The provincial election candidates in the riding of Windsor-West are questioning the timing of a Liberal funding announcement to help the University of Windsor move its law school downtown.
The Liberals have committed $20-million to relocate the school, its faculty and 600 students to the Paul Martin Building on Ouellette Ave.
Conservative party candidate Adam Ibrahim says this is just another empty promise from the Liberals. "That is a huge investment opportunity for our downtown core. So when I saw it I initially thought, 'wow, that's fantastic. They're actually going to keep a promise,' but then when you read the fine lines and you realize it's just a campaign promise. It's just smoke and mirrors."
NDP incumbent Lisa Gretzky says if the Liberals truly wanted to make the plan a reality they would have a long time ago. "The Liberals have had five years of discussions over this and they haven't been interested until the eve of an election. So people are very cynical. Makes you wonder what their commitment really is?"
Liberal candidate and downtown city councillor Rino Bortolin says the move would have a major economic impact on the city's core and this is the result of a lot of hard work. "It would have been nice to have years ago, but whatever is bringing it forward, this is a great step and a great move forward for the downtown," says Bortolin. "Bringing that number of students into the core, those students will most likely want to live downtown, they will be potentially working downtown."
Back in August, university president Dr. Alan Wildeman announced the university would be pulling out of plans to take over the Paul Martin building due to a lack of financial support.
A federal funding commitment is still needed before any move takes place.
With files from AM800's Rob Hindi and CTV Windsor