What we're hearing about Philip Garforth and Borealis

The agenda for Monday's meeting of Sault Ste. Marie City Council calls for a possible appearance by Philip Garforth, the bold, industrious, progressive, unflappable, energetic, media-bashing proponent of the waterfront Borealis project.

Or maybe not.

Item 4(c) on the agenda declares that "Philip Garforth and/or Solicitor Robert Paciocco and/or Economic Development Corp. will be in attendance concerning the status of the Borealis Project."

The update from the punctilious entrepreneur and/or his learned counsel and/or some pulchritudinous EDC honcho comes hardly a month after the July 9 deadline set by City Council for Garforth to provide written assurances that his original Borealis partnership is still intact and his project financing is secure.

Our readers respond

The following response to this article was received this afternoon via SooToday.com's anonymous feedback feature:

In regards to your comments towards any of the Borealis/ Philip Garforth coverage, particularly today's comments, give the guy a break, and stop bashing him.

Here you have someone not even from the Sault, who is attempting as others have but failed, to pull off the impossible and bring a $55 million project to our city.

I realize some of his promises and timelines have come and gone, and he may have run into several delays, but the red tape involved in a project this size is unimaginable to the people in Sault Ste. Marie with the number of parties involved.

Mr Garforth has in fact purchased a home in the Sault and is spending most of his time here trying to close this deal, but keeps getting hammered by the media.

This of course makes the lenders and big money players in this project nervous when the media attacks him and the project.

If anyone ever wants to see this project get off the ground, leave it be, and let it happen.

And we reply

You confuse me.

Please advise what portions of this article you believe are "hammering" Mr. Garforth.

Final word

I am making a general comment to this and previous stories written by SooToday.com about this project.

You are well aware of the negative comments and sarcasm I am referring to.

More importantly, all who are aware of this project, and as reported by the media, we (the city) are all waiting for confirmation from U.S. banking reps that the funds for the project have in fact been transferred to a Canadian account.

Why have the lenders read and hear negative comments that continue to be made about the project and risk pulling out and it never happening?

Isn't Sault Ste. Marie open for business??

I understand everyone's frustration, lack and now loss of patience, but I don't see a line up of people trying to do anything like this and bring it to our city.

Hear the man out and stop with the negativity!

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