Economics

Introduction
The Canadian music story deserves telling. There has never been in the history of Canada another project comparable to the National Music Centre project in Calgary. In an effort towards enhancing the development of the economy and to promote cultural diversity within the Calgary as well as the entire of Canada, the National Music Centre project was marked as one of its kind not only in Canada but also in the whole world (Daily Reporter, 2009). The music centre will serve as a hub of every genre of music in the country. The executive director of cantos music foundation, Mr. Andrew Mosker remarked that the endorsement from the Calgary city council acted as a means of giving credibility and a right momentum for bringing the Calgary national music centre towards execution (Cantos Music Foundation, 2010). The national music centre project presents a monumental decision by the city council that is expected to bring about a vibrant and strong community to the residents of Calgary. The objective of the project is to create a national center for celebrating the Canadian national musical and art story, in addition to facilitating the generation, preservation and performance of music via a wide collection of community public programs (Linn, 2010). This paper provides the details of the Cantos National Music Center project in Calgary by carefully looking into an overview of the project, the reactions to it as well as a detailed assessment of the sustainability of the project.

Overview of the project
On the twenty sixth of January, 2010, the city council gave a public approval to the Cantos Music Foundation by committing itself to actively participate in the building of the proposed national music centre. The project was initiated on October 2009 when the Allied Works begun the pre-designing, and the facility is expected to go operational by 2013.The center will be built at King Eddy site, East Village. The Cantos National Music Centre Project is an eighty- thousand square- foot public facility at the site of legendary King Edward hotel. The facility will incorporate the world famous Cantos Music Collection, recording studios, Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame Collection, performance stage, public and education programming center, wellness and music research center, radio broadcast area, 7-day-week- live music site and resident artist venue (Cantos Music Foundation, 2010). This project is estimated to cost a total of ninety four million dollars (94 million) for a complete implementation. This will be the first national center of this capacity and cost in the history of the world. The main actors in the project are the Cantos Music Foundation (which is a nonprofit making organization) and the Calgary city council. The role of the city council had been mainly placed on the initial stage of the project which entailed a formalized approval of the proposal. However, this does not eliminate the role of the city in the project since it still plays a key role in funding of the project. In the approval of the facility building, the city council committed itself to contributing twenty five billion dollars (25 million) towards the construction (CBC, 2010).

Funding is expected to be generated from the sponsors (Cantos Music Foundation) and the city council administration. To this end, the city has already released a total of 2.5 million dollars as a seed funding of the facility. Seed funding here will include the design work and establishing general public awareness across Calgary by Cantos for the support of the facility. The remaining balance of funds will be raised by the Cantos Music Foundation through the involvement of the federal and provincial governments in addition to support by the individual and corporate donors (Cantos Music Foundation, 2010). For instant, the music foundation has already begun a support campaign for the project by placing advertisements on the press and the internet, encouraging individuals and corporate donors to play their part and contribute in building the monumental facility. An example of this is a site on the internet where people are advised to contribute online either monthly (30) or each day a dollar which will translate into 360 dollars by the end of the year (Cantos Music Foundation, 2010).The Cantos music team has thus been working tirelessly to raise funds for the project. The Allied Works Architectural partners are currently working on the 120 million dollars that has been secured for the facility (Linn, 2010).

Reactions to the project
The Cantos National Music Project will serve as a major catalyst for revitalization of one among the historic communities of the city. Calgary national music project is described as a bold, unique, visionary and iconic project that will aid in shaping both cultural and architectural future in Calgary. The facility will benefit not only the residents of the city but the entire of Canada and the world at large. This is because the facility will provide a world class entertainment, music education and experience hub through integrating, honoring and expanding the living legendary king Edward hotel (E- Architect, 2010). The facility will bring about a place and space for all people regardless of age, gender and backgroundit will be partly a museum, partly research centre, partly studio recording, partly live music scene and more features. It is designed to ensure that the Canadian music history is retained and the local gifted musicians are given an opportunity to develop their talents to international standards (Daily Reporter, 2009).

The project has been however criticized by a number of people who argue that the regardless of how what sort of somberly will be used in implementing the project, many exceptionally gifted musical artists might still be barred from benefitting from the center. Other critics have also suggested that the design presented by the Allied Works was not as good as compared to other completing architects in the competition for the design of the national music centre at Calgary (CBC, 2010). The Allied Works architectural group won the contract for the construction of the facility against four other competing architects (Staff, 2009). Even though the generous contribution and commitment by the city of Calgary has baffled and pleased many supporters of the initiative, still there are many who still believe that the city should have made a more larger contribution because they believe that the Cantos Music Foundation might not be able to fulfill the expectations of the people by the time the project is expected to have been completed. In other case, a critic suggested that there are other more urgent projects that the city should have first looked into before giving away such a huge amount of money towards Cantos National Music Centre (CBC, 2010).

Assessment of the project
The success of the implementation of the Cantos National Music Center is the success of the whole of Calgary. Although the project is entirely meant to enhance the growth of the musicians, entertainers and broadcasters, the entire community is expected to benefit indirectly from the project through the employment opportunities that will be created from the facility construction. The cultural diversity that will be enriched through the music center will equally serve all the residents (Linn, 2010).
But what will be the place of a doctor, an engineer, a housewife and many more in the project This question has been raised by a group of activists who believe that the project is socially biased. To some degree, their perspective is right but on the greater perspective, it is wrong because that the facility will need every member of the society who is willing to participatethe doctor will serve the resident artiststhe engineer will service the instruments and other related paraphernalia  In a nut shell, the idea is that the facility is multifaceted and not just for the benefit of the musicians and artists (E-Architect, 2010). More so, the center will attract a wide array of other related developments and investments which will serve the entire community at large. Nonetheless, the project will mostly be of a higher benefit to the musicians and artists than any other members of the society since it is exclusively music and art oriented (Cantos Music Foundation, 2010).

The project has already received positive feedback from the three arms of government. This serves as an indication of the appreciation of the creativity and the need for the facility in the city by the government (Daily Reporter, 2010). The Cantos Music Foundation which is a nonprofit making association has put in place sound measures and methods to ensure that the funding and the physical construction of the facility withstand the expected outcome. In this end, the cantos team engaged a historical interview of five famous architectural companies while selecting the architectures who will be entrusted with the multimillion facility construction (Staff, 2009). To add to this, the Cantos Music Foundation will also seek the support from the federal and the local governments towards the funding of the facility since it is the Calgary city committed itself to service twenty five billion dollars out of the required ninety four billion dollars (Cantos Music Foundation, 2010).

Given the broader socio-economic profile of the Calgary city, this project still makes sense in that it is located at the historical musical part of Canada and comes at a time when the city required extra methods of enhancing economic development which was already declining. It will revitalize both the culture and the economy of Calgary.

Conclusion
The implementation and culmination of The Cantos National Music center will be a dream come true to the residents of Calgary. The project implementation begun in October, 2009 and proper considerations have been made to ensure the sustainability and viability of the project. Such are the costs, the benefits and the sources of funding. It is expected that by the end of the year 2010, the projected will materialize successfully and transform the face of Calgary as well as Canada permanently (Linn, 2010). This project is one of the best decisions that the Calgary city has ever made towards enhancing its economic growth and development.