Let us suppose that we want to build a new Niagara Regional Police Headquarters. How would we, the taxpayers and residents, go about making the decision of where to put it to serve Niagara best?
Let us list the desirables first:
- It should be near the population centre.
- It should be on existing and if possible, inexpensive land.
- It should be on adequate public transit to facilitate workers and convenient to the largest number of the public and have affordable / free parking for visitors.
- It should not be hidden away from the public.
- It should be near other civic services.
- It should be built for the lowest possible cost.
- It should be a seamless transition to the new location.
- It should be a completely transparent process with lots of input by the public.
- There should be no loose ends and unanswered questions.
Now let us see what is actually happening by placing it in Niagara Falls:
- It is NOT near the population centre.
- It is NOT on inexpensive land.
- It is NOT on adequate public transit to facilitate workers and convenient to the largest number of the public and have affordable / free parking for visitors.
- It IS hidden away from the general public by being remote to the population centre.
- It is NOT as near other civic services as it is now.
- It appears that it will NOT be built for the lowest possible cost.
- It will NOT be a seamless transition to the new location. It is a long way to relocate that many folks workplace easily.
- It does NOT appear to be a completely transparent process with lots of input by the public.
- There ARE loose ends and unanswered questions.
Clearly all contracts or purchases regarding this new facility should not be executed at this time. In fact, the public should request that the Attorney General of Ontario look into this process immediately.
If this deal was a piece of steak, I certainly wouldn't want to be eating it. Something appears to stink around this.
