Bayham gets stuck with the bill after a bad date with the Elgin Military Museum

Well it is official, Bayham will take over the $6 million letter of credit in connection with Project Ojibwa. For the EMM it is business as usual as they continue to operate this monstrosity of a project. There are so many things wrong with all of this in my opinion, why is it that Bayham gets stuck with paying the bill while the EMM continues on like nothing has happened. I hope that Bayham council will seek all necessary legal options available to them. They need to get an audit done first of all, I understand that the EMM has not cooperated with a previous attempt, however I think they should seek a court order to make this happen. Bayham residents need to know where this $6 million was spent since they are responsible for this disaster. The EMM should hand over all proceeds after costs from the sub tours to Bayham so they can at least contribute and bear some of the burden. There needs to be some accountability in all of this and there needs to be answers from all those involved with this project. I just don't buy all of the excuses being given for the projects failure like the weather and low attendance etc. Poor management, lack of finances, lack of analysis and lack of judgement are the reason why this failed so miserably. Unfortunately this mistake will cost Bayham taxpayers a great deal of money for a generation. At the very least the EMM ought to give a lifetime free membership to Bayham residents for the sub since they are paying for it.

The Elgin Military Museum fires a torpedo at the Bayham taxpayer

I regret having to write this latest post about Project Ojibwa. If you have read my blog I have been against this project from the beginning because it seemed to good to be true and lacked any credible business plan. I have not posted anything over the last couple of years because I did not want to be critical about the sub in Bayham due too it being an operational tourist attraction. I felt it would be sour grapes on my part because I did not think this project by the Elgin Military Museum (EMM) would come to fruition. That being said I was greatly disappointed to hear that the EMM defaulted on their loan and it is now going to become a burden on the taxpayers of Bayham. The financial condition of this project are even worse than I thought with the EMM's financial position at a negative $7.6 million. This situation should have never happened, there were plenty of red flags that came up during this process. To recap the EMM had approached Port Stanley as it's first choice for the sub, the council of the day politely passed on the idea, then Bayham was approached and took the bait, hook line and sinker. The business plan was bad, the EMM had very little in terms of assets, they relied on financing the whole project and they needed a guarantor for the project. Throughout this process it seems to me the EMM was extremely opaque and could not give a straight answer for this project. The estimate for visitors for this attraction were based on the HMCS Onondaga in Rimouski Quebec which had 100k tourists come out the first year. The whole project was based on an assumption and the EMM grossly overestimated the revenues such a venture would take in. Unfortunately the Bayham council of the day bought into the museums pipe dream and put the tax payers at risk for this venture. At this time I am going to call out Mayor Paul Enns for casting the deciding vote to allow this project to go though. That vote put Bayham on the hook for $6 million, it is going to take 25 years for the taxpayers of Bayham to pay this off. I think Mayor Enns should resign immediately. I wonder if the election results would have been different if the public were aware of this debacle before the election. It was poor judgement to allow this to go through, Bayham could have avoided this if council decided not to be a guarantor for the EMM. I feel bad for the residents of Bayham and the municipal staff because you now have to deal with this mess.