Watching the discussion in council tonight I was struck by the oddest thing. There is nothing wrong with debate, certainly any important decision should have lots of that. The two things that really stuck out for me was:

1) That the 2 sides were not even having the same discussion.

2) How ugly and personal some of the discussion was.

To issue #1.

To hear the alderman share their viewpoints it was not as though they all had a singular position of fact on which they were deciding for or against. Rather what you saw was a series of misunderstanding, misinformation and blatant political grandstanding. It may be a matter of opinion whether or not the city can or should invest X amount of dollars for benefit Z, but the facts surrounding that discussion still do exist and I think everybody making a speech should at least have a passing grasp on what those facts are.

6/9 Alderman by their comments tonight support this statement “I support the events center” - after that though there is little agreement on exactly what the facts of the case are. You can have an opinion about whether something is good or bad, opinions are for subjective things. You cant have an opinion about a fact. The interest rate is X, that is a fact.

You have one alderman claiming that interest rates are too risky and the borrowed money could cost too much money. Then city staff point out that the rate would be set at 4.26% for 25 years and would not change. The fundamental FACTS of the issue actually do exist, and are not subjective or speculative. Yet here were alderman justifying their stance not with the information they paid money to acquire, but with numbers and figures that seemingly come from nowhere, certainly no where they have to justify. You have alderman claiming tonight is the first they have heard for certain aspects of costs. For me that’s just not doing their homework. Shame on them.

At different points tonight 6 alderman agreed that we need to build a new events center. There isn’t a massive disagreement about the benefits, So what are they in disagreement about? One group wants to save money by committing to build it today (4 votes) Another wants to build it when more funds are secured (2 votes) and another says no way no how (3 votes). Is this miles apart? not really.

I can respect that two groups of people thoughtfully disagree on any issue. God Bless you for disagreeing but loving our community as much as I do. However if you are going to stand up and grandstand or write letters to the editor, you have an obligation to make sure you have your facts right.

As for point #2

I have every belief that there are 1000’s of people in Medicine Hat who genuinely believe that the events center is the right direction for our city, that it is a mistake to let the opportunity to bring federal tax money and invest it here in SE Alberta pass us by, and that waiting to build an events center will raise the price needlessly. We know we have to build one, it makes no sense to fix the current arena and I share their view point, though I criticize the pro arena crowd for being unable to package this information in a way that easily communicates the FACTS to the people. The facts do exist but you have to dig for them yourself - and that causes a whole bunch of misunderstanding.

By the same token, I believe that 1000’s of people in Medicine Hat have real concern with the costs and the funding and are worried the city will make a mistake that costs more than we can afford. I don’t share this viewpoint. The reason I don’t share it is because most of the comments surrounding this viewpoint tend to be making conclusions not supported by any of the information and facts available.

In either case though I think both sides are LEGITIMATE - and neither deserve to be completely ignored.

I have heard people against the events center allege a giant organized deception, bribery and ugliness.

I have heard people who support the events center shout down an alderman for changing his vote, or his voting error or whatever that was.

We all share this city with each other. Nobody wakes up every day scheming to screw the city of Medicine Hat and its citizens. I would like to see a debate where people have to justify their viewpoint. If you want to throw facts and figures out prepare to support them, I can do that. If you want to insult people’s integrity or attack their character for disagreeing with your viewpoint - prove that too. This mess that we have now …that’s no way for a city to make decisions. We can do better.