Coming in 2016: a value added tax at the urban resort?

Sept. 24, 2013 was the anniversary of Premier Christy Clark's announcement that her chief of staff Ken Boessenkool resigned for an "incident of concern."

It was another great day for euphemisms. Let's have two.

John Winter, the CEO of the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce, is lobbying for the resurrection of the Harmonized Sales Tax. Except he’s not calling it that. Nosiree. It’s a Value-Added Tax. Get it? 

According to Barbara Yaffe in the Sept. 24 Vancouver Sun: 

“Winter says the chamber is not trying to resurrect an HST debate, which he calls 'a nonstarter' in this province. 'What we are proposing is a way to leave our HST angst behind and move B.C. forward into tax dialogues.
"By not taxing business inputs, a VAT would allow B.C. to grow its prosperity by encouraging entrepreneurs, innovators and job creators."

In a June 8, 2010 Georgia Straight editorial ("HST is key to a strong economy in B.C."), Winter used the terms in the same sentence. 

“Experience in Atlantic Canada and other jurisdictions confirms that shifting to a value-added sales tax like the HST paves the way for increased capital spending on machinery, equipment, structures, new technologies, and other productive assets.”

The HST was imposed on British Columbians by Premier Gordon Campbell on July 1, 2010. It was announced July 23, 2009, just over two months after the BC Liberals won an election in which they vowed to be disinterested in giving B.C. a VAT. In the July 23, 2009 government news release, the HST was described as a VAT.

"More than 130 countries, including 29 of the 30 OECD countries, along with four Canadian provinces, have adopted taxes similar to the HST, called value-added taxes, which reimburse most businesses for the tax they pay on their inputs."

The HST was phased out March 31, 2013 after almost 55% of those who voted opted to extinguish the tax and return to the Provincial Sales Tax. 

Winter, by the way, knows a different kind of vat. He had a three-decade management career with Molson Brewery, including presidency of its Western Canada division. 

Also on Sept. 24, Paragon Gaming unveiled its plans for "Vancouver's Urban Resort."  This, two-and-a-half months after I broke the story in Business in Vancouver about financially troubled Paragon inking a revised deal with B.C. Pavilion Corporation to lease land next to B.C. Place Stadium. The original $6 million a year toward the $514 million stadium renovation will now be $3 million if the complex gets built. 

Yes, this Las Vegas company doesn’t want us to call it the proposed, $535 million new home of Edgewater Casino or a hotel/casino complex. Especially after Vancouver city council threw a curveball and quashed its bid to expand the 75-table, 600-slot machine casino to 150 tables and 1,500 slots in April 2011. Instead, it gave Paragon the go-ahead to move the existing licence to land for lease beside B.C. Place Stadium. Paragon's original $6 million-a-year, 70-year lease was cut to $3 million in a deal agreed to in March 2013. 

The 2011-proposed casino/hotel complex

Paragon revealed the architect's drawings for the casino complex.... er, urban resort... and its investors at a Sept. 24 news conference. Evidently my invitation was lost in the mail. 

I did some digging and found the company's CEO Diana Bennett and president Scott Menke registered a company called Paragon Holdings (Vancouver Resort) ULC on Aug. 8. They are the only directors of the company. Bennett and Menke are also the sole directors of Paragon Gaming Training School Ltd. Their Paragon Development is not to be confused with Paragon Development Inc. of Richmond, whose directors are Julie Chan and Terry Lai. 

The corporate registry doesn’t yet show executives of Paragon backers 360 Vox or Dundee Corporation as directors of Paragon Holdings (Vancouver Resort) ULC. 

The 2013-proposed urban resort... yeah, urban resort

Montreal-headquartered, TSX-V-listed 360 Vox is the umbrella for Enchantment Group Hotels, Resorts and Spas, Sotheby's International Realty Canada, Blueprint Global Marketing and 360 blu. Its asset management portfolio includes Fairmont Hotels including the Empress in Victoria, Olympic in Seattle, Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Royal York in Toronto and Queen Elizabeth in Montreal. 360 Vox is also the project marketer for the CityCenter development in Las Vegas and developer of  two resorts in Dalian, China and three hotels in Cuba. 

Those Cuban properties are the subject of 360 Vox's $25.5 million lawsuit filed in Florida against the PGA of America. Vox 360 claimed PGA cancelled its licensing deal in December 2012 to use the PGA Village Cuba and PGA National Golf Academy Cuba names. 

Dundee Corp. owns 18% of 360 Vox and both companies are chaired by Ned Goodman who, according to the Globe and Mail, sleeps like a baby. Dundee, by the way, owns 58% of oil and gas exploration, development and production company Dundee Energy Ltd. and it owns 83% of Blue Goose Capital Corp., which bought the 14,052-acre Diamond S Ranch in Pavilion, B.C., for $14.8 million. Blue Goose, according to Dundee's annual report, is “focused on the production of clean protein.” (That’s another euphemism for another day.)

Vancouver Not Vegas coalition leader Sandy Garossino was not feeling enthusiastic about Paragon's euphemism. The casino development is not welcome and will be vigorously opposed, she said. Vancouver Not Vegas has already filed a petition, seeking a B.C. Supreme Court order to overturn city council's decision to allow the relocation.

“The people of Vancouver and Vancouver city council roundly rejected the first time this mega casino was proposed. Now we have the appearance of a smaller casino but there still has been no disclosure, there are still too many questions unanswered," Garossino said. "This is really an attempt to do an end run around city council. It makes no economic sense to do such a substantial development around a casino as small as the existing Edgewater is, it’s not going to anchor a development on a scale as being advanced here. We’re very skeptical this is the reality Vancouver is eventually going to have.” 

Yes, here comes another great casino debate about an urban resort.

Which is really just a value-added casino.

Spendthrifts Ballem and Hayden exposed by Canadian Taxpayers' Federation

So what if the Ottawa Senators are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs? 

Their logo is that of a Centurion and they play in Kanata, not Ottawa. 

Anyways, the lockout-shortened 2013 NHL campaign is being played under a big, fat asterisk. 

In a matter of days, the worst-kept secret will be made official. The Kanata Centurions will be the opposition for the Vancouver Canucks at B.C. Place Stadium in the NHL’s Stadium Series of shinny gargantuan gimmick in 2014. An NHL advance crew was in B.C. Place earlier in May to plan logistics for the event, expected to draw up to 59,000. They even measured where the temporary rink will go on the synthetic turf surface. 

"Petro Penny"

Who was more entertaining and productive than Daniel Alfredsson this week? Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation's B.C. office. He scored a pair of hat-tricks on the Freedom of Information front against spending sprees by Vision Vancouver and B.C. Pavilion Corporation bigwigs.

First he scored expense reports for Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem, chief of staff Mike Magee and Mayor Gregor Robertson’s sidekick Kevin Quinlan.  

Among Ballem’s expenses are tanks of gas purchased in Whistler, where she has a cabin with her partner Marion Lay. 

Mayor Gregor Robertson was not interested in answering my questions about Ballem's spending when I saw him at the media-invited opening ceremony of the Society for Information Display convention on May 21 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Robertson claimed he had to get to a tour of the convention floor and didn't have time to answer my lone question about Ballem's spending. Luckily, CKNW's Janet Brown cornered Robertson a day later, but his answers were a tad weak.

Then Bateman notched a hat-trick and a bonus marker over the expense reports of PavCo poobahs. 

CEO Dana Hayden bills taxpayers $2,200 a month for her Vancouver accommodation and spent $50 on fuel to travel to Langley to meet with PavCo chair and Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender (the Surrey-Fleetwood Liberal MLA-elect). 

"Harbour Air Hayden"

Fassbender’s city hall claims to be environmentally sustainable. Instead of using a phone or Skype, Hayden drove all the way to Langley. 

In September 2012, when Coal Harbour neighbours were meeting with PavCo officials to complain about floatplane noise and fumes, Hayden was commuting to Victoria.

“Harbour Air” Hayden’s expense report shows flights on Sept. 10, 13, 17, 20, 24 and 27. The first three were for $160.82 each and the other three $168.32 each.

Howard “Was He Pushed Or Did He Jump?” Crosley became B.C. Place Stadium’s ex-general manager on May 21. Hayden sent a memo to staff a week after the provincial election to announce Crosley’s departure after 15 years at the helm. 

Crosley’s expenses include $115.65 on June 11, 2011 for maintenance at Morrey Nissan, $42.46 for tire repair for a Nissan Rogue on March 22, 2011 and $224.48 for tire purchase for a Nissan Rogue on March 26, 2011. 

Crosley was replaced by Ken Cretney, the Vancouver Convention Centre general manager who was elevated to chief operating officer of PavCo. 

Warren Buckley’s departure from the CEO role in summer 2012 opened the door for Hayden. 

His expense report shows a $41.54 meal on Sept. 6, 2011 for a peacemaking meeting with Josh Blair of Telus and then-CEO Paul Barber of the Bell-sponsored Vancouver Whitecaps. 

Bateman 

That was three weeks before the reopening of B.C. Place, which was supposed to become Telus Park. The government eventually paid the Liberal-friendly telecom $15.2 million.

A $69.55 meal expense on March 25, 2011 shows Buckley lunched with John Christison of the Washington State Convention Centre. During the 1990s, Buckley and Christison were partners in a consultancy that was called, wait for it, Buckley-Christison. 

Buckley said he was invited to visit the Seattle Sounders and met Christison for a tour of his facility, and to discuss convention business and industry trends, “but certainly no connection to Buckley-Christison.” 

“I never participated in the practice and earned no fees at all," Buckley once told me. "He did continue however to use my surname.”

From #QuickWins to Touchdown?

The beleaguered BC Liberal government needs a quick win. Pronto.

No, not one of the Quick Wins of the Multicultural Outreach Strategy variety. The party's playbook to use government (read: public) resources to win the ethnic vote was exposed by the NDP on Pink Shirt Day and threatens to end the Liberals' 12-year dynasty on May 14. 

The quick win I'm talking about would involve an orange shirt. Definitely not NDP orange, but, instead, an orange B.C. Lions' jersey. Premier Christy Clark has one of those (number 35, to be exact) and it is displayed in a frame in the reception area of the downtown Vancouver cabinet office.

On Feb. 19, I revealed how the Lions were granted $2.7 million of taxpayers' funds via B.C. Pavilion Corporation to buy the rights to the 102nd Grey Cup in 2014. 

The 2014 game was expected to be awarded to Winnipeg, but the Canadian Football League began looking elsewhere because the stadium's construction is behind schedule.

If CFL commissioner Mark Cohon hasn't already given Lions' owner David Braley the touchdown signal, then he is on the verge of doing so.  

Lions president Dennis Skulsky told me in late February that he expected the CFL's decision to be announced before the end of March. 

Sources tell me that such a big announcement is coming Fri. March 8 at B.C. Place Stadium and preparations are being made for the Premier to be there. She could even be wearing her orange jersey. 

"Jersey Girl" Clark, B.C. Lions edition, Sept. 30, 2011

While the Bell-sponsored Vancouver Whitecaps have the pitch reserved for an 11 a.m. training session, the Telus-sponsored Lions are planning a big announcement at or near Gate H. Tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m.

Well-timed, because the Vancouver Canucks, who dominate local sports media attention, will be on the first day of their only two-day break of the month, amid a trio of road games. 

Cohon is not expected to be in Vancouver, but another high-ranking CFL executive may be. Coincidentally, CTV and TSN's top sports anchor Brian Williams, a veteran of 37 Grey Cups, will be in the area. He is the emcee for the 47th British Columbia Athlete of the Year Awards on March 7 at River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond.

Asked March 6 whether the 2014 host had been decided, CFL spokesman Jamie Dykstra told me: "An announcement is forthcoming but I can't confirm when at this time."

Pressed further, Dykstra would neither confirm nor deny that the announcement would be this week. 

B.C. Place has hosted eight Grey Cups, most recently in 2011, when the Lions were victorious. 

The timing is intriguing.

Remember this week last year? The Liberal scandal du jour was over the cancellation of the 20-year, $40 million plan to rename B.C. Place as Telus Park and the muddled explanation offered by the government for nixing the deal. It may have had more to do with the direct award of a $1 billion, 10-year government-wide contract to Telus than the politics of the Whitecaps dubbing their field Bell Pitch. 

The Telus Park sign is still in storage at a Pattison-owned warehouse. The Liberals paid Telus an undisclosed sum in August 2012 under a B.C. Place telecommunications supply agreement. That was not the "exclusive telecommunications supplier" agreement that Telus wanted as consolation. 

Then, last fall, talks began anew to resurrect the naming rights deal. B.C. Pavilion Corporation minister (and Deputy Premier) Rich Coleman even huddled with Liberal bagman and ex-PavCo director Peter Brown and Telus CEO Darren Entwistle on Oct. 5. Brown and Entwistle represent $740,000 of donations to the BC Liberals.

The Liberals desperately need some B.C. Place quick wins. The stadium is to host the Times of India Film Awards on April 6, the $11 million-plus pre-election ploy. The Auditor General is taking a look at how the renovation project went from $75 million to $514 million. Steel contractor Canam Group and cable subcontractor Freyssinet Canada are lawyered-up for a 100-day, B.C. Supreme Court trial to begin Oct. 21. General contractor PCL and PavCo were named as defendants by Freyssinet. All the while, PavCo seeks to silence this inconvenient sleuth.

#RoofLeaks wonders: is Coleman's future friendly?

Deputy Preem

Once in a while, a meeting listed in the agenda of a certain cabinet minister or senior bureaucrat is particularly intriguing.

The one that Deputy Premier Rich Coleman (aka Emir of Energy, Majordomo of Mines, Nabob of Natural Gas, Lord of Lotteries, Boss of Booze, Highness of Housing and Poobah of PavCo ) held on Oct. 5, 2012 would be at the top of the heap. 

At a location not disclosed, Coleman sat down with Peter Brown and Darren Entwistle for a half-hour. 

Bagman Brown 

Brown is an Order of British Columbia member and diehard BC Liberal bagman. Brown is best-known as the founder of the Canaccord investment house. He is perhaps B.C.’s best-known capitalist, the chairman of the Fraser Institute, no less, with a bull and a bear painted on the gates of his Point Grey mansion. During the summer of 2012, Brown wrote an alarmist letter to the B.C. Conservatives, warning them that splitting the free enterprise vote would ensure an NDP victory and could bring European-style economic chaos and social unrest to B.C.

Entwistle is the CEO of Telus, the biggest private corporation in B.C., which was given a controversial 10-year, $1 billion contract to supply the government, Crown corporations and health authorities with telecommunications goods and services. Competitors Bell, Rogers and Shaw claimed the process was unfair.

Together, Brown and Entwistle represent $740,000 of donations to the BC Liberals since 2005, according to Elections BC figures ($378,777.35 from Telus and $360,630 from Canaccord). 

NDP leader Dix (left) and Telus boss Entwistle

Brown quit the board of B.C. Pavilion Corporation in spectacular fashion on Feb. 13, 2012, with a pointed resignation letter (see below) to chairman David Podmore, which was copied to Finance Minister Kevin Falcon and Pat Bell, the minister responsible for PavCo until the Sept. 5, 2012 cabinet shuffle. Brown was angry about the government’s decision to cancel the 20-year, $40 million deal to sell B.C. Place naming rights to Telus. 

Just over two weeks later, Entwistle mugged for cameras at the end of a March 2, 2012 Telus news conference outlining the company's B.C. job and investment activities. 

Premier Christy Clark wasn’t there, only ex-Finance Minister Colin Hansen. But it was NDP leader Adrian Dix who was called to the stage for the photo op with the telecom titan. 

Telus's B.C. Family Day-themed ad

The Liberals and Telus kissed and made-up. Entwistle was joined by Clark for the late June groundbreaking of a new data centre in Kamloops. The government eventually paid in August 2012 to Telus a sum that it doesn’t want to disclose to you. The government and Telus have since restarted talks about the Telus Park naming rights. Could the $2.7 million taxpayer-supported bid for the 2014 Grey Cup be connected? 

Neither Telus nor Coleman nor Brown would disclose the contents or the outcome of the meeting. 

Rich Coleman's Oct. 5, 2012 agenda:

Peter Brown's Feb. 13, 2012 resignation letter to PavCo

Elections BC reports on donations from Canaccord and Telus to the BC Liberals

#RoofLeaks kicks off

In 2012, this blog launched #LiquorLeaks, a flood of documents regarding the Liquor Distribution Branch and the BC Liberal government's thirst to privatize the storage and hauling of booze in British Columbia. 

I spelled out how BC Liberal-connected Exel Logistics and ContainerWorld were strategizing to win the business. The tendering process was abruptly halted Sept. 27, 2012, the day the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union reached a two-year deal with government. The four shortlisted companies had yet to make their final presentations. 

There is more to come from #LiquorLeaks. In the meantime, I now introduce #RoofLeaks, a compilation of records gleaned from my Freedom of Information requests directed at the B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the taxpayer-owned company that operates the Vancouver Convention Centre and B.C. Place Stadium. These are the two biggest and most-expensive buildings in downtown Vancouver. Magnets for big events and big controversy. And I will demonstrate for you why British Columbians should be concerned about how they are managed.

For starters, PavCo is seeking an order to quash my right to file Freedom of Information requests. It has effectively blacklisted me since making a complaint on Feb. 13 to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, claiming my requests are frivolous and vexatious, repetitive and systematic.

I say PavCo is wrong on all counts and I am contesting PavCo's application, which amounts to intimidation just ahead of the election. As a journalist reporting in the public interest, my goal is to show the public how its money is spent and how its assets are managed.

On Feb. 19, NDP members Doug Routley and Spencer Chandra Herbert took-up my case in the Legislature, seeking answers from Premier Christy Clark and PavCo Minister Rich Coleman. The following is an excerpt from Hansard:

Routley

D. Routley: The Premier has made claims to open government being one of her top three priorities, even telling the media that information belongs to the public. Yet on Friday we learned that investigative journalist Bob Mackin received a letter from PavCo telling him they have applied under the Freedom of Information Act to bar him from "frivolous and vexatious" claims to information. Does the Premier agree with this outrageous act by PavCo to silence one of its chief critics?
Hon. R. Coleman: The individual that the member refers to has been making and has received some information with regards to information and privacy from PavCo. But the members opposite and the members of this House should know that he is 89 percent of all the requests of information and privacy at PavCo. It's a large volume of work, so they were finally to the point where some of it became ridiculously frivolous in their minds. They asked and they have gone forward to ask the commissioner for an opinion.
 D. Routley: It's about the public interest — an uncomfortable fact for the government. It was through these claims to freedom of information that the public found out about PavCo's hundreds of millions of dollars of overspending. It was only through these requests that the public knew this.
Does the minister responsible for PavCo stand by the position that asking about massive cost overruns is frivolous or vexatious?

Coleman

Hon. R. Coleman: Through to the member opposite: well, first of all, Member, the first thing you'd like to do yourselves is to try and get your numbers straight when you're actually making public comments. I've heard your members talk about the $100 million figure quoted for the roof for B.C. Place under PavCo's chair back in 2008. The member doesn't actually want to tell the rest of the story, which was about a pillow roof to replace exactly the same roof as was there before and not a significant investment to actually redo the entire stadium, which this was. PavCo announced the final approved budget of $563 million for B.C. Place revitalization in October 2009. They did it for $514 million...

Chandra Herbert

S. Chandra Herbert: This is about freedom of information. This is about giving journalists access to information they need to do their jobs. I know the minister wants to focus on sports stadiums, but we're talking about work that the media needs done so that they can support our democracy. Under the Liberals, PavCo has had a history of mismanagement. Five times over budget, the Telus naming debacle, PavCo's float plane fiasco, PavCo's botched casino deal, the convention centre going massively over budget… The list goes on and on. The Premier claimed that open government was one of her top priorities. Will she stand today and demonstrate that she actually puts action behind her words and tell PavCo to stop trying to ban the media from doing their job?

 Notice how Coleman referred to me, not by name, but as "the individual that the member refers to?" The Premier? She didn't stand.

Here's an uncomfortable fact for Coleman: The original budget for B.C. Place renovations was not $100 million, but actually $75 million, including a new, inflatable, fabric roof. That inconvenient truth is contained in a Jan. 8, 2008 letter from PavCo chair David Podmore to Wayne Henderson of Dominion Construction, the company that eventually was awarded the bid for phase 1 work. That letter is below.

Just 14 days later, on Jan. 22, 2008, Podmore told Vancouver city manager Judy Rogers in a letter that "the scope of the rehabilitation project is in the order of $100 million which includes replacement of the roof."

By April of that year, PavCo had changed gears and was considering the pre-Olympic installation of a Frankfurt-style retractable roof for $253 million. But the anticipated completion date of Jan. 31, 2010 was deemed too close to the Feb. 12, 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. The project was delayed until after the Games at a Jan. 9, 2009-announced budget of $365 million.

That budget was increased (after the BC Liberals won re-election) to $458 million on Oct. 23, 2009. The government finally admitted it would be $563 million and now claims the final price was $514 million. Oh, they're so proud that it's $49 million under the final budget. But don't dare mention those pesky scope changes and cost increases! The leaky, grease-stained roof? Nothing to see there, move along. Those are such uncomfortable facts for a party so desperate to remain in power.

For the sake of all, let's hope Auditor-General John Doyle expands his fact-finding mission into a full-blown value-for-money investigation of the B.C. Place project. The taxpayers deserve to know the truth about the evolution of such a risky project that shows no signs of breaking-even.

PavCo tries to blacklist inconvenient sleuth

Remember the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, the private-public partnership seaplane dock built at the $883 million Vancouver Convention Centre (which was supposed to be built for $495 million)?

Holdout Harbour Air agreed to move from a temporary marina into the new $22 million VHFC, but pay $2 million for its own dock. Harbour Air was balking at the excessive $12 per-passenger tax. VHFC was built by Ledcor and Graham Clark, who was part of the board that privatized Vancouver International Airport and imposed the unpopular passenger tax called the Airport Improvement Fee. 

In September 2012, the lawsuits were dropped and VHFC and PavCo settled. According to the below settlement agreement, obtained under Freedom of Information, PavCo agreed to pay VHFC a secret sum and amend the lease agreement. The parties agreed to bear their own legal costs.

Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre settlement with B.C. Pavilion Corporation by

These documents should have arrived long before now. I made the request Sept. 13, 2012. It took just over five calendar months for PavCo to make the disclosure. And, as you can see, it is not even a full disclosure. 

This may be one of the last Freedom of Information disclosures I get, if PavCo has its way. 

PavCo Assistant Corporate Secretary and Freedom of Information Manager Alexandra Wagner notified me on Feb. 15, 2013 that PavCo filed an application on Feb. 13, 2013 under Section 43 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. 

Section 43, headlined “Power to authorize a public body to disregard requests,” allows a public body to ask the Information and Privacy Commissioner to authorize the disregarding of requests that “would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the public body because of the repetitious or systematic nature of the requests, or are frivolous or vexatious.”

It seems I am too curious about about PavCo, the companies it hires, the money it spends, the Vancouver Whitecaps and B.C. Lions rental payments (or lack thereof), and the half-billion-dollars of taxpayers' money spent on the stadium renovation, which is now being examined by the Office of the Auditor General. (At least four of John Doyle's staffers, I am told, were seen touring the stadium on Feb. 8.).

Through FOI, I have received documents that helped me expose uncomfortable facts and inconvenient truths about B.C. Place Stadium, such as the janitorial worker whose death after collapsing on the job was covered-up for two years, the grease leaks from roof support cables that have caused millions of dollars in roof fabric stains and the high-level meetings held to resurrect a controversial casino proposal. Those are just three examples of many stories you would never know about if I only relied on PavCo news releases and news conferences. 

Now, PavCo's goal is to refuse to disclose any of my requests from Feb. 13, 2013 onward. 

PavCo wants to shut me down. 

I say, PavCo must not succeed. 

I am a frequent requester, but what I do is not frivolous or vexatious. Nor is it repetitive or wasteful. In fact, it is necessary and it is in the public interest. I ask tough questions of a Crown corporation that is ultimately owned by you, the public. A Crown corporation that runs downtown Vancouver's two biggest buildings and relies on scarce and hard-earned taxpayer dollars. A Crown corporation that has a tendency toward secrecy because it simply doesn't enjoy questions from the public, whether it's about a casino not wanted by neighbours or advertising signs not wanted by neighbours.

PavCo has consistently turned down my interview requests and not provided basic information in a timely manner. FOI has become the best and only tool for gaining knowledge of what goes on behind closed-doors. 

I would prefer I didn't have to ask PavCo to release records. I would prefer PavCo  would see fit to do its business in the open and in a proactive manner. How about public meetings of the board of directors? How about publishing the agenda before the meeting and the minutes afterward? How about disclosing all contracts worth $10,000-and-up on a quarterly basis? How about explaining why some of the contracts were awarded without a competitive bidding process? How about publishing the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee minutes every month? 

Alas, PavCo isn't transparent and I have to ask for these things on the public’s behalf. What makes it even more troubling is that PavCo seems to be contravening Premier Christy Clark’s own government-wide openness directive. 

The 2011 throne speech said: "Our government is committed to openness, transparency and engaging with British Columbians. Simply put: we need to be open with the information people have a right to see and open to ideas they have a right to voice."

In July 2011, at the 2:49 mark of this video, Clark said: "After all, it's taxpayers' money and it's taxpayers' information."

PavCo's board includes chairman Peter Fassbender (the Mayor of Langley) and Suzanne Anton (who wanted to be Mayor of Vancouver). Both of them are seeking Liberal nominations. I have asked for their assistance in overturning this ill-thought strategy. Ex-NPA Vancouver Coun. Anton, in particular, rallied against Vision Vancouver's creeping secrecy at Vancouver city hall. Now she is part of an entity that prefers to do its business away from the public eye. An entity that reports to Deputy Premier Rich Coleman, who is the minister responsible for PavCo. That's the same Coleman who is oddly never available when I want to interview him on PavCo, gambling and liquor issues.

I have appealed to PavCo to rescind the section 43 application. I hope reason and transparency will prevail at PavCo. I have also complained to Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, asking her to deny the PavCo application. It would be a very sad day for both citizens and the media in B.C. if PavCo were to succeed -- especially when an election is rapidly approaching and citizens need to be informed before they go to the ballot box. 

In the meantime, I have plenty of previously received PavCo information that I will eagerly share with you in the weeks to come, because you have the right to know.

Getcha popcorn ready!

(Pssst... if you have credible information that is in the public interest and you think I should receive it, I gladly accept brown envelopes c/o Business in Vancouver, The Tyee or CKNW AM 980. And, you must know that any citizen can make a Freedom of Information request. It is not the sole domain of nosy journalists like me. For instance, you can file an FOI request to PavCo, c/o Alexandra Wagner, by mail: #200-999 Canada Place, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 3C1; fax: 604-484-5154; or email: awagner@bcpavco.com. Never made an FOI request? The B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association has user-friendly FOI request directions here. Happy requesting!)

UPDATE (7:53 p.m. Feb. 15): Fassbender responded with this message below: 

Thank you for both your phone messages and copying me on this correspondence.  I am going over the circumstances with the staff and am not prepared to comment without having the history from them. I want you to know that my first default is to leave matters like this to staff and do not get involved as I do not think it is appropriate in my role as Chair of the Board. I am sure you would like me to provide more comment but I am not prepared to do so.

Peanuts, popcorn, briefing notes... briefing notes

Pat Bell handed the reins of B.C. Pavilion Corporation to Rich Coleman in the Sept. 5 cabinet shuffle.

Bell added the labour ministry portfolio to his Jobs, Tourism and Innovation post. Deputy Premier Coleman already had energy, mines, natural gas, housing, gambling and liquor. 

Now he's also the boss of B.C. Place Stadium and the majordomo of the Vancouver Convention Centre. 

As ministers, they rely on briefing notes crafted by their staff, so they can stay in-the-know about the issues, programs and policies in their ministry and its agencies. See PavCo briefing notes from the summer and fall. 

Bell continued to have a small hand in the oversight of PavCo through fall, as he met frequently with interim CEO Dana Hayden to discuss the resurrection of the Telus Park naming rights for B.C. Place Stadium, which were flubbed in February 2012 over the aftermath of the billion-dollar, government service deal gone wrong.

So what were the spin doctors telling Bell and later Coleman to say?

Aug. 10: B.C. Place Technology Supply Agreement 
Here 'tis, confirmation that "PavCo has purchased the technology infrastructure installed in B.C. Place from Telus." (I've reported on this since November.) But, sadly, they won't tell us how much of our money was paid to Telus. "The total value of the agreement to purchase technology infrastructure installed by Telus is (censored)." Maybe Auditor-General John Doyle can extract that information in his fact-finding mission about the mysterious business plan and the escalating budget? 

Sept. 13: Coal Harbour Residents Opposed to the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre Terminal
Speaks for itself.

Oct. 2: $514M Renovation vs. B.C. Place Economic Activity 
PavCo tries to paint the lipstick on the stadium pig, claiming it came $49 million under the $563 million budget and downplaying the Jan. 9, 2009-announced $365 million all-in budget. Your humble servant is named in this one.

Oct. 4: PavCo Chair Recognition Ceremony
PavCo spent "less than" $4,000 on chairman David Podmore's farewell attended by 35 guests including Pat Bell and downtown MLA Mary McNeill. "Donations were received from Centerplate and Pace Group." That's the BC Liberal-attached public relations company that has multiple government contracts and was deeply involved in the civic NPA campaign in 2011. That's the same Podmore who refused my interview requests during his last week on the job in the end of September.

Oct. 11: Possible Roof Leaks at B.C. Place
They weren't just possible, they actually were happening and continue to happen! Much of this briefing note is censored for "policy advice or recommendations." Isn't that odd? Briefing notes, by their very nature, contain policy advice and recommendations. When it comes to B.C. Place roof leaks and all things PavCo, it's nothing to see here, move along. (Pssst., put Oct. 21 on your calendar, for the beginning of the 100-day B.C. Supreme Court trial between the stadium's steel and cable contractors. PavCo is a defendant. Getcha popcorn!)

B.C. Pavilion Corporation briefing notes by BobMackin