I cannot predict whether or not Abbotsford will get an AHL hockey franchise.

What I can predict is that if Abbotsford should get an AHL franchise all the financial dealings and contracts between Abbotsford City Council on behalf of the City of Abbotsford, the investors bringing the franchise to the city and the AHL will be buried deep in the bowels of City Hall and securely hidden from the people who will be footing the cost of the required yearly seven-figure subsidies – the beleaguered and impoverished Abbotsford taxpayer.

I can also predict council will have a multitude of excuses for why they will not or cannot release the information that would allow calculation of how many millions of dollars taxpayers will be required to pay to subsidize any AHL team in order to entice that AHL team to locate in Abbotsford.

AHL President David Andrews made it clear that any Abbotsford team will be responsible to fully subsidize teams increased travel costs to travel to Abbotsford for games. The expense of paying this cost will be in addition to the increased travel costs a team located in Abbotsford will face in travelling to away games.

Simple mathematics reveals that covering increased travel costs will require 1 – 2 million dollars a season. Where is that money going to come from? Where else but Abbotsford taxpayers?

There are numerous other costs and subsidies I can think of that could well end up coming out of Abbotsford taxpayer pockets in order to entice a hockey team to Abbotsford.

Which is why full disclosure on all the costs and contracts connected and/or associated with the new arena complex and its operations is required. While it may be publicly embarrassing to leave the new arena dark, it is likely the most economically and financially sound decision to make.

With the economy in the worsening shape it is, the besieged taxpayers of Abbotsford simply cannot afford to pour millions of dollars of operating subsidies into the arena every year on top of the millions paid out in debt and interest repayments for sole purpose of allowing council to save face.

I usually park in the Yale high school lot when I go to ARC to swim my lengths since it is a shorter walk to the “(old) pool front desk” – unless the weather is sufficiently bad as to encourage me to use the new underground parking space.

The last time I used the underground parking rain was coming down in a deluge and as I walked down the ramp to the ice and pool area I had to walk around the water dribbling down the ramp and the bucket set out to catch water leaking through the brand new roof.

Monday’s strong winds encouraged me to take advantage of the shelter from the wind the underground parking offered my poor old car. Finished swimming my lengths I rode the elevator down to the parking level and as I stepped out of the elevator I found myself once again stepping around a wet spot on the floor, in this case a growing puddle.

I found myself looking at the ceiling where the water was dripping from and wondering exactly where the water was coming from. I had just walked across the floor upstairs, directly above the spot were the water was dripping down from the ceiling to the floor, and it was dry. The water was dripping from (through? out of?) the bare, poured concrete ceiling.

Water dripping from (through? out of?) a poured concrete ceiling in a spot well inside the confines of the building and under a spot where the floor upstairs above was dry sent me back up the elevator to report the leak and growing puddle to staff at the “new front desk”.

Since they did not come down to check the matter out in the 5 -10 minutes I spent trying to get a decent picture using my cell phone (I need a newer, better camera cell phone) I cannot say what staff’s reaction to the leak was.

The two gentlemen who came down the elevator and stopped to look at the ceiling and floor also wondered just where the water was coming from (through? out of?).

They also shared my less than impressed opinion on the workmanship standards this leak evidenced; especially since the dripped water was running along the cracks, thus highlighting the cracks/cracking, in the brand new poured concrete floor.

I am currently contemplating avoiding the underground parking and confining my activities at ARC to the time-tested solid “old ARC”.

As well as wondering “We paid how much for this?” and “Whatever happened to quality control and pride of workmanship?”

Caveat emptor I suppose.

Reading Kevin Mills opinion on the Abbotsford election results makes one thing clear – why he is not reporting on financial matters.

“Council also stated that any overruns would be paid for through reserves.” No council swore up and down that the $85 million was all the projects would cost and that the contracts would be written to guarantee that the cost did not go over $85 million.

It was not until council was caught playing fast and loose with costs they were aware of but concealed that talk turned to those costs and any overruns (despite council swearing there would be no such overruns) being covered out of reserves.

Mr. Mills apparently shares the councillor’s view that reserves magically appear, as opposed to the financial reality that reserves also come out of taxpayer’s pockets.

Mr. Mills is certainly entitled to be happy with the fact we got no federal funding because council did not bother to ask the federal government for funding and that we did not get any provincial funds because they did not bother to contact our local MLAs and the province in a timely matter.

However, Mr. Mills has no right to deny other taxpayers the right to be angry about the mismanagement and being stuck paying the extra $$$ tens of millions.

Mr. Mills further demonstrates his lack of logic and attention to detail with his statement “I see a trend here!” in reference to Christine Caldwell not being re-elected because of writing a letter opposing Plan A. If, as Mr. Mills implies, voters were so supportive of Plan A as to be punishing those who were not mindless supporters, how was it that Mr. Gill who voted against the budget in opposing Plan A got re-elected?

Mr. Mills crowning piece of illogic is his assertion that opposition to Plan A was a desire “… to move backwards instead of forwards…”. To anyone who takes the time to review the positions and statements made by myself and others who opposed Plan A it was not a matter of moving backwards but of how we move forwards.

Mr. Mills evidently does not grasp the concepts that taxpayers should have control of the design of capital projects; of the need for priorities that include not just entertainment projects but the nitty-gritty capital projects such as sewer and water on which a big city runs; that good fiscal management of a big city includes making the effort to exhaust all funding possibilities to reduce the tax burden imposed on citizens; or that having become a big city capital projects should be part of a long term infrastructure development plan – not a rushed and hastily thrown together massive expenditure of taxpayers funds.

In extolling all these new and wonderful buildings Mr. Mills ignores the consequences that paying for these buildings are going to have on the city and taxpayers personally, especially in light of the harsh economic reality that is emerging around the world as the bill for years of living beyond our means on borrowed money comes due.

The one point Mr. Mills was correct on is that, as is always the case, the future will reveal what the results and consequences of Plan A are and so enable us to judge what actions should (or should not) have been taken.

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By Kevin Mills – Abbotsford News November 17

As I sat at my computer, waiting impatiently for the City of Abbotsford to post the results of Saturday night’s municipal election, I started to wonder if all those letter writers would be right.
Anyone who reads the letters to the editor on a regular basis will remember all the protests and gnashing of teeth surrounding the Plan A projects. It’s still going on.
Letter writers, who in a previous column I dubbed the vocal minority, yelled out that voters would make city council pay for these projects and tax hikes – that apparently nobody wanted.
Of course you have to ignore the fact that we, the voting public, said yes to the projects in a referendum. We agreed to let the city borrow $85 million for the projects. Council also stated that any overruns would be paid for through reserves. If you go to the museum archives and read the stories in The News, you may discover that the city has said that repeatedly.
But I digress.
Despite a vote in favour of Plan A, the vocal minority raised their voices in anguish and declared an ultimatum. Many stated, in print, that voters would make the council pay by getting rid of them and voting in new councillors. Yes, the public would have its revenge.
Late Saturday night, when the results finally came in, voters had re-elected six of the seven incumbent councillors who ran for office.
Let me say that in a simple way so no one misunderstands. The seven people who ran for office were already on council when Plan A was approved.
Abbotsford voters re-elected six of them, giving them a vote of confidence for what they have been doing for the past three years.
I guess the vocal minority really showed them.
The only incumbent candidate who didn’t get re-elected was Christine Caldwell, who just before the final Plan A vote, before leaving on vacation, wrote a letter stating she had partially changed her mind on Plan A and was against the arena.
So voters got rid of a councillor who was against the largest part of Plan A.
I see a trend here!
Our new mayor, George Peary, has stated in The News that he believes council was correct for supporting and approving Plan A – and he won in a landslide.
It’s time for a reality check people. The city is changing and the majority of voters want an arts centre, they want a better recreation centre, they want a sports complex!
Abbotsford is a city on the grow and this election proves, that despite the naysayers, despite those who want to move backwards instead of forwards, despite the always vocal minority, we are a big city now.
Abbotsford’s future looks brighter than ever – a new hospital, a new university, an arts centre, a huge recreation centre and a soon-to-be-open sports complex. I can’t wait to see what the future brings.
Whatever it is, it will be nothing to complain about!

Crime, grow-ops, gangs, increasing violence, murder capital of Canada, homelessness, addiction, poverty, mental illness, affordable housing, hunger/lack of food, children going to bed hungry, sewage infrastructure, drinking water infrastructure, tire eating roads, paving, line painting or repainting, highest municipal tax levels in the lower mainland, $10 million for warehouse space labeled as a Cultural Centre, millions of dollar$ in cost over runs, etc. etc. etc. …

Abbotsford is deteriorating under council’s mismanagement; people are complaining about increasing tax levels, about large tax increases, crime, social problems etc; yet citizens choose to re-elect the very people responsible for the problems as if they expect them to act differently and solve problems rather than continuing to create/worsen problems.

A.A. has a saying concerning repeating the same action (electing, re-electing councilors) over and over again, expecting or hoping for a different outcome.

That is the definition of insanity.

I had to laugh, to avoid crying as I walked into ARC through the new addition for the first time Friday.

With an all-candidates meeting on Friday night I had to swim early, before Yale high school was out, and found myself parking beneath the new extension.

After walking up the fire escape stairs because the elevator was out-of-service due to malfunction, I turned to head down the ramp to head into the old building and the pool and found myself walking around the bucket set out to catch the water leaking into our new recreation facility through its brand new roof.

I also had to step carefully so as not to slip in the two rivulets of water that ran down the ramp.

It was very lucky for our current council that their rushed pre-election grand opening was on a dry non-rainy day. The public would probably have been considerably less impressed if it had been raining and they had to walk around or carefully to avoid the leaks in their expensive new roof.