Letter: North doesn’t need more rec facilities

By Letter to the Editor on January 12, 2021.

Dear editor,

The Mayor has been putting out trial balloons for some time to test the waters as to how much push-back he will get to closing neighborhood recreation centres and replacing them with another four sheets of white elephant ice, totally removed from the city proper and the people.

The first white elephant was known as the Canalta Centre (now Co-Op Place) and is under-used. I believe former city fathers were correct in placing rec centers in city neighborhoods to be near the people. They have served us well and have been very well used.

The only recreation facility in the SW/SE Hill area is the Moose Rec Centre. To close that would be a travesty. If any money is spent on a new rec facility it should go in the South side of the city.

Rec facilities are sorely lacking and needed in that part of the city. The north quadrant of the city is already well served by the Leisure Centre. Further, it is high time for the city to provide full disclosure of the annual drain to city coffers that Co-Op Place is costing taxpayers. Before the COVID-19 turmoil, if you please. The word is, the drain is in the millions. Also known as Boucher’s Blunder, building an additional four hockey rinks in that outback close to heavy industry will go down in history as Clugston’s Calamity.

John MacLaren

Medicine Hat

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