Show Me The Money

A coming event is being publicised.... intended to stimulate and revitalise the economy in the GTA. Mayor Hazel and John Honderich are co-sponsors. I'm always looking for ideas that might lead to something good for the town. It's a habit hard to break.

The happening is on May 7th at the new Seneca Campus in Markham. It would be handy. But wait... It costs $325. a person to participate. Aw heck! I've never seen a conference yet worth that amount of money for a day. There was a time when municipal people invited in to be briefed on something or other , the province paid the freight.

I saw a blurb in the Saturday Star. The Province is contributing $100,000 to facilitate the project.

The idea came from a proposal in a commentary to The Toronto Star last December by Stephen Del Duca, a one-time political operative in former MPP Greg Sorbara's office. Mr. Del Duca is currently Director of Public Affairs for the Carpenters Union.

Two hundred and fifty people are expected to attend the event. At $325. a pop.The Toronto Board of Trade is involved.

It occurred to me, as I was putting two and two together, Board of Trade involvement probably means sponsorships. I called their number for an answer to that question. And learned yes indeed .

It seems everyone connected was involved at a meeting this morning. I finally managed to speak to someone who knew the answer . He thought it would be alright to give names of sponsors but not amounts .

It was not exactly a refusal to reveal. He didn't know the tally. It just seemed to him it would not be public information. He did outline a few of the many expenses for organising an event like this. It 's happening at the new York Region Campus of Seneca College at Highway 404 and 7 on May 7th. That's a Thursday. It's a public institution. What chance fees might be waived, I wonder.

Now....let me be absolutely clear and transparent. I am not telling any reader what to think about the event and the fee to attend. My exercise this morning was to find out what an event like that cost so that I could understand why the fee to participate would be $325.

I hadn't even started to wonder what might be accomplished with all that expensive endeavour.

Holy Smoke !