Why Not Let Abbotsford Minor Sports Use Abbotsford Centre? They’ve Paid For It.
By Mike Archer. When Bruce Banman was busy explaining why he was killing the proposal to build a small low-barrier shelter for homeless men, he went on and on about how the small businesses of the downtown core are the ones who financially support minor hockey and other minor sports.
A few weeks later he announced he was cutting a cheque for $5 million to the Calgary Flames so that they would stop sucking cash out of Abbotsford taxpayers’ pockets. With the hundreds of millions of dollars this City has invested in a gigantic hockey rink and an out-of-town NHL franchise, none of the politicians seemed to notice that, though it was a Parks and Recreation project, and Parks and Rec took all the credit for selling it to voters, made all the promises about the profits we would be making by now and patted itself on the back for fixing Abbotsford’s terrible reputation for Parks and Rec programs … none of Abbotsford’s sports teams were ever able to use the facility.
Drive by the Langley Events Center any day of the week and you will find the parking lots full, the fields full of minor sports teams, and the rink, the basketball courts and the meeting rooms being used by minor sports organizations and community groups … 7-days-a-week!
Since we are no longer investing in Alberta hockey teams, and since we have an empty hockey rink on our hands, is it that much of a stretch to think that maybe our local minor hockey teams and perhaps the Abbotsford Pilots could use the White Elephant on King Road.
I mean it is Abbotsford residents who will be paying for the thing for another generation or two. Wouldn’t it just make sense to let some Abbotsford residents use the place?
If Mayor Banman and city brass could, for just a moment, take their eyes off their determination to defend Abbotsford’s Anti-Homeless Bylaws, sue the homeless and continue pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into punishing, abusing and cleansing the city of its poor, they might realize that the money they are wasting fighting the poor could be spent keeping the lights on at Abbotsford Centre and providing some ice for local sports teams.
Just saying …