The Downtown Waterfront Advisory Committee recommendation on the location of a splash pad will come before council tonight and a member of that committee, Jay Aspin, plans on presenting a dissenting report.
"I'll be raising some red flags," Aspin told BayToday.
There has been considerable controversy over the location of a new splash pad.
The committee will recommend it go next to the Discovery North Bay Museum, but Aspin argues that will result in too much cost to the taxpayers.
See: Splash pad may be multi-million dollar white elephant: Aspin
He wants it on the beach side of Memorial Drive where existing washroom and change facilities already exists.
Aspin also argues the pad should be where families can access free parking, and make use of the beach and playground facilities.
But the committe voted that idea down.
See: Splash pad will go next to the museum says committee
Aspin says city staff have refused to give the committee the costs of both locations so a fair assessment can be made.
"There is no transparency at City Hall. This is a decision that is going to impact the community and this committee has been denied the numbers. The bureaucracy is going to write up a nice little report, that's how it works. I don't know if they'll have numbers or if they even care about it. They better have numbers because in my dissenting report I'll say I can't vote on something when I'm not given the numbers."
Aspin says he's tried his best to keep things open and transparent about the project.
"Obviously they don't want to be transparent and are willing to do what the bureaucracy wants, not what the citizens want."
