One London councillor says using $540,000 of taxpayer money to help foot the bill to hire a consulting firm to drive business into the core is not appropriate.
Downtown London will make its pitch for the money to the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee on Monday. The downtown business association would put up $1.4-million of its own money for a combined total of $1.98-million to hire Live Work Learn Play (LWLP).
The company would run a four-year targeted campaign to bring new business into the downtown and advise on other areas of improvement.
Councillor Phil Squire is quick to point out the city has already invested nearly $40-million in the downtown through the new Fanshawe College campus, the Dundas flex street, and Back To The River.
"Quite frankly, I think that is enough of a contribution from taxpayers to the downtown," says Squire."It's a no sell for me obviously. It's not something that I would do."
Downtown London has stressed LWLP has a proven track record in other cities including Kingston and Guelph. But that isn't enough to convince Squire.
"Frankly, I've heard all of this before. There have been other groups who have done an analysis of downtown and come up with conclusions. I'm always skeptical when people say something is going to be the solution to a problem. Solutions are never that simple," says Squire.
Squire also questions the timing of the funding request - roughly one week after the multi-year budget was approved.
"The decision from my point of view should have been made in the budget process," says Squire. "I don't think it's a good idea when taxpayers just got a tax increase to come back just over a week later and say 'whoops, we want another $540,000 for another project.' It just doesn't make sense to me."
