City hall approved a $110M proposal this morning to convert Sparks Street into an Amazon-esque rain-forest in an effort to secure the bid for the tech giant’s second headquarters. This is the latest attempt by the nation’s capital to secure 50,000 new jobs in the tech sector. Somerset Ward Councillor Catherine McKenney felt like the city had to up its ante in order to to compete with the likes of Stonecrest, Georgia who offered to change their city name to Amazon or Kansas City’s mayor who bought and reviewed 1,000 products from Amazon’s website.
McKenney’s ambitious plan is to create a large greenhouse on one of North America’s most popular pedestrian promenades using high impact plexiglass and various membrane materials. The proposal includes plans to fill the temperature-controlled greenhouse with 150 endangered animals, native to the Amazon. By purchasing 150 animals, this will allow the city to use the $28M remaining from Canada 150 celebration funds.
The Councillor has contacted many South American zoos to acquire several dozen jaguars, anacondas and other amazonian animals. The sanctuary is anticipated to cost upward of $45.6M to build, and will create an estimated 40 full time jobs in addition to the 50,000 Amazon jobs.
Some are praising the city for proposing to create a space to house endangered animals and creating new jobs. Others, including federal environment minister Catherine McKenna are criticizing the council for the estimated 225 metric tonnes of greenhouse gases that will be created annually to heat the sanctuary in the winter. A small price to pay, says McKenney, to turn up the heat in this Amazonian bidding war.
