Dartmouth Centre Councillor Gloria McCluskey said there are better ways for the Halifax 2014 Commonwealth Games bid committee to spend $700,000 than giving $10,000 in grants to support sport in other Commonwealth countries.
She said the decision to offer these grants makes it look like Halifax has lots of money to go around, something she says just isn’t the case.
The Chronicle Herald reports McCluskey saying, “part of the reason we have a lot of kids running around in gangs is because we can’t belong to anything. It’s too expensive. We can’t keep the fields and the recreational facilities that we have affordable to our own young people…you know, charity begins at home”.
The councillor said the grants look like an attempt to “buy your way through”.
Fred MacGillivray, president of Halifax’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid, said the money is not meant to sway the countries in Halifax’s favour.
He said, “it’s meant to show Canada’s commitment to development of sport throughout the Commonwealth, as we have in the past. And we, as an international bid team, want to continue that tradition”.
Jon Doig, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Council of Scotland, said his country isn’t offering a similar grant program. He said, “we’re not offering $10,000 Canadian…to anybody, no. We’re working with countries in different ways”.
The Chronicle Herald reports Doig saying he couldn’t offer any examples of how his bid committee was working with the other members of the Commonwealth.
Meanwhile Councillor McCluskey says she wants next week’s Commonwealth Games budget discussions at Halifax city hall open to the public despite a city staff recommendation that they be held in private.
She said Monday, “I’m going to ask that it be taken out of in camera because people should know what’s going on”.
Games co-ordinator Paul Johnson wrote, “as this is a legal contract negotiation, and given the nature of discussions, it would only seem prudent and in the best interest of the municipal taxpayer that these discussions take place in camera. To publicly release details of the multi-party agreement before it is approved and agreed upon by all partners could place these negotiations in jeopardy”.
