While she welcomes the new downtown performing arts centre idea one city Councillor is admitting lots of important questions still remain unanswered.

Kathy Sinclair says not the least of those question is how do we pay for it.

“I think there’s a lot that we need to explore; I would like to explore as many avenues as possible before taking it to referendum.”

Sinclair says the overall funding picture for the $70-million-dollar project still need to be worked out.

“I don’t want to see this on the back of Kamloops taxpayers. There may be a portion that comes from taxation, but there are plenty of other funding opportunities out there.”

She adds the city owns the land where the performing arts centre would be located and the city’s overall contributiont he project still needs to be determined.

Sinclair says they might also need to add extra parking to the centre’s plan, which would add to the cost. Sinclair says they might also need to add parking, which would add to the cost.

“One underground parking stall can cost up to $50,000 dollars, so you can see why the cost really did add up that last round.”

Councillor Mike O’Reilly says Kamloops Council will hold strategic planning meetings this week and topic number one will be the performing arts centre.

As far as paying for the 70-million-dollar project and getting taxpayers on board.

“To get them onboard obviously we have to be onboard as a Council and we are not even there yet. At the same I argue and say I think this is going to do for Kamloops and the region what the 1993 Summer Games and furthermore after that was when the TCC was built. These were big things that redefined and reshaped our community. The Riverside Coliseum, or the Sandman Centre now, took three times to try and go through.”

O’Reilly says he also wants to see hard data on the parking front to determine if there will, or will not, be a problem.