Modest Proposals

I spend my Monday evenings at the curling rink instead of at town hall, but I send a reporter, and some of the stuff she hears there is very interesting indeed.

I looked back over the stories in the last year about casinos and to catch you up, here's the briefest of thumbnail sketches of what has happened so far:

-Province offers consideration for gaming in our neighbourhood.
-Clearview says no
-Springwater says no
-Collingwood says no
-Wasaga leaps at the chance.
-Collingwood councillors defer saying whether they approve of casinos for the neighbourhood in general.
-Presentation last night will lead to a vote on approval in principle for a casino within a resort.

*sound of screeching tires*

Was this presentation actually an announcement of a massive new resort development in Collingwood?

If so, I hope it goes better than the massive resort development announced for the waterfront in Wasaga Beach a few years ago. You haven't stayed at that hotel yet? Me, neither.

Cast your mind back to the 'vision' presented to Wasaga in 2007. It was going to be massive. A resort, with an indoor ski hill and hotel rooms and a conference centre with views of the lake. It was going to cost $50 million to build and reveal Wasaga as the jewel it really is! The court cases involving the bankruptcy and fire continue.

If I heard correctly last night from Collingwood, an 'integrated resort' would be massive, too. This one would cost $200 million to build, have a thousand employees, each of whom would be paid more than $40,000 a year. All it needs is 30 acres and support from the town. Is there a 30-acre parcel of land within town limits that could hold such a thing? If so, where?

Here's my modest proposal: put it on top of the terminal building!