{"id":11553,"date":"2015-08-05T15:31:17","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T19:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11553"},"modified":"2015-08-19T15:26:04","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T19:26:04","slug":"politics-as-usual-mortgaging-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-mortgaging-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Mortgaging the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite my initial skepticism, I have to admit I enjoyed the Pan Am games and am looking forward to the Parapan Am games, which start this week.
\nI wasn\u2019t going to attend any of the events, but I ended up at the Pan Am village in Toronto to watch the beach volleyball. \u201cWow,\u201d is all I have to say.
\nThe venues are – in a word – fantastic. The volunteers and staff are helpful and enthusiastic. The crowds are large and exuberant and, of course, the athletic performances are simply not to be missed. From start to finish, it was a great experience.
\nYes, there were some pretty big drawbacks \u2013 not least of which, of course, is the price tag. The actual dollars and cents that it took to put on the games will not be known for a while, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.
\nTraffic was a headache for many, but not for me. I take public transit or my bike virtually everywhere so I did not experience the extra-long commutes that plagued so many.
\nAnd, of course, the ticket prices to the actual events were costly too: Eighty bucks to watch the rowing finals? 50 Bucks to watch the swimming preliminaries? That\u2019s a lot of money for tickets to events that we, as taxpayers, paid for. The average family would be hard pressed to afford one ticketed event let alone multiple.
\nBut, to offset that, there were many, many events which were free: the Panamania events were wonderful. Live music, fireworks \u2013 something for everyone every night.
\nAll in all, it sounds pretty wonderful and, because of the \u201csuccess\u201d of the games, folks are now clamoring for Toronto to put in yet another bid to be a host site for the big show \u2013 the Olympics. It will be Toronto\u2019s fifth attempt.
\nThis is where my enthusiasm for the games stops.
\nThere is no way that Toronto should attempt to host an Olympics. For starters, they wouldn\u2019t even be the host! The GTA would be the host \u2013 as GTA is the host for the Pan Am games. At least half the Pan Am venues are not in Toronto. They are in Milton, Caledon, Markham, Welland, St. Catherines \u2013 so how exactly is Toronto hosting the PANAM games?
\nIt is not Toronto\u2019s decision. It is a GTA decision and yet the GTA municipalities \u2013 and their taxpayers \u2013don\u2019t seem to have any say in the matter.
\nWas the Mayor of Toronto elected on a platform of bringing the Olympics \u2013 and all the costs and headaches associated with it \u2013 to the GTA? I don\u2019t recall that matter coming up during the marathon months of the election. And similarly, as he is musing about putting in another bid, I don\u2019t recall any emergency meeting of his fellow Council members, let alone GTA leaders, to discuss the merits of doing so.
\nWhy the focus on Mayor Tory?
\nI am not clear how it is his decision alone \u2013 a decision that will have an impact on literally millions of people and dozens of municipalities. Just to sign the Letter of Intent will cost a million bucks. To put in a full bid costs 50 to 60 million bucks. Given that price tag and the fact that they have failed four times already, that means that Toronto has already spent upwards of $200 million or so on trying to get the Olympics.
\nBefore we go down that road again, shouldn\u2019t the folks directly affected \u2013 that would be you and I\u2026 you know, the taxpayers \u2013 have some say in whether we want to take on this huge financial burden?
\nI am not some couch potato curmudgeon. I have been involved in sports virtually all of my life. I would love to be directly involved in the Olympics \u2013 to witness an Olympic rowing final would be an experience of a lifetime. But that doesn\u2019t mean I want my tax dollars to go towards bringing them here. I have no right to force future generations to pay for white elephants.
\nRegardless of the shiny happy messages, that is what will happen. Will there be legacy effects from the investment in infrastructure and venues? Absolutely. Case in point, as a result of hosting the Pan Am rowing events, significant investments were made to the Henley course in St Catherines.
\nThe bridge to Henley Island has finally been fixed. That is a $750,000 investment that is well worth it. Residents and rowers alike can now drive over the bridge without crossing their fingers in hopes that it doesn\u2019t collapse.
\nBut other improvements such a new timing system, fibre optic communications, FISA standard buoy system \u2013 these are great for rowers \u2013 but do nothing for the average resident of St. Catherines.
\nAnd that\u2019s my point: who benefits from this massive amount of taxpayers\u2019 largesse? Not the average Joe, that\u2019s for sure. Who will get tickets to these games? Who will get to use the facilities after the Olympics are done? More than likely, it won\u2019t be you and I.
\nBy all accounts, we are heading into a recession. In the coming months, municipal leaders will be forced to make difficult decisions about how to spend dwindling tax dollars.
\nWe have roads that are falling apart, infrastructure that is beyond repair. We have literally thousands of people on a waiting list in the hopes of finding affordable housing. We have food banks that run out of food. Think about that. There are thousands of people right now who have nowhere to live and nothing to eat.
\nSorry, but how can you possibly contemplate spending billions of dollars on a two week event when you have so many other actual priorities. We can look down our nose at Rio Games amidst all that poverty. But really, would we be any different? It\u2019s just a difference in scale.
\nAnd I have raised this issue before in a previous column, but why are additional sites being sought at all? There are fantastic facilities already built; world class facilities gathering dust. Why build more?
\nThat makes no sense \u2013 financially or, frankly, morally.
\nThe responsible decision is to give residents a future, not mortgage it. Bread not circuses indeed.
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is \u2013 after all \u2013 Our Town.<\/p>\n

Brock\u2019s Banter returns next week.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Despite my initial skepticism, I have to admit I enjoyed the Pan Am games and am looking forward to the Parapan Am games, which start this week. I wasn\u2019t going to attend any of the events, but I ended up at the Pan Am village in Toronto to watch the beach volleyball. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-30l","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 01:36:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}