Province under fire about stadium

The province is coming under fire for delays to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats new stadium which will also be used during the 2015 Pan Am games.

Construction of the new stadium was supposed to be completed in time for the Tiger-Cats home opener on July 26th, but that’s not going to happen. Nor will it be done in time for the following home game on July 31st. There are still quite a few things that need to be done down here, including fully rolling out the turf and installing safety measures like hand and guard rails. The province is saying bad weather is to blame for the delays. Today during question period at Queen’s Park, NDP Pan Am critic Paul Miller confronted the infrastructure minister on the issue, saying the Liberals have not made it a priority to complete the stadium and questioning if this means other Pan Am projects won’t be done on time either: “Will this government finally see the on going errors of their ways and take immediate action to ensure that Hamilton stadums will be completed by at least August 16th for their third game and their other Pan Am venues be done which is behind schedule too. This is gonna cost taxpayers of Ontario millions more dollars.”

Brad Duguid is Minister of Infrastructure: “The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will be running on the brand new stadium at some point this summer. We expect the third game. As soon as possible. The fact of the matter is Hamilton and their football team are getting a brand new stadium and the Ticats.  This is a good news story for Hamilton despite what the member opposite described.”

The Liberals insist the delays are short term and say taxpayers will not be on the hook for the costs associated with the delays, rather those will fall on the developer. As the work down here at Tim Hortons Field finishes up, the first two games will now be held at McMaster’s Ron Joyce Stadium. The club says fans who purchased tickets to those games will be given a full credit or refund.