One regional councillor says those complaining about $75,000 being paid to a consultant to develop a name and brand for the future LRT system are off base.
Kitchener Coun. Tom Galloway says while the region would have saved some money by running an in-house contest for the name, other needs would cost no matter who performed the work.
“You still need to market it. You still need to create the brand and do the graphics associated with creating that brand,” he tells CTV.
Waterloo Coun. Sean Strickland agrees.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the private sector who would spend $818 million on a new project without getting some special help on how to name it,” he says.
Councillors heard a presentation Tuesday morning on the three names proposed for the system by Quarry Integrated Communications – ‘arc’, ‘ion’ and ‘trio’.
Some councillors, like Woolwich Mayor Todd Cowan, aren’t shy about saying which name they prefer.
“I like ion because there’s a connection to what it means in Greek, which is moving, going,” he says.
Others, like Strickland, say they want to stay quiet on their name of choice until they’ve heard all the feedback from the public.
“I do have a favourite, but I think I’m going to keep that close to my vest,” he says.
A different opinion was expressed by Cambridge Coun. Claudette Millar, who said she hopes to see other names considered.
“I don’t prefer any of them, to be perfectly frank,” she says.
“There has to be a relationship between the name and the event. As far as I’m concerned, [the finalists] don’t come up to that standard.”
Public meetings will be held over the next few days in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge to gather feedback on the potential names.
