Therrien is a Trifluvien who went on to play some minor league ball before becoming an immigration lawyer in Vancouver, specializing in helping wealthy Chinese move to Canada.
Therrien suggests that the $500 million required to build a new baseball stadium in Montreal could be raised from spurned immigration applicants.
About 1,750 of the 5,000 outsiders seeking to move to Quebec under the investor program are accepted each year.
Therrien proposes that 620 of those rejected applicants be accepted in the country on the condition that they agree to pay $275,000.
That program would last three years and all of the funds would be earmarked to build the new Montreal baseball stadium.
Therrien, speaking on the Derek Aucoin radio show Tuesday, noted that some like the concept but say that the proceeds should instead go to some other cause, such as building a new bridge or hospital.
Therrien deals with this suggestion by noting that, unlike those infrastructure projects, a baseball team injects money into the economy.
So if, for example, the payroll is $100 million taxed at 45 percent, the return on the salaries alone would be $45 million. Concessions, tourism, other sales taxes would also provide the government with income.
Under the investor program, a candidate can bring his family to Canada and become a landed immigrant if he provides a $800,000 cheque to the government, which they return after five years without interest. The government, if they earn say five percent from that cash, will benefit to the tune of $200,000 per head.
The Harper government expressed some misgiving about the program, which is popular in Quebec but not elsewhere in the country.
Kind of a desperate move, I would think, just to re-instate baseball into the city. Is there really enough support among the general population to bring it back?
ReplyDeleteWhy hasn't anyone considered instead building up our Impact soccer team into a world class outfit eligible to play in the World Cup?
Frankly, Canada should be embarrassed that we don't even qualify.
Will we forever be known only as world hockey champions?
The Impact are eligible to play in the Club World Cup but they have to get through CONCACAF which gets tougher all the time - Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras and now even the US have good club teams.
ReplyDeleteActually, first the Impact have to get past the Whitecaps and TFC... ;)
"The government, if they earn say five percent from that cash, will benefit to the tune of $200,000 per head." As a Yellow man, I see that the Head Tax has gone up since I last paid it....
ReplyDelete