The Editor,
To put it mildly there is something a bit bizarre about the figures Mayor Brodie keeps touting about his beloved "Owe-Val."
First of all, he claims 600,000 tourists visited the Owe-Val last year.
If it is open every day of the year, this means that about 1,700 tourists visited every day or, for a working day from 7 a.m. till 11 p.m., approximately 100 arrived every hour - two busloads.
Or maybe they only came at the weekends - all 12,000 of them? I hope the staff were able to cope.
Recently, a Richmond taxpayer tried to visit this facility and was informed that the entry fee is $16 for all visitors, so the revenue from these 600,000 tourists should work out to $9,600,000.
This is a considerable sum, but there was no mention of it in the "2012 Report to the Community."
I would have thought it would be an item Mayor Brodie would be very proud to pass on to the taxpayers.
As further revenue, 5,000 members pay $60 per month, which equates to $3.6 million per year, and when the annual transfer of casino funds of $5 million and the Olympic Legacy Fund donation are added, we are looking at well over $20 million.
So why does the council find it necessary to make a contribution of "about $3 million" of taxpayers' money for operating costs when they should be awash with money from all this revenue?
And can I ask is there an Einstein in Richmond who can explain how, although city hall contributed $3 million for operating costs, the net effective costs to the city of operating was only $7,000 (Mayor Brodie's words!)?
Mayor Brodie, why don't you publish a fully audited financial report in the local papers, so we can all see and understand exactly what the correct picture is with your beloved Owe-Val?
All that we can tell right now is that it is one unholy mess and will only get worse.
Robert M. Paul
Richmond
