City taxpayers lose while UPEI gains

Almost hidden under the furor of the recent provincial election and the Stanley Cup playoffs, the City of Charlottetown quietly announced recently that it had paid off the remaining $3-million capital debt of the CARI project at UPEI.

At the time the project was announced for the new rinks and swimming pools, I suggested building the complex on the UPEI campus might not be the best location because, in time, the university would control the complex and hence own it.

Regardless of which way one flips the figures, UPEI president Wade MacLauchlan has a $24-million-plus rink/pool facility on campus which cost the university slightly more than $2 million, quite a coup for the university president.