Opposition MLA Steven Myers started off question period asking if government threatened to call in Rodd Resort’s $22 million in government loans if the company refused to sign off on the Mill River deal.
This is a report being widely circulated in legal and government circles, Myers said.
Economic Development Minister Heath MacDonald said he was unaware of any such threat.
“I have no knowledge of anyone talking to Rodd’s in that manner on any issue as relevant (to) calling in any loans.”
Myers was unconvinced.
“Come clean right here with the house today, tell Islanders: why were you so desperate to push through the Mill River deal that you threatened to call the loans on the Rodd company?” Myers said.
The deal is a 20-year agreement with Toronto Blue Jays founder Don McDougall to purchase the government-owned Mill River golf course, resort, fun park and the entire property for $500,000. The province will, in turn, invest $6 million in capital improvements over 12 years and another $1.6 million for some of the operational losses anticipated in the first six years.
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As part of the deal, government purchased the Rodd-owned resort that sits on the property for $1.8 million and included it as part of the package for McDougall. The money for the resort was applied to Rodd's loans.
Over and over Wednesday, Progressive Conservative Opposition MLAs called this a “sweetheart deal” brokered by a “tired Liberal government.”
MacDonald defended the deal, saying government has been losing money every year on the golf course. Signing this deal provided an end point for government losses on this property.
“Either the property would eventually close and there would be 100 jobs gone… or we could re-invest, over the course of time we’ll take the taxpayers off the books and allow a new owner/operator to come in there and invest and rebuild that property to what it once was back in the heyday,” MacDonald told reporters.
Related: Mill River report offers intimate details of deteriorating complex
Opposition MLA Matthew MacKay pressed on, asking how such a giant property was given away at a firesale price.
“Why did you decide to sell a 90-room full service resort with an 18-hole championship golf course, indoor pool, 90-foot waterslide, whirlpool, sauna, squash courts, tennis courts, restaurant and lounge, 72-site campground, and fun park, and all the land for $500,000 when your own assessment for the property was worth between $8-9 million?”
Brad Trivers characterized government’s investment in this deal as a hefty subsidy to one rural tourism operator.
He questioned why other rural tourism operators are not offered similar levels of investment, left instead to fight for basic access to high speed Internet.
“If you had millions of tax dollars burning a hole in your pocket, wouldn’t addressing high-speed Internet access have more direct benefit for the entire tourism industry?”
MacDonald remains firm this deal is a “really good move” for future economic development in western P.E.I.
