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

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

Roof rip 6 years ago caused costly domino reaction

B.C. Place's roof ripped and collapsed Jan. 5, 2007

UPDATE (Jan. 14): NDP Critic Spencer Chandra Herbert complained to Auditor General John Doyle on Jan. 11, seeking an investigation of the cost of B.C. Place Stadium renovations. Read my story in The Tyee here and see the letter to the Auditor General at the end of this blog post.

UPDATE (Jan. 18): Auditor General John Doyle responded to Chandra Herbert on Jan. 16 and will conduct a fact-finding exercise. A very important first step. See his letter at the end of this post. Here's my latest story in Business in Vancouver. 

Was the skyrocketing cost of B.C. Place Stadium renovations the product of simple scope change or its evil twin, scope creep?

Government has refused to release a business plan or cost/benefit analysis for the renovation of B.C. Place Stadium, begging the question: does one exist? 

When it comes to B.C. Place, there are always more questions than answers. 

Ultimately, there is one question about B.C. Place that needs to be answered, after the half-billion-dollar project. It is this: did taxpayers get value for their money? 

The only hope may be for the Office of the Auditor General to step-in and investigate the blizzard of spending that happened at the 1983-opened stadium after its roof ripped and collapsed on Jan. 5, 2007 in a disaster that was deemed preventable. (It happened, whether by coincidence or convenience, after a drastically censored, 15-page, June 20, 2006 report to the Tourism Ministry by B.C. Pavilion Corporation that proposed major improvements at the stadium because it had "worn out assets which are critical to basic tenant operations.")

John Doyle’s predecessors investigated the NDP’s controversial Fast Ferries project (which was supposed to cost $210 million but rose to $462 million) and the Liberals' Vancouver Convention Centre expansion (which was supposed to cost $495 million but rose to $883.2 million). So why not put B.C. Place under similar official scrutiny? Why not before voters go to the polls to elect a new provincial government on May 14, 2013? 

In a Sept. 28, 2012 interview with Bill Good on CKNW AM 980, outgoing B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman Podmore maintained “there’s only one budget, that’s the $563 million.”

"What government did is they authorized an expenditure of $12 million to allow us to completely design and engineer the building. To go out and obtain firm prices from contractors and subtrades. 

“And then we bundled all that together and went back to government and said OK, we completed the engineering, this is going to cost $563 million, we can get a fixed price contract to cover that work, do you want to proceed?”

Podmore also maintained the final price tag was $514 million. His math and chronology are a tad too simple for both you and me. 

What is now known is that he told Vancouver city manager Judy Rogers in a Jan. 22, 2008 letter that the cost was “in the order of $100 million, which includes replacement of the roof.” Podmore did not use modifiers, qualifiers or asterisks in his confidential letter. He didn’t mention whether the roofing cost for the stadium "rehabilitation" included an updated inflatable top or a new retractable system. 

By late April 2008, PavCo internal documents estimated the cost of a renovation with a "spoke-wheel" Frankfurt-style retractable roof would be $253 million. Application of such a roof before the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics was nixed, because the best estimate for completion was less than two weeks before the Feb. 12, 2010 opening ceremony.

Podmore and Premier Gordon Campbell announced the project in a May 16, 2008 news conference at B.C. Place, but both steered clear of telling taxpayers how much it would cost for that Frankfurt-style retractable roof. 

On Jan. 9, 2009, PavCo issued a news release announcing a $365 million funding envelope for top-to-bottom renovations. 

The budget was updated to $458 million on Oct. 23, 2009. Government eventually admitted the all-in price would be $563 million. On Aug. 15, 2012, the ruling BC Liberals claimed it was $514 million -- or $49 million under budget. (Still, that’s $414 million more than what Podmore said in his 2008 letter to Rogers.)

Along the way, Podmore said the sale or lease of PavCo lands around the stadium and a naming rights sponsorship would help lessen the burden on taxpayers. The sale option was tossed and the name remains the same. 

Paragon Gaming’s proposed casino/hotel complex west of the stadium was put on hold indefinitely when Vancouver city council denied an expansion bid in April 2011. Edgewater Casino is staying put at the Plaza of Nations until at least 2015, but Paragon is talking to PavCo about using city council authority to move the existing licence to a scaled-down complex. 

Telus had a $35 million to $40 million, 20-year deal to rename the stadium Telus Park, but government cancelled the agreement in February 2012. Evidence suggests the sponsorship was scuttled because of ongoing complaints and legal threats by competitors Bell, Rogers and Shaw over the June 2011 direct award of a $1 billion, 10-year government-wide telecommunications contract to Telus. 

Instead of giving Telus a second tier, official or exclusive supplier designation in exchange for goods and services already provided, government did a straight supply-without-recognition deal with Telus in August for an undisclosed sum. Yes, the government doesn’t want to tell us how much it paid Telus for goods and services that were supposed to be provided under the sponsorship. 

And, finally, the trial of the year is scheduled to begin in B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 21, 2013 and it's all about the roof. Cable installer Freyssinet Canada sued steel contractor Canam Group for nearly $6.5 million. Canam fought back with a $26.15 million countersuit. PavCo and general contractor PCL are listed as defendants. The legal battle has been complicated by the grease that leaked from the Geobrugg-supplied cables which stained the fabric roof. The next procedural hearing is Jan. 10 and will involve applications to add more defendants and third-parties. (Meanwhile, B.C. Place workers represented by B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union local 1703 voted 96% in favour of striking. Contracting out and scheduling are the big issues.)

Recent legal filings by a lawyer for Canam suggest the cost of damage to the roof from leaking grease may be worth $15 million and it may not be covered by insurance. PavCo knew the leaks existed more than six months before roof fabric installation.

Apologists for PavCo and those desperately hoping to keep the B.C. Liberals in power and the NDP out of power after May's election will try to play-down any concerns about B.C. Place costs by claiming stadium-related economic activity rose from $58 million to more than $100 million after the renovation. But they have no real evidence to show you or me. This is par for the course around North America, according to The Stadium Gambit and Local Economic Development by sports economists Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys. They say that stadium and arena developments never do for a local economy what the boosters say. 

“A stadium is a public investment in real capital, as such, the rules for sensible public investment apply to stadium finance as much as they apply to public provision of highways, schools and airports... 

“Unlike most studies commissioned by stadium advocates, the consensus in the academic literature has been that the sports environment has no measurable effect on the level of real income in metropolitan areas.”

The money that’s spent on B.C. Place is spent. It’s like toothpaste that cannot be stuffed back into the tube. But now is the time to analyze what went right and what went wrong. The public has a right to know how its money was spent and whether it was spent properly. Look what happened to Quebec’s construction industry because of opaque government tendering and spending. Revelations of Mafia involvement and resignations of mayors have been among the results so far of the Charbonneau Commission inquiry into that province's construction corruption.

Lessons can be learned which can be applied to future government mega-projects in B.C. New ideas can and should be floated to make the stadium a daily revenue generator, so that it can deliver dividends to government instead of rely on annual subsidies. It is a building with great potential. 

NDP complains to Auditor General to investigate B.C. Place renovation costs by BobMackin

Auditor General agrees to examine B.C. Place renovation costs by

#LiquorLeaks: Curious about George

During the Distribution of Liquor Project -- the fancy name given the process to privatize the warehousing and distribution of B.C.'s profitable Liquor Distribution Branch -- liquor minister Rich Coleman has defended the process by heralding the hiring of a "fairness monitor." Coleman has also called the job "fairness auditor" and "fairness commissioner." More fancy words from the cabinet minister who has bucked all of my requests for interviews since the privatization was announced in the Feb. 21 budget. If the privatization is such a good idea, why does Coleman refuse to sit down with me to answer my questions and defend it?

The fairness monitor is George Macauley, a Victoria lawyer and economist who has extensive experience working on contract with the provincial government. Macauley and Associates has been paid $1.3 million for contracts over the last decade. Macauley's resume indicates that his primary work and specialty is government contracts.

Records requested and obtained by me via Freedom of Information (below) indicate Macauley was among six people invited to bid on March 12 and he was awarded the contract on March 26. Doug Benson, Alistair Duncan, Owen Pawson, Jane Shackell and John Singleton were the unsuccessful bidders. The contract is worth $74,900, which is $100 shy of the $75,000 threshold that triggers a public advertisement, and runs March 27, 2012-March 31, 2013. The contract states Macauley must:

a) Review the procurement documentation so as to understand the negotiated request for proposal process that will be used on the distribution of liquor project;
b) Monitor the procurement process for adherence to the terms of the NRFP, including participating at the proponents meeting, site visits (if any), providing advice related to fairness in the NRFP, oversight during evaluation of submissions and subsequent proposal refinement process as well as final selection of the selected proponent; and
c) prepare a written fairness summary report based on observations made during delivery of the procurement process.
...provide a draft written fairness summary report to the Province on the NRFP process within two weeks of notification to proponents, by the Province, of the identification of the selected proponent. A final written fairness summary document will be provided to the Province at a date to be stipulated by the Province and to take place no later than two weeks prior to the end of the Term of this Agreement. This report will be made publicly available by the Province.
The contractor may be required to provide verbal reports as required by the Province to the executive procurement steering committee, vendors, cabinet, public or media. 

Macauley's bid to the government shows that he had a hand in the oversight of some of the biggest government contracts awarded to private companies during the post-2001 BC Liberal era, such as:

• $572 million, 10-year revenue management contract with EDS Advanced Solutions;
• $324 million, 10-year health benefits operations with Maximus BC;
• $300 million, 10-year workstation services and IT contract with IBM Canada, and 
• $1 billion, 10-year telecommunications services contract with Telus. 

That's almost $2.2 billion of taxpayer-funded contracts!

NDP liquor critic Shane Simpson wrote a complaint to Macauley on June 22, seeking him to intervene and recommend the government postpone the tendering while various issues of integrity are resolved. Here's my story on BIV.com. See Simpson's letter at the bottom of this post.

Macauley politely declined my request for an interview and would not comment on Simpson's letter or provide me his response.

"My previous engagements with the projects you identified were different from the current DLP engagement.  My role then was of an ongoing advisory nature to provide advice and course correction if I identified any fairness issues as the process proceeded. I was not asked to provide a written report or documentation, and such reports and documentation were accordingly not created. In the present project, as you know, I will be preparing and providing a written fairness summary report in addition to providing ongoing advice and course correction on fairness matters."

Macauley was one of many people involved in those processes listed above, which were ultimately decided by cabinet. But the contracts were targets of criticism. The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union drew attention to how a company related to Maximus was accused of fraud in the United States. The government battled to keep the Maximus contract secret. The government spent more than $125,000 to keep the whole IBM contract secret since 2004, but a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in June 2012 that it should be published. The omnibus telecommunications contract for Telus raised the ire of competitors Rogers, Shaw and Bell, who accused the government of breaking interprovincial trade accords and running an unfair procurement process.

And now there is the Distribution of Liquor Project, which is happening without a business plan or formal industry consultation. Frontrunner Exel Logistics, I revealed, considered how it could use its BC Liberal-connected lobbyists and close relationship with Coleman to influence the writing of the RFP and get the 10-year contract -- which it estimated in October 2009 was worth at least $55 million a year.

All that and more in the #LiquorLeaks files.

More to come...

Macauley Fairnessmonitor Mackin

NDP critic complains about integrity of LDB privatization

Exclusive: Tell us, why Brown petered out of PavCo?

The mystery continues over why Peter Brown suddenly resigned from the B.C. Pavilion Corporation board of directors on Feb. 13.


All signs point to the Howe Street wheeler-dealer being frustrated over B.C. Liberal cabinet members overturning the PavCo recommendation for Telus to be the 20-year, $35 million to $40 million naming rights sponsor of B.C. Place Stadium. But the government wants to sweep it under the rug.


Brown's departure didn't become public knowledge until March 9, a week after Premier Christy Clark was a no-show at a Telus news conference where NDP leader Adrian Dix mugged for photos with the Vancouver-based, Liberal-friendly telecommunications giant's boss Darren Entwistle. 


The Liberals promised that some of the costs of the $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovation would be  paid by sponsorship. When they went into damage control mode, Clark, Finance minister Kevin Falcon and PavCo minister Pat Bell laughably said the deal was not in the best interest of taxpayers and claimed the B.C. Place name was "iconic." Such feeble excuses.


I received, via Freedom of Information, a copy of correspondence between Brown and Falcon, including Brown's Feb. 13 letter of immediate resignation from PavCo.


A key paragraph was censored, under section 13 of the FOI act, which broadly covers "advice or recommendations" for a public body. 


The missing section comes after a line that says: "In almost every case, the government dealt with us and third parties professionally, respectfully and in good faith." It appears Brown was setting up a paragraph in which he was going to give the government a piece of his mind. 


Evidently, the Liberal government is embarrassed to show you and me why one of the party's biggest donors and one of the province's best-known businessmen skedaddled from the Crown corporation.


The official explanation from Brown and Podmore after the news broke in March was that Brown wanted to lessen his busy schedule and that PavCo was transitioning from a construction phase to a marketing phase. Podmore has been in no apparent rush to fill Brown's empty spot at the board table. Nor is he in any rush to tell taxpayers the final price tag for the most-expensive stadium renovation in Canadian history.

Brown's letter was an immediate notice of resignation and, based on the tone of the third paragraph, it indicates that Brown had more on his mind than a desire to lessen his schedule or assist PavCo in evolving from construction to marketing functions. Within the documents below, you might also notice how Brown mentioned he was going to visit the High Commissioner in London? That would be a certain Gordon Campbell, the former Premier of B.C. who appointed Brown to the PavCo board. 


Neither Brown nor Podmore responded to my requests for comment. When will the government come clean, and just tell us the truth?


(The B.C. Lions' season opener at B.C. Place on June 29 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The rematch of the 2011 Grey Cup is sponsored by Telus. Could that be the night the consolation prize, the exclusive telecommunications supply deal for Telus, is announced?)
PeterBrownFOI Mackin

PavCo loses another director

Will the last person left please turn out the floodlights?

Another director has left the board of B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the taxpayer-owned company that operates B.C. Place Stadium and the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Peter Brown's February departure wasn't confirmed until March. The Howe Street tycoon, Order of B.C. recipient and Liberal bagman (right) claimed he wants to slow down, but the real reason was his disgust over Premier Christy Clark turning down the $35 million to $40 million B.C. Place Stadium naming rights deal with Telus.

Now joining Brown on the outside-looking-in is Derek Brindle. Brindle (below) is a lawyer with the Vancouver firm Singleton Urquhart, has a Queen's Counsel designation, and his bio states he "acts as an arbitrator and in mediations involving construction and insurance disputes. Derek advises Crown institutions and industry on risk mitigation strategies in major procurement."

UPDATE: 8:33 p.m. April 12

PavCo chairman David Podmore has emailed me this statement:

"Derek left the board in February 2012.

"He joined the Board at my invitation in 2007 to be available to provide construction legal expertise as PavCo proceeded through completion of the VCC West expansion and the BC Place Refurbishment.

"With completion of both major construction efforts PavCo is moving to a focus on business development to ensure that the business potential of these assets (VCC West, VCC East, and BC Place) are maximized, consequentially the business focus will gradually shift away from construction and more emphasis will be placed in sales and marketing as well as operations.

"Derek's advice and expertise has been most helpful through the past years where the focus has been on completion of the new facilities and the BC Place upgrade.

"Derek has been exceptionally helpful through these stages, and has resigned to allow PavCo to move to the next stage where the focus must be on business development to maximize utilization of these exceptional assets which he helped deliver, and recruit the Directors that will have the appropriate expertise to provide the guidance and advice to maximize the utilization of the exceptional facilities created during Derek' s participation on the PavCo Board."

UPDATE: 10 a.m. April 13

Brindle responded to my phone message via email:

"I resigned in February after nearly 5 years on the Board.

"I initially joined at the Chair's invitation as someone with experience and interest in construction. My preferred area of practice was, and is, in construction law. It was not my intention to overstay the construction projects to be undertaken.

"After the completion of the final construction project near the end of 2011, it was timely to move off the Board to allow for an orderly transition and focus on marketing and operations.

"Any further questions can be directed to Pavco."

UPDATE: 12:41 p.m. April 13

Here is the response when I asked if Brindle might have a few minutes to answer questions about whether his departure from the board was affected by the government-nixed Telus naming rights deal and the lawsuit by two roof contractors:

"Thank you, however, I have nothing further to add to my earlier e-mail response to your questions."

Questions persist, I say. Why no public announcement of Brown and Brindle's departures? Can one call it an "orderly transition" when there is no immediate replacement for directors who leave before the May 27 end-of-term? Why do taxpayers have to wait until a reporter gets a tip?

PavCo, coincidentally, is one of the parties named in a $6.5 million lawsuit filed by steel cable installer Freyssinet. Steel contractor Canam Group filed a $26.15 million countersuit against Freyssinet. The messy dispute, which may ultimately tell the story of this difficult renovation, could be settled in a marathon court trial to begin in October 2013.

We still have no update on the cost of the B.C. Place renovations, which were budgeted at $563 million. The government is not likely to tell us the truth while it's contesting by-elections in Port Moody and Chilliwack, for fear of losing two seats in the Legislature.

Cue the circus music

The long, strange saga of the Telus Park naming rights deal for B.C. Place Stadium won’t end.

How did it start?

We know that the stadium wasn't finished in time for the Sept. 30, 2011 reopening, but the show went on anyway.

Telus crews, under the guise of the top secret "Project Frog," were in and out of the construction site throughout the summer to install the wi-fi and mobile phone antennas and video screens, but often had to hurry up and wait. B.C. Pavilion Corporation and PCL Constructors Westcoast had other priorities. The application of the fabric roof was way behind schedule, delayed from February to July because the Quebec steel contractor Canam and French cable installer Freyssinet couldn't get along and cables and machines were failing or breaking.



The reopening came and went. So did the marquee event, the 99th Grey Cup. The name remained B.C. Place Stadium. Telus had incurred extra costs and the value of the naming rights had diminished. It reasonably wanted a better deal than the one originally agreed.

Meanwhile, the B.C. Liberal Party ended 2011 with its "Risky Dix" attack ad campaign and began 2012 by soliciting various frequent donors to build a war chest for the Port Moody and Chilliwack by-elections. Telus, which gave $352,407.35 since 2005, declined.

The Liberals were miffed after awarding Telus the $1 billion, 10-year omnibus telecommunications contract in summer 2011 in controversial fashion.

The Liberals were hammered by Telus competitors, chiefly Bell, Rogers and Shaw, who accused the government of violating trade agreements and government procurement rules. The tendering process for nine different contracts lasted more than two years before the government's sudden, surprise bundling of the entire business into one deal, for one company.

Despite the party's ties to Telus, Premier Christy Clark has telecommunications connections of her own.

Not only is Clark a good friend of Bell-sponsored, Vancouver Whitecaps' owner Greg Kerfoot, but she was formerly employed as a CKNW radio talkshow host by Corus Entertainment, a company controlled by Shaw Communications.

In fact, Clark met on Jan. 30 in the Premier's Vancouver Office at the World Trade Centre in Canada Place with Shaw CEO Brad Shaw.

Shaw Communications is contesting Telus’s application to trademark Optik TV. Shaw also owns Global TV, which boasts the best-rated local TV newscast in Canada on Global BC.

As if to make matters worse, Telus is suing the B.C. government. Deputy Minister of Finance Peter Milburn denied Telus's appeal for a Social Service Tax refund on Feb. 7, according to the March 9-filed B.C. Supreme Court documents below. Telus claimed it errantly paid or self-assessed $306,311.61 in taxes after the 2004 purchase of servers, operating software and maintenance from IBM, Lucent and Sun Microsystems. At least $96,580.40 was not refunded and remains in dispute.

Telus sues B.C. government for a tax refund

While Clark has been noticeably quiet during a week-long break from the Legislature (after mis-handling the mess and message the previous week), some Liberal MLAs have used their time off to arrange photo opportunities with community newspapers to dole funds from a $30 million pot Clark announced at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention on Sept. 30, 2011 in Vancouver.

MLAs Randy Hawes and Marc Dalton went to Mission to announce $185,000 for dehumidifiers at the Mission Leisure Centre’s three rinks. Hawes and Dalton told Abbotsford Times reporter Christina Toth that the money was left over from the stadium’s renovation!

MLAs Randy Hawes (Abbotsford Mission) and Marc Dalton (Maple Ridge Mission) met with the district's mayor Ted Adlem and Coun. Nelson Tilbury at the leisure centre to hand over the cheque.

The largesse comes from monies left over from the $563-million renovation of the B.C. Place roof. When the project came in $30 million below the last estimated cost, Victoria decided to disperse those dollars to recreation projects around B.C., explained Hawes.

"We just got the information on the weekend," he said.

Preposterous! Minister responsible for B.C. Place Pat Bell told me in a Jan. 30 interview: “We’re probably three or four months away from being able to roll out the final numbers.”

"For them to claim this is surplus money from a project millions of dollars over budget is a real stretch," NDP critic Spencer Chandra Herbert told me. "There is no surplus because they have no financing plan to pay for the project."

UPDATE, 5 p.m., March 22: Hawes claims "we are under the final budget for the stadium refit" (though he didn't mention any numbers). But he goes on to say:

"I either misspoke or was misunderstood. The recreation funding of $30 million for more rural communities is not from the under budget amount from BC Place. That was capital funding and from an accounting perspective, this funding must be from operating funds. I have looked at this funding as a way to allow some communities that might not benefit from the stadium remake to feel they have some benefit. I do feel a bit foolish having tied the funding directly to the under budget amount on the stadium. Incidentally, while the total recreation grant funding is $30 million, that does not mean the stadium savings was $30 million. Mea culpa."

UPDATE, 7 p.m., March 22: I asked Hawes for proof that the B.C. Place project was under budget. Not surprisingly, he has none.

"I don't know what the numbers are but Pat Bell has said numerous times that we are under budget. I believe the final numbers are still to come in."

Work continues at the stadium. A new fence is being erected outside the west side service entrance. The level 1 media entry is under renovation (and wasn’t complete for the Whitecaps’ home opener).

This is the same stadium that is now faced with a $35 million to $40 million shortfall because of the nixed Telus naming rights deal. The same stadium where an operating deficit of $49 million has been forecast for 2012-13 to 2014-15, according to the latest Service Plan.

The same stadium where grease leaks from the support cables have damaged the roof and could cost $10 million to repair.

The same stadium that will be the subject of an 85-day B.C. Supreme Court trial expected to begin in October 2013 between Canam and Freyssinet. Canam is suing for $26.15 million, Freyssinet wants $6.5 million. B.C. Pavilion Corporation is a defendant in the Freyssinet lawsuit.

Here's my modest proposal: move the B.C. Liberal caucus and its staff under the expensive big top at B.C. Place. They are clowns, who are running this province like it’s a circus.

Cue the circus music.

Another billion-dollar B.C. dilemma

Did the British Columbia government botch another billion-dollar deal?

Some of the biggest companies in Canada think so. Could this ultimately be at the root of the cancellation of the Telus naming rights deal for B.C. Place Stadium?

Bell, Rogers and Shaw have accused the B.C. government of unfair tendering practices. They allege that the direct award of the government's $1 billion, 10-year long distance, voice, data and mobile phone service contract to Telus violates national and international free trade agreements and even the government's own regulations!

Taxpayers, they say, got the shaft.

While Telus is the biggest private sector employer in B.C., it just so happens to be one of the biggest corporate donors to the B.C. Liberals. Elections B.C. shows Telus gave $352,407.35 since 2005. Premier Christy Clark supporter Stockwell Day, the former senior federal Conservative cabinet minister, is on the Telus board of directors. Clark appointed Day (photographed below) to the B.C. jobs and investment board and immigration task force.



This is what happened. The government issued a Negotiated Request for Proposal for its Strategic Telecommunications Services Procurement Project on Dec. 22, 2008. Just over two-and-a-half years later, the government suddenly halted the process of tendering nine "bundles" of work, took a 180-degree turn and gave Telus the whole enchilada, as they say, on June 29, 2011. The government and Telus have spun this as an economic generator that will improve mobile phone service and Internet access in rural B.C.

"When Telus was the successful bidder on all nine individual bundles of services in the NRFP as well as on the total package of combined services, it became clear to government that, instead of awarding the bundles separately, a stronger partnership with Telus could realize a greater overall benefit to families and businesses in B.C." says the news release.

The deal includes a two-year renewal option, so Telus could make $1.2 billion by the end of the term. Unsuccessful bidders had until July 13, 2011 to file complaints and, boy, did they ever!

A political party, whose name was not disclosed, obtained the vendor complaints after filing a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Labour, Citizens Services and Open Government. The 189 pages of information were posted online March 9, 2012. Download them all here.

It is easy to dismiss this as sour grapes by sore losers. But it is not so simple. Read the whole file and you will quickly notice a pattern. Companies, big and small, feel they were treated unfairly by the B.C. Liberal government. Yes, that's the same party that controversially sold B.C. Rail to CN Rail and part of B.C. Hydro to Accenture. The former deal was the subject of a massive government corruption scandal that dominated the news for the better part of a decade. Clark was deputy premier at the time and has steadfastly refused to order a public inquiry.

Her leadership campaign mastermind Patrick Kinsella was involved in the B.C. Rail and B.C. Hydro deals. There is no evidence that he had a hand in the Telus matter. Yet.

So, put aside the matter of the allegedly oversized sign, the laughably "iconic" B.C. Place name or the "not the best deal for taxpayers." Those were lines peddled by the deer-in-the-headlights Premier, her Finance Minister Kevin Falcon and Jobs, Tourism and Investment Minister Pat Bell as they tried to explain away kiboshing a $40 million contract and breaking a promise to taxpayers.

Did the B.C. government cancel the Telus naming rights for B.C. Place (directly or indirectly) to distance itself from Telus, for fear of its competitors filing lawsuits and complaining to international trade tribunals?

Consider the following excerpts of complaints to government:

Mario Belanger, senior vice-president of sales, Bell Canada:

"Bell believes the implications of this decision reach well beyond the Ministry in charge of the NRFP. The decision has serious implications with respect to provincial, inter-provincial, national and international trade policy and existing and future trade agreements. The decision runs contrary to the Province's Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) and Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) commitments. The decision is based in part on an assessment of Telus's capabilities as the only provider who could ofter the services.

"This assessment is not consistent with the regulatory framework for telecommunications in Canada, and has not been tested by a competitive bidding process. The decision runs contrary to the duty of fairness owed to all bidders participating in a competitive procurement process.

"The decision will have a material adverse effect on the availability of competitive communications services in the Province for consumers, small businesses, governments and enterprises.

"In addition to contravening international and national agreements, the Province has also breached its own Core Policy and Procedures Manual.

Jean Brazeau, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, Shaw:

"Once the B.C. Government determined its own procurement process was not going to prove satisfactory, the entire procurement process should have been cancelled. Then the B.C. Government would have been free to retender for services under a new procurement process that allowed for companies to explore various options such as forming consortiums.

"The lack of an open and transparent procurement process reduces the B.C. Government's ability to ensure the best value for taxpayers. In addition, extending the scope without prior notice eliminates the opportunity of the B.C. Government to evaluate the benefits of future technological innovation, lower costs, or investment that could be provided by Shaw, or a consortium of industry bidders. This limits the B.C. Government to only the services and hardware of one vendor.

"Shaw objects to the fact that it took a two-year procurement process to arrive at NOI #4015, and then only two weeks were allowed for filing objections to this process."

Gordon LaFortune, Gottlieb and Associaties, lawyer for Rogers:

"The size and scope of the contract awarded to Telus is extraordinary. As a result of this award, Telus would be the sole provider of telecommunications services to the Province of British Columbia for 10 years. The range of services and covered government entities is so broad that no other supplier, including Rogers, would be permitted to provide telecommunications services during the currency of this contract.

"At the end of this period, Telus would have such an overwhelming advantage as the incumbent supplier that it is unlikely that it could be displaced even if the province put the telecommunication requirement out to tender. Therefore, by awarding such an extensive contract to Telus, the Province effectively grants Telus the contract in perpetuity."