It’s wonderful when financially well-off people give back to their community. But we should not have to rely on them for public services.
Published Mar 31, 2023 • Last updated 33 minutes ago • 3 minute read
I spent a week in Kanata Tuesday morning and somehow, while I was trying to feel less lost amidst the high-tech low-rises on my way to the Brookstreet Hotel parking garage, the Big News happened. The City approved the naming of a Kanata public recreational complex after a car dealership.
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If that’s not peak #autowa, I don’t know what is.
I have nothing against Tony Graham and his family. They are good people who know how to run a successful business. They’re willing to contribute significant sums of money to the wellbeing of the people of Ottawa. It’s awesome, but not exactly unique.
We all do our best to be successful and to contribute, according to our abilities. That’s how communities work. At least, that’s how the ones that work, work. Those who can, contribute more so that those who can’t, still get the benefits.
Buying the right to name a public building after yourself is not community building. It’s marketing.
I said I had nothing against Tony Graham so let me pick other names out of the “community champions” program through which the City enthusiastically peddles naming rights for public buildings. Like the Minto Recreation Complex – Barrhaven and the Richcraft Recreation Complex. Oh, what a coincidence – the same real-estate developers that are already everywhere.
The program, the City explains, welcomes and encourages “sponsorships and advertising undertaken to assist in the provision of City services and projects.”
Our deliberate policy is to get corporate sponsors to pay for public stuff by using community buildings as billboards. I completely understand why some companies would leap at the opportunity to associate themselves with something healthy and fun. It’s brilliant marketing to be seen as a community champion. But that doesn’t make it community building.
The Tony Graham Automotive Group Recreation Complex – Kanata (“arguably a little long,” deadpanned Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo in what may have been the week’s best rhetorical moment in municipal politics) will kick $1 million into city coffers over a decade. In part this money will provide “free summertime weight and cardio memberships across the city’s fitness facilities to kids aged 13 to 17,” the Citizen reported.
Who but a