Isn’t it amazing how elected politicians can spend and risk MILLIONS of taxpayers’ dollars and seem to feel we have no right to know what they are doing or why!
I’m referring to a terrific piece of journalism in Thursday’s Globe & Mail by reporter Gary Mason, revealing Vancouver city council had authorized .. behind closed doors … lending up to $100 million to the developers of the 2010 Olympic Athletes’ Village to cover any cost overruns and other shortfalls.
I can understand that deliberations concerning the potential loan and its implications were carried out “in camera”. But I believe after the decision was made Oct 14, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and City Council had an obligation to make their decision public.
They said nothing … even though Mason says the City has already advanced nearly $30 million. The public should demand why we are not being told what is going on.
Interestingly, within hours of the Globe story being published, Vision Mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson was on to reporters, calling for complete public disclosure. Where was he before the Globe story broke?
I find it amazing (and maybe even incredible) that Robertson’s municipal knowledge and that of his own staff were apparently so poor he did not know about the loan guarantee … even though there are Vision members on Council. Weren’t they at the Council meeting in question? Did they really not say a word to their own Mayoral candidate or his staff about this decision?
I find that hard to believe. It looks to me like Robertson is now trying to exploit a situation he should have known about or, if he did know, he should have advocated complete public disclosure himself BEFORE Mason revealed the details.
And his primary challenger for the Mayors’ job, the NPA’s Peter Ladner, won’t even confirm is he was at the meeting ..let alone comment on the loan now that the bucks are out of the bag.
The public DOES have a right to know .. and the media should go after ALL council members: NPA and Vision and demand to know why they have refused to say a word, even AFTER their decision was made… and the cheque was sent out.
14 responses so far ↓
1 b f // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Ha! Who ever thought SURREY with Dianne Watts would like absolutely civilized in comparison. Would you like me to start looking for some Oberfeld accomodation…perferably near a Cruise Centre?
(Response: No..I could never desert my Vancouver leaky condo! ho)
2 Grant g // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:38 pm
The Vancouver taxpayers will pay big, these 1100 units will have to sell for over 1 million each(Good luck in this housing market) The project is at 1.2 billion dollars and counting and they haven`t even started working on the inside of these units yet!
Lets not forget that 1/3 of the units in the olympic village were designated for affordible social housing, the social housing aspect of the project are now being scrapped, they have to, to try and re-coup some of the money!
That`s the big part of the story that everyone is missing!
Maybe that was the plan all along?
Just what kind of pressure has the Campbell goverment put on the city of Vancouver to eat this olympic cost?
In my opinion there appears to be a full scale robbery from the public purse,everything is being quoted as “on time on budget” yet everything is millions over budget and the public is bearing ALL THE COSTS!
One more story for you Harv–The businesses of Whistler are furious, apparently VANOC has just announced to the people of Whistler that they intend to have a store open just for the olympics—A 20.000 thousand square foot ( Olympic superstore ) to sell all the olympic logoed items!
Vanoc will be going in direct competition with the retailors of Whistler!
Vanoc –IOC–Gordon Campbell —THE BAD, THE WORSE,THE UGLY
Cheers
3 Malcolm J. // Nov 7, 2008 at 1:03 am
Not surprised one iota, Campbell will make it up in kind with the UBC SkyTrain subway, paid for by everyone else.
Did you know that the RAV line is over $1 billion over original estimates and the scope of the design (capacity) has been reduced so that the maximum capacity that RAV can achieve is less than if we had LRT on the Arbutus corridor?
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
4 Patrick Bell (NOT the MLA) // Nov 7, 2008 at 4:52 am
These jerks of a government keep rewinding back to the Fat Cat ferry scandal days while refering to the NDP….
Millions and millions of Olympic cost over runs and a boondoggle of a convention centre project……OUCH!!
Someone has to stand up and sink these guys in the next election….I don’t even think Campbell deserves to open the ceremonies for the Olympics…..he is just a poser anyway that takes full advantage of rubbing shoulders with high profile types….
don’t give him this opportunity.
5 Romeogolf // Nov 7, 2008 at 5:46 am
You can manufacture consent when you play to the people’s love of spectacles. How easily people are duped! Know your limit, blow it, and mortgage a new one.
6 bob // Nov 7, 2008 at 6:37 am
$683m to build 1100 units = $629k/unit
1.4m square feet = $488/ft^2 build cost
I’m just a small town boy, but that seems a little out of whack to me.
Anybody with some local knowledge who is able to chime in with reasonable build costs for Big City condos? Are there any other recent condo projects that have come to market? at what price?
Why wasn’t this project bid out on a ‘fixed price’ basis? Didn’t these high priced geniuses learn anything from the gordo’s botched Trade & Convention Centre fiasco?
PS – Anyone seen the fully costed Olympic plan that VANOC and the BC government promised us years ago?
7 George Orr // Nov 7, 2008 at 9:57 pm
This breeds the suspicion that they only tell us what they think we want to hear… what else do they do about which we are not informed? If they did not want us to know about this, what else do they wish to keep quiet?
Ask yourself why the voting numbers next weekend are so low? Here is the answer… we cannot trust them. We can only believe that when they say they are telling the truth that they are actually pulling wool.
This gives the democratic process a very bad smell, and if ANY of them had any integrity, they’d own up to that.
8 Grant g // Nov 8, 2008 at 3:28 am
The story gets better
http://bettysearlyedition.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
Check out the date of this story
9 Westcoast Indie News // Nov 8, 2008 at 6:43 am
This is just another BC Liberal cluster f$@*. We should start to get used to them, we’re going to be seeing a lot of them. P3’s do not work for citizens and taxpayers. Follow the trail of our money out the door, often into American hands.
They’ve already advanced nearly $30-million to Fortress Investment Group (New York based hedge funds firm) now they’re loaning Millennium “up to $100-million” AND they have to spend up to “$450,000 to bring in a third party to oversee management of the project being built by Millennium Development Corp.” because they’re
“Details of the city’s involvement in bailing out the project’s cash-strapped developer have until now been kept secret. Councillors are under a publication ban and have been told they face serious repercussions if they discuss publicly the decisions taken at the in camera meeting(Gary Mason).”
Who told our councillors, who are elected by the citizens of Vancouver, they face “serious repercussions” (and what are those?) if they tell said citizens what they hell they’re doing with our money, or rather more accurately, our debt.
From Millenium’s page:
We build dreams. Dreams that are based on sober and painstaking research. Dreams that are founded on financial solidity. And backed by a track record of more than half a century of absolute success.
Doesn’t anyone else find it suspicious the kind of public and taxpayer money that is being transferred over to these bloated, ill managed, sieves of corporations right now? How much more will they be wanting, will we get to even find out? It’s time for a serious butt kicking at city hall, they’ve got the WRONG idea. They don’t tell us WE don’t get to know how they’re spending OUR money and running OUR show.
Now, what some enterprising researcher and scribe needs to do is pull together a history of meetings, discussions, motions and decisions made on Millenium AND the voting record for each city councillor on approving more money.
That would be very enlightening and might make up a few minds on our next election day. As would a peek at the names of the people who were lobbying city hall on behalf of the corp’s.
As to Millenium, I’m far from being an economist, but if you look at how many big projects they’re currently doing, one has to wonder whether how many other projects they’re having financing problems on. As we’ve seen, there is a certain domino effect these days.
All I know is, this is an election issue and those running should disclose how they voted on giving more money out to a project their own chief financial officer told them was too high-risk for taxpayers. If they don’t listen to their own expert, they should not be governing or making decisions on our behalf.
10 Ron // Nov 8, 2008 at 9:03 am
Harv,
Just another feather in Sullivan, Ladner and Campbell’s hat. Great job boys!
Campbell’s announcement to freeze home assessments was a ploy to keep assessments high so they could keep the mill rate low next year, so they could say that taxes weren’t rising so high, yet still pocketing more money. Nice scam that got thwarted thanks to reporter (Bob Mason???). The Peter Ladner whitewash with his appearance on Bill Good this morning on AM980 was eerily like Colin Hansen’s “deer in the headlights” look when he was questioned about the Winter Olympics security budget figures by Vaughn Palmer on Voice Of BC a week ago, Thursday October 30th. They just keep stepping in it, don’t they?
11 Ron // Nov 8, 2008 at 9:11 am
I just read Don Cayo’s bit in the Vancouver Sun about how much big business is going to save on their frozen assessments, likely seven figures on most of their properties, while homeowners are lucky to get a miniscule tax break, if at all. Campbell keeps shoveling it out the door to his buddies. Disgusting!!!
12 RS // Nov 8, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Don’t understand math Bob.
( $683m to build 1100 units = $629k/unit
1.4m square feet = $488/ft^2 build cost)
I no rocket surgeon, but don’t we need to know the square footage of each unit to do this calculation? Do you have that figure? Sure would be nice to know the accurate cost per sq.ft for this project.
I’ve heard the some politicos involved say there was minimal risk, and it’s a good deal for the city. If it’s that low risk ‘n’ such a good deal, why is (was) it so secret?
13 bob // Nov 8, 2008 at 6:22 pm
NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner went on record Friday promising: “There is nothing in this plan that will result in this [the cost of the athletes' village] going on property taxes. It’ll never come to be paid by Vancouver taxpayers.” Hmm… sounds like a new version of ‘men having babies’ to me.
@RS: i wish we had all the #s & contract details as well as full background detail on the players (Fortress Credit Corporation & Millennium Development especially) – the above ‘Grant g’ link is intriguing.
14 LP // Nov 9, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I just don’t understand how these politicians can look at themselves in the mirror and then shake hands with the very people who elected them to office. Where does this sense of entitlement come from? They make me sick to my stomach. I can’t wait until the next election for us to do it all over again.
Leave a Comment
CAPTCHA Code is needed.