Posted From the Portage Daily Graphic Thursday July 31st

A group of ratepayers from the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie are taking their concerns over the RM’s funding of the proposed PCU Centre to court.

On Tuesday morning, a group of roughly 70 residents met with Grant Driedger, a legal representative with Smith Neufeld Jodoin Law Offices in Carman, to discuss their legal options.

“There’s a group of ratepayers from pretty much across the RM, who have significant concerns with the borrowing and the amount of funding that the RM is proposing to put into the multiplex,” explained Driedger after the meeting. “The concerns are both that it’s being done and also how it’s been done.

“At this point, we will be proceeding to bring a court application to get the court to take a look at how this has happened, and whether the RM has done what they needed to do.”

He said the main argument his firm will make in the application is that a new borrowing bylaw should be required from the RM because of the changes made in the multiplex’s plans.

“Initially, the proposal was two arenas, a competitive pool and various other things,” explained the lawyer. “When the cost figures came in higher than they initially expected, they had to scale that down considerably.

“So the bylaw that they’re relying on to authorize them borrowing money to

fund the project was based on Plan A, and now they’re going ahead with Plan

B, so they’re borrowing the same amount of money, but getting a significantly lesser facility.”