In sales, messaging, in its various forms, is essential. However, if you are selling a product, you must disclose the content or ingredients of the product and warn of any possible side effects. Usually this is the fine print, and most will not bother reading it. But if you are selling an ideology, concept or political position, half-truths or skewed information is seemingly the acceptable norm. Over the summer, I was cruising down Highway 16 when my little eye spied an attractive and interesting piece of architecture. It was an Islamic Mosque. Selling religion is not always easy, but the enormous sign out front that read “Love for all, Hate for none” was hard to miss. It was a nice message until I remembered that some Muslims were organizing protests in support of Palestine, chanting “from the river to the sea” which is a call for a genocide of Zionists. This does not sound like love for all to me. And there is no fine print or warnings of what you are buying into when you pick up the chant. But this sign may be a skewed message if the membership of this Mosque is not involved in the protests.

One day in the newspaper, I chanced upon an article about the vandalism of a Pride flag sign bearing the rainbow logo and the message “you are welcome here.” Whoa, the sign should have read “you are welcome here” unless you are in any way associated with the Saskatchewan Party or supportive of the Parents’ Bill of Rights legislation (pronoun policy). I was disappointed with Pride over that action since it was an organization that fought bigotry and discrimination against its membership for decades, and now it was practising what it preached against. And there is no fine print or warning of what you must do or say to be welcome there.

Personally, I like humorous messaging. It may seem that I spend significant time on the highway, but this time we were following a truck which advertised its business as pumping out septic tanks and hauling away the sewage. (In the old days when cities had homes with outhouses, these trucks were call “honey wagons.” I digress.) On the back of the vehicle was a sign that read, “Living the Dream.” Although I didn’t believe the individual driving this vehicle saw hauling crap as a dream job, I didn’t take this sign to be misleading, just a message from a person with a good sense of humour, seasoned with sarcasm. Not all iffy messaging is visual, much is oral. By example, when our soon to be retired Mayor Charlie Clark was pushing council to follow Pied Piper Justin Trudeau’s HAF lunacy of changing residential zoning for established neighbourhoods, while discussing the potential loss of residential parking Clark said, “most residents won’t even really notice.” Tell that to the residents of Varsity View and City Park who pay the City an annual fee for the privilege of parking near their homes. And tell it to the multitude of people who have lined up to address the council on this issue, not just on the HAF proposal but every single time there has been a proposed zoning change in the past.

Clark’s comment qualifies as being a half-truth message because only the people without vehicles won’t notice. When council decided to create the Downtown Event and Entertainment District (DEED) zoning to accommodate its desire for a new arena, while at the same time eroding residential zoning, it was a message to the public that business took a priority over homeowners. Message received. Although council sends messages, it doesn’t seem to listen to them. There is serious concern from taxpayers about the burden on property owners as council continues planning the arena/convention centre legacy project. And no one believes that council will not use property taxes for this project. If past performance is the best indicator of future performance, you only have to look at the art gallery as an example. What started as a $12 million request for an expansion/renovation of the existing gallery ballooned into over a $100 million-plus for a new one (and we still don’t know the total cost.) And it is not just Saskatoon. Regina’s council is now dealing with a $160.7 million aquatic centre that has exploded in cost to $245 million and it is still not finalized. The reality is all these capital project costs are extremely variable. At best they are guesstimates and the folks doing the guessing are not doing a great job. (Administrations selling a project to councils never over estimate costs.)

As for the American corporate saviour OVG offering itself up to Saskatoon, businesses like this are successful because they jump into desperate situations and have greater experience at the negotiating table than the locals. For $20 million, OVG has control and income for 25 years from an over $300 million tax-funded project, and the $20 million doesn’t come into play until the final year of construction. For that sum, OVG gets to book events, sell sponsorships and naming rights and negotiate tenant agreements. From the getgo, it will collect $325,000 yearly in management fees and has all the rights to food and beverage services and collects a percentage of both sales and profits from both venues. Expect to see ticket prices for the Blades and the Rush to increase if in fact they are there at all. (And I’m going to bet OVG will have an escape clause in the contract.)

As for the anticipated, but not guaranteed, $6 million a year in revenue, although it sounds like a hefty amount, in a couple of years it won’t buy much. And I expect the cost of the City’s infrastructure and landscaping/hardscaping around the arena will eat up more than a few bucks, as will the demand for bus service and policing, none of which will be paid by OVG. This deal might be a good one if we really needed a new arena and convention centre, but I have yet to be convinced that we do. But the message here is that I hope I am wrong and that I will gladly eat crow if this project comes to fruition without financial support of any sort from local taxpayers. But that is folly since local taxpayers also help fill the coffers of the provincial and federal governments who are supposedly funding this project. I know my rant on spending and debt is an old song, but some tunes just survive the test of time.

Lastly, voters can send a message of their own to civic government. Find out as much as you can about people running in your ward for council and for mayor and where they stand on spending, taxation, and debt. Then send your message on election day.

– Elaine Hnatyshyn