Montreal will "no longer host the controversial" Formula E ePrix after Mayor Valérie Plante's administration has learned taxpayers "would be expected to shell out" up to $35M (all figures C) for the second edition of the race in '18, according to Elysha Enos of the CBC. Plante said, "Montrealers have made it clear that we can't waste their money on poorly planned projects that don't serve them." She also criticized former Mayor Denis Coderre for "not showing any fiscal savvy." Enos reported the non-profit organization behind the race owes creditors $6.2M for "unpaid bills" and is $9.5M into its "line of credit." These cost overruns are "all on top of the city's commitment" of $24M over six years (CBC.ca, 12/18). Only 25,000 tickets were sold for this past summer’s event, and Plante said that the "only way the race can return is for the city to clean house and work on a better business model" (CP, 12/18). In Montreal, Jack Todd in a front-page piece writes under the header, "Killing Formula E Was The Right Decision For Montreal." In the "Museum of Bad Ideas, the Montreal version of the Formula E race deserves a separate wing." It was, "among many other things, a ruinously expensive event that threw a significant portion of the city into gridlock for no discernible reason." Formula E "in and of itself" is not a "bad concept." Todd: "The problem wasn’t the race, it was the race in the core of Montreal" (MONTREAL GAZETTE, 12/19).
