Discussions

According to today's Brandon Sun, more than $4,000,000 still needs to raised from the private sector for the YMCA expansion.  
 
Many thousands more still must be raised privately for the skateboard park.  
 
I also understand that millions more must still be raised for the BU Wellness Centre (although it appears to have had more success than the YMCA has had).  
 
I also understand that the public will be asked to contribute to the Strand Theatre renovations - although those plans are still in the early stage.  
 
Those are the projects that I can think of at the moment, although there are likely others that I have either forgotten about or am not aware of. Then there are all the charities that conduct regular fundraising activities in the city, most notably the United Way, Heart & Stoke, etc.  
 
My questions are these:  
Given  
(a) that we are on the verge of a recession that experts say will be the worst many of us have ever experiences in our lifetimes, and  
(b) we are also on the verge of one of the largest property tax increases in Brandon's history:  
 
1. How realistic is it to set such ambitious fundraising figures? I understand and applaud the fact that many people (almost all volunteers) aspire to accomplish great things for our community, but where do they expect all of those millions of dollars to come from in a period of economic meltdown? Are charities, who also rely on fundraising, suffering because of these efforts? A number of local people have received requests for donations of more than $100,000 for one project, only to receive a request for thousands more for another project. They don't have nearly those kinds of monies on hand to donate - they are too worried about keeping their businesses afloat. How much capacity does Brandon's business community have to keep coming up with those amounts of money before it starts to affect their businesses?  
 
2. What happens if one or more of those projects falls seriously short of their fundraising goals? Will taxpayers be forced to pick up the tab and say "Oh well, good try", or do the projects fall into jeopardy? What about situations where taxpayers have already invested significant amounts of money in the project - are they now committed to coming up with whatever money couldn't be raised through fundraising efforts, or is the taxpayer investment written off?  
 
I ask these questions because it seems/appears to me that the combined fundraising goals for the various projects far exceed the combined ability of Brandon businesses/citizens to meet those goals.  
 
What do other ebrandoners think?  
 
Please do not turn this into an opportunity to take shots at anybody, or (if you are involved in any of the fundraising efforts) to get defensive. I think it is appropriate to ask if we currently have too many projects on the table that collectively require more private support than is locally-available at this time. This seems like a discussion that needs to be had.  
 
What do you think?