Steinbach mayoral candidates are reacting to Friday morning's announcement by HyLife towards a community events centre.

Earl Funk says the $5 million contribution by Hylife is wonderful and will be put to good use for recreation in the community.

"But it should never be conditional on one mayoral candidate or another," says Funk. "Because if it is, it tends to fall under a category of a campaign contribution, which is far in excess of the maximum that's allowed of fifteen hundred dollars. So to me, it just looks like there's an old boys club here trying to buy an election."

John Fehr says he too appreciates the funding announcement.

"But it was not something that was new to council," he says. "This amount was committed to the city back in November of 2017 in meetings that were held between council and the Southeast Event Centre members, a group that was chaired by Paul Neustaedter.

Fehr says the $5 million is a start towards raising significantly more money that will be required before council will be able to support such a project.

"When I become mayor on October 24th I would expect that the funds would still be there," he says. "And I will look forward to continue advocating for more significant partnerships in this significant project that we are facing."

Paul Neustaeder says we are incredibly fortunate to live in such a generous community where businesses and individuals are willing to support a project like the community events centre.

"We need community leaders that can see opportunities and we need to get back to being a can-do city while keeping our taxes low. Announcements like this are very very exciting, many people are excited about a community events centre that brings different facilities together while using common walls and infrastructure to keep the costs lower. I would like to thanks HyLife for their very generous donation of $5 million that is earmarked for our community.

Neustaeder says his plan is to see a community events centre built in phases to help keep costs down and respect all taxpayers.

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