Ottawa: Dithering Capital

The City of Ottawa should never be accused of knee-jerk decision-making. Just consider how long it took before making a decision on both the light-rail and Lansdowne projects. If there was an award for dithering however, I believe our city would prevail on an ongoing basis. The indecisiveness that now reigns over what to do with the Ottawa Stadium is probably less about making a prudent financial decision than it is about a fixated tunnel vision with baseball being at the far end. As the city seeks ways to minimize the impact on taxpayers in bringing baseball back to the city, they do not seem to be providing an equal amount of attention to exploring alternate and perhaps more profitable uses for that site. Given the recent history of baseball in our city, there are too many red flags to ignore. The financial risk associated with baseball does not appear to be in the best interests of taxpayers. Perhaps the prolonged dithering over baseball in this instance should be interpreted as an indication the city needs to look at a more financially reliable long-term development strategy for the stadium property.