kingsway vs downtown Sudbury - the matrix can be accessed here: A video with Tom Price of Our Towns - Our City Institute explains further: https://youtu.be/BCjrSikDJjc A tale of two cities – which one is the most responsible?
Sudbury: build a new $114 arena (PwC latest estimate) outside the city core – no plans for existing building. Hamilton: Renovate existing downtown arena including “a new exterior façade, videoboard, comprehensive transformation of the lower level, expanded concourse level and a new flexible curtaining system for the upper bowl balcony” – cost $50 million.
Concern re spending on big blunders and who speaks for the city? here Two more newspaper items of importance here and here More and more citizens are expressing their concern like Vicki McGauley in her "Breaking my heart" piece. Those in favour of the KED like the most vocal Councillor Robert Kirwan have only unsubstantiated claims of job and tax creation and ignore all the evidence to the contrary. Why? Tom Price on Buzz Words here and Unknowns here Truth and Consequences - KED spending excess revealed with Tom Price in July 2021 https://youtu.be/0f7_0UNq17A 3rdLine Studio, local architectural firm developed a plan to renovate the present arena click here A video from July2021 with Tom Price updating the issue: https://youtu.be/RuNTgVx4H5k City Councillor McCausland feels he was lied to by Mayor and we agree: Column: 'I feel now that we were lied to' | Sudbury Star (thesudburystar.com) Mayor promises full information on KED at 2.54 of the video click below: https://livestream.com/greatersudbury/events/9505314 Or for condensed version: https://youtu.be/FdqR0CvnfvU Also hear CBC radio story with Mayor's statement click link below: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/arena-location-kingsway-entertainment-district-1.5871065 Feb. Ninth Council Meeting … Discussion re Review of Event Centre (KED) begins at 1.13 on video .. reference to what to be included in review at 2.43.30 and Mayor statement - click link below: https://livestream.com/greatersudbury/events/9505314 City moves ahead on Project regardless of concerns here Related to above - Council Meeting "disaster" here Our town Our City has concerns about the pollution threat of the KED on Ramsey Lake Water Supply: For more info click here Video explaining Killer KED report: https://youtu.be/rbvePP1PFQ0 Report on Salt Threat to Ramsey Lake: https://youtu.be/nbC7p4xRiuc Citizen Input - samples that deserves to be read: Citizen Ian Berdusco 12 reasons to rethink KED etc. click here Comments from Art Peach here. Two other citizens express valid concerns of importance here More citizens comments - published letters July 30th here Published letter on KED realities here Tom Price KED Chaos needs resolution here Listing of correspondence etc. here History: Submission to the LPAT re the KED click here Other options for the Kingsway Property by Tom Price here Below are expense records requested from the city for the KED and also the Junction Projects East and West. Staff had only reported totals to Council and we felt a more detailed accounting was required. You will note that not all expenses were listed - We hope councilors will ask for more explanation. Freedom of Information Expense Request Reply for KED here Supplied redacted list of KED expenses here Other Concerns As do others we oppose the Junction Projects both East and West and in particular the plans for a new library and Art Gallery: See reasons here Junction Freedom on Information Expenses reply and report here here We have serious doubts about the proposed twin pad arena for the Valley replacing valuable and accessible community arenas Other Information of Interest concerning Community Issues here
We value your opinion: Please e-mail to: thomas.price143@gmail.com If you have concerns call your councillor and express your opinion directly and write a letter to editor: sud.letters@sunmedia.ca and mgentili@sudbury.com Note: If you cannot access the back arrow to return to previous pages right click and then "back" What is Friendly Sudbury?
The bilingual "Friendly Sudbury" logo in city colours with a border of blue representing our many lakes projects our city image of being clean and green. We would like to see our City to be: Age Friendly, Arts Friendly, Business Friendly, City Hall Friendly, Cycle Friendly, Disability Friendly, Environmentally Friendly, Ethnic Friendly, Gender Friendly, Health Friendly, Lake Friendly, Park Friendly, Pedestrian Friendly, Shopping Friendly, Sports Friendly and Visitor Friendly. You can help make it so! Consider visiting these Friendly Sudbury websites: www.seesudbury.ca www.yessudbury.ca www.minnowlake.ca www.liveablesudbury.org www.gswa.ca FriendlySudbury also hosts:
For information on Sudbury Citizens for Safety please click here.
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