MacKay won’t commit on civic centre timing

Published in the Truro Daily News, December 14, 2009

By Monique Chiasson

Federal politician Peter MacKay is not saying exactly when funding for a local civic centre will arrive.
He does, however, say it will be very soon.
“I hope to be back here very soon … in the very near future. Your patience will pay off,” MacKay, the Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, said Sunday. MacKay was in town announcing $855,000 federal funding for renovations to the Colchester Legion Stadium. Renovations began in the summer.
“That (money) is not a substitute in any way for the civic centre funding,” assured MacKay.
Funding for the civic centre is of “enormous importance,” he said, adding he had hoped money would have been made available in the fall. He said that didn’t happen because the area was in the midst of a byelection, filling the void in the seat vacated by then MP Bill Casey. Scott Armstrong went on to win the Conservative seat for Cumberland Colchester Musquodoboit Valley.
MacKay said the holdup now is an administrative one.
Everything “appears in place … it’s an administrative challenge. The funding is through the Department of Transport and it has had its busiest period in decades,” MacKay told the Truro Daily News, adding funding for the project is “one of the province’s priorities.”
Truro Mayor Bill Mills said he’s hopeful the funding will come into fruition, regardless of the timeline. “It doesn’t matter when as long as it comes,” Mills said.
Armstrong said he’s confident money will be forthcoming. “They are working their way through bureaucratic hurdles,” Armstrong said.
“People ask when it will come. I think there’s a general acceptance it will come … I don’t see anything stopping the money from coming.”