H.M.C.S. Ojibwa
Friday, September 3, 2010
Project Ojibwa dead in the water
Well it is official and there is no surprise that Project Ojibwa will not be happening in Port Burwell. Two short weeks after it was announced that Port Burwell would be the new home for the submarine the Municipality of Bayham realized in their September 2nd meeting that the harbour needs to be dredged at a cost of $500k - $ 1 million and of course there is no money to do this. There are no plans in place to dredge the harbour this leaves the project in limbo for the time being. I wonder if the Elgin Military Museum will go back to Port Stanley and ask them again. This project was just too much to put together in a short period of time, there is no business plan that I have seen therefore leaving the Ojibwa with an uncertain future. The good news is the $1.9 million federal grant won't be wasted on a failed project. The grant will be withdrawn if it is not used by March 2011. I would rather see the money put to better use.
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What better use of money is there then bringing jobs, hope and a renewed sense of pride to a community sounds like you must be from the town of Port Stanley!
ReplyDeleteHi Laura, thank you for your comments. I am not against spending money to bring about jobs and hope to small communities. The reason I think this was a bad idea is because there is no business plan for this sub. The $1.9 million grant just bring the sub into the harbour and build a cradle for it. Without any business plan I'm afraid that this sub would just sit there and rust away because the municipality and the museum have no money and no legitimate business plan. Just look at the museum website they have not even updated it since the summer. To be very blunt this whole process regarding Project Ojibwa has been a complete joke in my opinion. This project will never get off the ground due to these underlying issues. I am am proud of my community and would love to see job creation however it needs to be done right in order to create anything that is long lasting.
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