Re: Olds Institute, O-NET
In the July 13, 2021 edition of the Albertan, The Town of Olds provided a statement on the town’s management of O-NET investment.
This statement ended with "Please continue to review, research and gain a better understanding of the entire debt issues that Olds is facing."
With a view towards a better understanding I would like to point some missing facts in the Town of Olds statement.
As a former member of the OCCN Technology Committee of OICRD, I would like to expand on the comments on page 6 of last week’s Albertan, suggesting the OICRD was not making principal payments to reduce its debt.
The mayor and Town of Olds staff, including the CFO, were members of our committee and attended basically all of our meetings. As such, they should have been fully aware, as were other OCCN committee members, of the fact that the first principal payment on that loan was not due until September 15, 2021. As with most business loans, owners of businesses are unlikely to make principal payments on a loan until these payments are due.
To suggest OICRD was compounding the problem of the debt by not making principal payments would be at the very least, misleading to the Olds taxpayer and public with the implication, intended or not, that O-NET had not made its loan payments on time, when in fact all scheduled and required payments have been made.
As a former member of the above noted boards, I would like to thank the citizens of Olds for their support of O-NET which has allowed O-NET subscribership to continue to grow during the last year.
Peter Premachuk,
Olds
