The RMWB council recently voted to scrap the downtown arena that was being proposed, with council members voting 7-3 in favor of killing the proposal completely. The motion to scrap the proposal was brought by Coun. Keith McGrath. There was a lot of debate during the council meeting but eventually the wishes of the people won out. An online survey conducted by RMWB showed preliminary results that indicated almost 3 out of 4residents were against building the downtown arena, and the views of many council members reflected this. Rick Kozuback, the president and CEO of ICC, gave a presentation that was designed to clear up any confusion about the project. Kozuback told the council members “This was not an unsolicited bid.”
During the meeting the RMWB council discussed the downtown arena and listened to input from a variety of sources. During the meeting Coun. Colleen Tatum inquired about whether the ICC tried to ensure that the council had all of the important details at every step of the process, at which point Kozuback admitted that this was not the case because the information was being presented to committees with the hope that the councilors would receive it. Tatum responded by saying “I feel like when we get to the next part tonight, the outcome may not be favourable for your team and I just wish that we could have maybe discussed part of this with you before it got to this point.” Mayor Melissa Blake was against the motion and explained “It will not die without my resistance, not because of what (the motion) does but by how it does it.”