The Clr. is expressing concern that British and American firms are among those who have appeared on the short list of firms who will potentially design and build the new version of Ivor Wynne ala Pan Am.
Staff maintain that firms appear on the short list based on the technical and financial quality of their proposals.Ferguson worries that "bureaucracy has gotten in the way of common sense".
Are you in the Clr's camp on this one, agreeing that preference should be given to Canadian construction companies? Should that be a weighted criterion, when considering proposals? Or, are you of the view that the most qualified should prevail, regardless of place of origin?
I'd certainly agree with Councillor Ferguson that bureaucrats in the Pan Am camp, and in the City of Hamilton camp, are operating with minimal transparency.
ReplyDeleteThis whole Pan Am process has been oddly suspicious from Day One.
It would be my fear that the ultimate costs will be be much more than necessary and the end product, the stadium, will not be as good as it should be for the expenditures involved.
This Pan Am event has been continually tainted with secrecy, with deals done behind closed doors, with continually drop dead deadlines that just pass, and with little accountability.
And ultimately, the money being spent is really to benefit a private company, the Tiger Cats - the Pan Am use is merely coincidental.
As murky as the details of the stadium costs are, even murkier are any details as to how this stadium will actually be of benefit to the public generally.
Kudos to Lloyd for speaking out.
I agree 100% with Brian Henley on this one. At least this particular councillor is asking some questions. I don't think that these moves would be good for Hamilton over the medium to long term. I think we will be saddled with the legacy of these mis-steps.
ReplyDeleteSorce
Excluding other than Canadian companies from competing in the process of building the stadium might be against any Trade agreements sign by our government. Usually Trade agreements' discussions are well below the radar screens of many of us.For the city of Toronto, the province of Ontario purchased foreign built transit cars instead of favoring the North Bay Ontario built cars. How's that one. In the news recently the Province of Ontario provided an incentive of$10,0000,000 to an out of country frozen pizza manufacturer while doing nothing for the Ontario resident manufacturer. While high employment is rampant,the provincial liberals will subsidized employers that employ new immigrants leaving not so new immigrants on a different footing. In my mind there is so much of brazen ill made decisions by people in authority, enough to fear for the future of my children.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lloyd. I rthink he should change his picture on the city web site. this looks like it was taken 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteYves, you hit the nail on the head, trade agreements! We the people have no input into this process. Yes with our so called democracy, it gives us the illusion that our representatives are looking out for our best interests.
ReplyDeleteIf that was so true, then how come so many people do not vote, they no longer believe any of the parties and thier political messaging? How can you be a target audience for our leaders, that is the big question to solve!