“Is it true that the Whitney Forum loses half-a-million bucks a year?”
Several residents have posed that query to me in recent years. I expect to hear it a few more times given the apparent financial pressures on city hall.
At the risk of sounding like a politician, I don’t accept the premise of the question.
If you want to know what the Whitney Forum costs Flin Flon taxpayers each year, yes, that figure is about $500,000, give or take.
But to frame this as a “loss” – as though an arena and curling rink in a small northern community should be a for-profit venture akin to a taco stand – strikes me as unseemly.
The Whitney, as it is affectionately known, is a municipal service. It’s a venue for hockey games, curling bonspiels, figure skaters, concerts, graduations and the like.
I haven’t had anyone ask me whether the Green Street roadway “loses” money. Or the outdoor rink on Steventon Boulevard. Or the equipment that treats our drinking water to make it safe.
All of those things exist because public money – sometimes a lot of it – was allocated for the purpose of improving our lives. The fact that they fail to generate cash in return, like a stock investment, doesn’t seem strange to anyone.
Should the Whitney be placed in a different category simply because there are residents who do not personally use this facility?
The truth is that there are probably eight million things we as Canadians pay for that we never personally use or even see much benefit in.
I’m paying federal taxes for fighter jets to bomb Syria, even though I consider it a fruitless, imprecise bid to exhume serenity from chaos in a hopeless part of the world.
I’m paying provincial taxes to prop up a Manitoba government that vows to “fight” mining-related closures in Thompson but is far less ambitious, if not completely silent, when challenging times hit the industry in my own community of Flin Flon.
And I’m paying municipal taxes to have city workers literally stop me from getting to work in time by leaving their heavy equipment blocking my driveway while they went to Lord-knows-where. (Okay, that was two or three years ago, but I’m still healing).
The point is, none of us gets everything we want out of our tax dollars. Heck, I’d be surprised if there’s a person alive who feels they get even 75 per cent of what they want.
Democracy is messy, and each of us finds ourselves in the minority on some questions of spending and in the majority on others.
It is fair to say that the dramatic rise in Flin Flon property taxes over the last half-dozen years has caused more residents to pay attention to how their money is spent.
Hence the questions about the Whitney, and other public facilities, “losing” money.
I was among nearly 1,800 residents at last week’s Hockey Night in the North, a Bomber game whose attendance was free thanks to sponsors.
The vibe in that arena was out of this world. Not to get mushy on you, but you could feel the sense of community. The fact that four per cent of municipal spending is needed to keep the Whitney open was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.
Of course city council should still ask questions about the expense of public facilities. As much as I’ve been asked about “losses” at the Whitney, I’ve also been asked why the facility must stay “open” when no events are scheduled.
Such queries aside, the Whitney functions quite well while leaving 96 per cent of the city budget untouched.
I’m as concerned about taxes at all levels as anyone. But you know what? I can live with $500,000 in “losses” at one of the cornerstones of Flin Flon.
Local Angle is published on Fridays.
