The public consultation sessions for the convention centre have hit the road, travelling throughout the province and hearing from underwhelming audiences.
Monday, consultant Tim Merry and his team went to Sydney, where 23 people showed up to talk about the convention centre, with another nine following on line.
Tuesday, the Stellarton consultation was downright cozy, with just 11 people sitting around a single table. Five of those were the consulting team: Merry, his assistant Rachel Derrah, Trade Centre Limited president Scott Ferguson, developer Joe Ramia and architect Noel Fowler. There were additionally five people being consulted, constituting “the public,” and someone who identified himself as “writing about this,” presumably a reporter. Not at the table but in the room was musician Jenny MacDonald, who welcomed the group with guitar music, and a tech guy, livestreaming the event. Seven people, including a Coast reporter, followed along on line.
Wednesday, just eight people showed up to talk to the consultants in Truro.
Merry is being paid $200,000 to conduct the consultations, with half that cost paid directly by taxpayers. Unless hundreds of people suddenly turn out for the remaining consultation sessions in Wolfville and Lunenburg, the cost of the consultations will work out to about $2,000 per person consulted.
No spectacular new design insights were produced at the consultation sessions. The Sydney group agreed that the convention centre complex should be “iconic.” “That’s the architect’s job,” said Merry. Another Sydney-ite said he’d like the convention centre to have display cases, with each county in Nova Scotia managing the diaramas within. Another person took that idea one step further, saying that the county displays should be interactive, like video games.
The same single on line comment was made during both the Sydney and Stellarton sessions: “It will create jobs for not only those with degrees, but for those with without them,” wrote the commenter twice. “Great for all ages.”
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2012.
Wow big surprise *rolls eyes*. The whole consultation thing is an insulting farce; start to finish.
Oh my goodness…
Maybe next they can have a Newpage consultation in Halifax.
Technically, would all this going and doing be considered high camp or low camp?
Just wow.
It’s only money…..just keep pissing it away.
Self-esteem classes are needed, may cure the ‘putting Halifax/Nova Scotia on the map’ syndrome.
What, no Haiku opener? What a fucking joke, I bet Ramia is just sitting there scrolling through his blackberry trying to figure out where the fuck he’s going to go for supper when he finally gets out of the session.
Two hundred grand just to see that up close and personal no one in this asshole province gives a fuck if some business type from out of province looking for a strange fuck comes to Halifax, and finds out that the fucking here is the same as the fucking everywhere, except that all of the people here are getting fucked by the politicians who keep spending taxpayers money and let on that they give a fuck.
I think some hypnotism sessions exploring their past lives as envious members of some King’s court – no, they weren’t royalty – to understand their Nova Scotian little dick syndrome, the need to appeal to someone else to tell them they are worthy and the willingness to give them large amounts of public money for the privilege. If you ever wonder where these people come from- go to a school board meeting, but not at a time when you are running low on your antidepressants, less you don’t make it across the MacDonald ridge.
also….what Joan Jessome said