Kamloops residents let their mayor and city council know how they feel about a proposed downtown performing arts centre last Saturday, voting 54 per cent against borrowing $49 million to help build the $90-million facility.
Turnout was the usual pathetic numbers for municipal affairs, with just 32 per cent of eligible voters bothering to take a few minutes to cast a ballot.
A compelling case had been made to support the project:
76 full-time jobs during construction.
64 ongoing direct and indirect jobs.
$11 million ongoing annual economic impact, on top of the $101 million contribution to the local economy during construction.
No deferred road work or repairs because the project was being funded by tax dollars outside the capital budget, along with federal grants, gaming money, parking revenue and donor support.
A non-profit society would have operated the facility at no further cost to taxpayers except for two tax increases of one per cent each in 2016 and 2017. That two per cent increase worked out to about $38 per year for the average household.
As Mel Rothenburger, the "armchair mayor" in Kamloops declared online, this project is dead in the water for at least 10 years, probably longer. By then, the available downtown land will be gone and the price will have gone way up.
There is a lesson here for Prince George mayor and council (all nine members of Kamloops city council publicly supported their performing arts centre project) and for the advocates behind the Prince George proposal.
The cool and reserved support past and previous city councils have given towards the local project should remain.
The mayor and councillors have their ears to the ground enough to hear the ambivalence most Prince George taxpayers have towards a performing arts centre without someone else (the provincial and/or federal governments and/or the private sector) carrying the bulk of the financial burden.
Furthermore, it's hard to imagine how city council would be impressed with some of the nonsense coming from members of the local arts community and the performing arts centre society.
Arts groups have been squabbling with one another for everything from space and exclusive use to operating authority and first rights in the still-imaginary building.
Instead of a willingness to imagine a Prince George performing arts centre in different forms and locations (a renovated Vanier Hall or an add-on to the new Duchess Park when the school was still in the planning stages) at a reduced cost, many of the proponents have taken the all-or-nothing approach for a downtown, stand-alone facility.
Nothing it is, then, and nothing it's likely to stay. Nobody wins and everybody loses with that mentality.
There are big dollars to be had in the arts and entertainment business and the city is already realizing some of those opportunities.
The major concerts and trade shows coming through CN Centre are huge regional draws, attracting traffic to Prince George from across the region. Artisans from across Canada compete to sell their wares at the annual Studio Fair, held two weeks ago at the Civic Centre, and area residents respond to the quality of the workmanship with their open wallets.
The support for all kinds of live entertainment - be it comedians at Nancy O's or productions by Judy Russell and Theatre Northwest - remains strong.
A performing arts centre would bring in further economic gains while also providing another venue to help recruit and retain doctors, specialists, academics and other professionals considering Prince George.
A performing arts centre remains a great idea but it needs better cooperation among the arts groups, a stronger willingness to explore other, less-utopian outcomes, particularly on the cost and location fronts, and most of all, a compelling, inclusive story to sell the product.
Taxpayers should be seen as investors who rightfully expect a handsome return, not as unwashed masses sitting on an endless pile of money.
If it can't meet those basic requirements, a local performing arts centre deserves nothing more than "wouldn't it be nice?" conversations and admiration of the artistry that went into the conceptual drawings.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
