Shania Twain centre literally becomes $10M money pit of taxpayer dollars
By Dean Beeby, The Canadian Press - Friday, February 1, 2013 - 0 Comments
TIMMINS, Ont. – A tourist attraction celebrating country-pop singer Shania Twain has officially become…
TIMMINS, Ont. – A tourist attraction celebrating country-pop singer Shania Twain has officially become a $10-million money pit of taxpayer dollars.
The Shania Twain Centre in this northern Ontario community permanently closes its doors today, barely a dozen years after its grand opening, and will be demolished to become part of an open-pit gold mine.
A sinkhole of taxpayer money, the centre consumed some $10 million in government funds for its construction in 2000-2001, and racked up more than $1 million in operating deficits in the years since.
Grant applications to the Ontario and federal governments in the 1990s projected annual attendance of 50,000 tourists by 2005.
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Shania Twain Centre in Timmins may be sold
By The Canadian Press - Monday, January 7, 2013 at 9:25 PM - 0 Comments
TIMMINS, Ont. – Two Timmins, Ont., landmarks — the Shania Twain Centre and the…
TIMMINS, Ont. – Two Timmins, Ont., landmarks — the Shania Twain Centre and the city’s Gold Mine Tour — may not be around much longer.
Timmins city council has approached Goldcorp Inc. to sell the buildings with a deal being finalized in the coming weeks.
Mayor Tom Laughren says the price of the sale and terms are not ready to be divulged, but says the deal could save the city around $300,000 annually.
Former manager of the Shania Twain Centre Tracy Hautenen says the city will continue to honour its mining heritage and honour Twain in smaller ways.
She adds that Twain, who grew up in Timmins, supports the sale.
Laughren says the Shania Twain Centre will remain open until the end of January 2013, after that any decision to demolish or reopen is up to Goldcorp.
“We went to Goldcorp with an offer and financially it made sense to sell the land as surplus. Council supports the deal and I full heartily support it as well.”
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The Commons: Starring Charlie Angus
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 7:17 PM - 7 Comments
The Scene. Charlie Angus is either the best kind of politician or the worst kind of politician. Or possibly both.
He’s either a man deeply committed to his constituents or a man determined to make a spectacle of himself. Or possibly—having realized that the former sometimes requires you to do the latter—both.
The NDP member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay was once part of a punk-rock band and regularly dresses as if he wishes he still were. Today it was a black suit, navy blue shirt and silver tie. In full rhetorical flight, his voice is often a high-pitched twang—owing perhaps to both his punk roots and his current gig as the frontman of Grievous Angels, an alt-country band.
In the House he has become a restless advocate for Aboriginal issues and for much of the last year he has pestered the government to build a new school in Attawapiskat, a remote community located near James Bay in Northern Ontario. Students there have been taught in portables for the past eight years, their previous school closed in 2000 on account of a diesel fuel leak underneath the building.
This week, Angus announced a new development in the case—a series of government documents that, he claimed, seem to imply political considerations in the management of such school projects. Continue…
