Surely G.H. Chandler is not suggesting that water, roads, sewage, facility fees that are affordable for families and the average citizen are more important than Abbotsford city council’s ego projects?

How could G.H. Chandler possibly expect council to put the needs of Abbotsford’s taxpayers, the need for significant investments in water delivery and other infrastructure for the City of Abbotsford, ahead of the need of council to assuage their ego’s?

With Chilliwack having the Prospera Centre and the WHA Bruins hockey team; with Langley building their Event Centre for the BCHL Langley Chiefs (after Abbotsford Council sent the Chiefs on down the road) – how could Abbotsford city councillors be expected to hold their heads up proudly unless they built the AESC and acquired a hockey team, whatever the cost to taxpayers?

Undoubtedly G.H. Chandler (or other voters) will be pleased to know that their hard earned tax dollars are not going to support the Calgary Flames since Calgary does not own the Heat.

No the millions of dollars of taxpayer funded subsidies go into the pockets of those favoured local citizens who make up the ownership group of the Abbotsford Heat. And why should the ownership group of the Heat be expected to assume any of the risk of owning an AHL team when Abbotsford’s city council is willing to make the taxpayers of Abbotsford liable for all the risk?

Think how embarrassing it would have been for city council if they hadn’t put the taxpayers of Abbotsford on the hook for $57 million and therefore had no hockey team, leaving city council with an embarrassingly empty arena. Is G.H. Chandler daring to suggesting that saving the taxpayers $million$ of dollars in yearly operating costs and subsidies to the Heat ownership should have been a higher priority for city council than saving face?

Is it reasonable to expect council to feel that solid management, prudent planning and financially sound behaviour are higher priorities than ego projects?

Pshaw. If council made a priority of solid management, prudent planning and financially sound behaviour the city would not be at its current risk of insolvency or running out of water and there would be no need for city council and staff to be offering bribes in a desperate bid to get developers to build in Abbotsford.