A City of Mississauga plan to fund production of a full-size Avro Arrow replica jet has met online turbulence.

The project commemorates the supersonic jet designed and built in the 1950s in Mississauga’s Malton neighbourhood. It would land an Arrow replica in Paul Coffey Park at a total cost of over $3.6 million.

Around $2.2 million of that would be allocated from City of Mississauga funds, so long as the Malton Business Improvement Area secures the rest through private contributions and a $500,000 federal grant.

Hugo Reinoso, a federal Green party candidate in Mississauga-Centre 2019 and a Ward 4 municipal candidate in 2018, compared the city’s funding pledge to the $1.1 billion price tag for the original Arrow, which was cancelled in 1959 amid fears of escalating costs.

In a tweet, Reinoso said that the city’s $2.2 million pledge “is as much a waste as the $1.1 billion wasted on the project and an insult to the workers that lost their jobs.”

Navarre Bailey said he was “disappointed” in the plan and asked “what will the replica do for society” in a tweet.

On Nov. 19, Bailey set up an online petition asking the city to direct the $2.2 million toward not-for-profits in Mississauga. As of Thursday, the petition had 19 supporters.

In an email, Ward 5 Coun. Carolyn Parrish said that those suggesting funds could be “’better spent,” don’t grasp the importance of the Arrow to Malton and the economic boost the monument could bring.

“The Arrow will attract tourists, school trips and folks looking for a break from conferences taking place on the airport strip or the International Centre,” she said. “They will shop in Malton’s stores and grab lunch in Malton’s restaurants.”

The Arrow is regarded as one of the most advanced aircraft of its era, designed to intercept enemy aircraft in the midst of the Cold War. When the project was cancelled by former prime minister John Diefenbaker, more than 14,000 jobs were lost.

The $2.2 million pledged by the city for the replica includes $1.2 million from ward specific special projects, which is funded by the city’s capital reserves and $1 million from the municipal accommodation tax reserve, Mississauga’s levy on short-term rentals.

In an email, the city’s senior media adviser Catherine Monast said the one-time doubling of the federal gas tax allowed Mississauga council to move additional funds from capital reserves into ward specific reserves.

Parrish described the combination of city allocated funds as “money from the hotel tax spent by visitors to Mississauga and from the gas tax which we send to Ottawa with very little returned to our city.”

The federal gas tax is collected from gasoline sales, paid to provinces and territories, who then allocate it to municipalities for local infrastructure projects.

Municipalities can fund 18 different types of infrastructure projects with gas tax funds, including public transit, tourism, brownfield redevelopment and local road and bridge initiatives.

Mississauga created two reserves from the MAT tax, one for tourism projects and the other to help stabilize the city’s revenues.

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Around $844,000 in private donations and in-kind services have been pledged for the Arrow project, including $100,000 from an anonymous donor and $56,360 from the Malton BIA.

The Arrow project is anticipated to start in late 2020.

Steve Cornwell is a reporter with the Mississauga News and Brampton Guardian. Reach him via email: scornwell@metroland.com

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