Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Nero Made History Doing Nothing":
Let me throw something out to permit a certain perspective to enter into the discussion.
The province of Ontario took the decision to create a showcase and in 1969 set out to build Ontario Place, an internationally-acclaimed cultural, leisure and entertainment parkland on and about three man-made islands along the Lake Ontario waterfront.
Ontario Place opened in May 1971 and featured a five pod pavilion complex, The Forum, pedal boats, a marina, restaurants and the world's first permanent IMAX theatre, Cinesphere.
Construction started on March 17, 1969 and took an estimated 1.5 million person hours of labour to build at a cost of $29,000,000.
The original park consisted of three man-made islands connected by picturesque bridges and walkways with the Pods, or Pavilion, complex and the geodesic dome of the Cinesphere as the focal points.
The park initially encompassed 96 acres of which 51 acres were land fill.
The gate first opened to the public on May 22, 1971.
According to the Bank of Canada inflation calculator $100 in 1971 would be worth $576.06 in 2013. If this factor is applied to the original Ontario Place cost, it would cost $167,000,000 to build in 2013.
Now, for a moment, close your eyes and visualize Ontario Place at the time it was built. And then close your eyes a second time and visualize the Hillary Heritage Park, whose cost seems to have settled somewhere in the order of $22,000,000.
Then say that Ontario Place when built is equal to 7.6 Hillary Heritage parks.
People, park Hillary Heritage Park in the scrap heap of Aurora Council ideas that never came to exist.
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My younger children have many happy memories of days at Ontario Place.
Free parking . Free admission . Great play.... and a concert in the evening. Arthur Fiedler and Sing along with Mitch .
The Cinesphere and the amazing high speed flight skimming the rocks and surface of Northern Lake Superior.
It was a gift of gigantic proportions.
Probably funded with Lottery money.
Which were an embarrassment of riches. Like the first 3% sales tax imposed by the government.
Thursday, 6 February 2014
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11 comments:
My goodness. Aurora doesn't even have a water feature like Unionville & Newmarket. We are so pretentious that it's disgusting. Could we just settle back and pay the bills already incurred ?
Great cartoon in the Globe
From whose febrile mind did the figure of $22 million spring?
Why doesn't the town retain an experienced, and recognizably so, real estate appraiser, and have the two properties valued? And then expropriate them.
And then retain an expert company in heritage building restoration to carry out the work.
Stop all this delegation nonsense. Either do something or get off the pot.
The cost will be whatever it turns out to be. Dreaming about provincial and federal funding is an exercise in futility.
If you build it they will come!
Or they might not.
All I want to know is :
Are there are Protected Trees on the property?
That would add another dimension to the exercise in spending :)
"Why doesn't the town retain an experienced, and recognizably so, real estate appraiser..."
Maybe to extend his/her services to those frothing at the mouth in case they want move out of town.
I am starting to see the picture now. There are years of consultants' reports in the Heritage project. It could be a tidy sum for the planning/land use consultants at the head of the line over at town hall. It comes as no surprise that the authors of the recent report give it the green light.
All of these report will be paid for by the taxpayer.
23:13
Are you really suggesting that those with tenure cede to a group with little staying power who will just go elsewhere if the pickings fail to materialize in Aurora ?
Perhaps it was just your late-night fortified thinking ?
Political Points
Andy Radia
" Are Canadian governments addicted to debts and deficits ? "
Is Aurora ?
10:13, who exactly are "those with tenure," and who do you think comprises the "group" coveting the "pickings" in Aurora?
I do know one of the homeowners involved has family roots here stretching back more than a century and a half. Also, the other landowner grew up in town; living in Aurora longer than Cllr Buck, I believe.
Since you brought up the subject, 10:13, how long have you been an Auroran?
@12:59
Aren't you the whacko who insists that the only thing one can do about Council stupidity is leave town ?
16:11
That is so funny ! If residents left instead of fighting there would have been a mass exodus last term !
!
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