Government's gambling secrets

This time last year, Vancouver city hall was the site of the 2011 version of the great casino debate. Council eventually turned down the Paragon Gaming proposal to expand its Edgewater Casino to a site next to B.C. Place Stadium. The company is allowed to relocate the casino, if it wishes. No word yet on whether that will ever happen.

Part of the reason why the Vancouver Not Vegas coalition succeeded in defeating the expansion was new information about gambling-related crime. Now I have more.

While the B.C. government's Liquor Control and Licensing Branch proactively publishes compliance and enforcement reports on which bars and restaurants flout liquor laws, it's not so easy to get information from the parallel agency, Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch. GPEB thinks the names and locations of licensed gambling and lottery establishments that break laws and regulations should be kept secret, whereas LCLB names names. Why is the government reasonably transparent on the booze side and not on the gambling side? Maybe because the profits are higher in gambling, where the government holds the cards through its legislated monopoly.

Anyway, I had to push hard to get documents about the government's enforcement of illegal underage gambling. I actually had to file a supplementary Freedom of Information request when the Solicitor General's ministry claimed it would take too much time and money to compile a list of violations of the section of the act that makes it illegal to sell gambling products to those under the age of 19.

Funny enough, they did have a list, for the period of Jan. 1-Nov. 29, 2011! And it offers more information (albeit often vague) about B.C.'s gambling problems.

More British Columbia gambling crime reports

Time ticking for Nine O'Clock Gun

The end is nigh for the Nine O'Clock Gun in Vancouver's Stanley Park.


The most famous sound of the city, heard around the region every night, is to be immediately replaced. A staff report to the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation cites the cannon's connotations of war and violence, along with increasing maintenance costs.

Vancouver's Nine O'Clock Gun (Xenyx at en.wikipedia)

It recommends the Vision Vancouver-majority board approve an open-microphone and long-range acoustic device be used instead to transmit a different live or recorded sound nightly for five seconds or less.


"Just as B.C. Place Stadium can change the colour of its exterior lights on a nightly basis, the sound heard around Metro Vancouver at 9 p.m. every evening can and should be different," the staff report said. "This will further enhance the city and region's character and offer new creative and promotional opportunities to the arts and cultural community."


A list of potential sounds includes a Buddhist temple gong, Vancouver Canucks' goal fanfare, Bryan Adams' guitar riff, Sarah McLachlan warble, Nardwuar the Human Serviette's "Doot-doola-doot-do," an excerpt from a Southsiders' chant, the lion roar sound effect from B.C. Lions' games, the Hastings Racecourse bugle fanfare, a dog whistle, ahooga horn and whoopee cushion.


The project would come at no cost to taxpayers, because one sound every month would be sold to a corporation. The report offered the Intel chime or Nokia ring tone as examples of such commercial sounds that would put money into city coffers for operation of the microphone and LRAD and area landscaping.


The staff report proposes selling the cannon to the highest bidder on the e-Bay auction website, but recommends against using Craigslist.


The gun is said to be a naval type, 12-pound muzzle-loader that was cast in 1816 by H&C King in the London, England borough of Woolwich during the reign of King George III. It was brought to Vancouver around 1894 and fired for the first time here on Oct. 5, 1898 to aid marine navigators. In 1969, University of B.C. Engineers briefly kidnapped the Nine O'Clock Gun. In 2008 they painted it red. It was restored for the city's 1986 centennial. The sound of the blast has carried as far away as Mission.


The pavilion, designed by architect Gregory Henriquez, will remain and house both the microphone and LRAD.


The city's noon-time O Canada horns at Canada Place will remain as-is. Those were originally installed at the B.C. Electric Building, but are now the custody of a federal Crown corporation.


A news conference is planned for beside the Nine O'Clock Gun at Hallelujah Point in Stanley Park just before noon on April 1st.

Exclusive: Transparency 1 Canadian soccer secrecy 0

The FIFA Independent Governance Committee tabled its first report March 30 to FIFA at its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. Read a Forbes summary here. The full report, by Mark Pieth (with input from Canadians Alexandra Wrage and James Klotz), is here. FIFA's procedures are diplomatically described as "insufficient."

FIFA's response is best described as "baby steps." Transparency International issued this statement slamming FIFA for not immediately accepting and acting on all the recommendations. We're still no closer to finding out the story behind the ISL bribery scandal, despite well-respected Pieth urging FIFA publish the documents.

FIFA's 2011 financial report shows a $36 million profit based on revenue of $1.07 billion and expenses of $1.034 billion.

Meanwhile, closer to home, CONCACAF has announced that there is only one candidate to become the organization's next president. Jeffrey Webb, a banker from the Cayman Islands, will fill the post left vacant when bribery suspect Jack Warner quit in disgrace last year to avoid a FIFA investigation. The Canadian Soccer Association did not field a candidate and general secretary Peter Montopoli did not respond to my interview request.

Webb appears to be reform-minded, but he will have to take demonstrative action to introduce transparency to overcome his stigma. At a time when the world of soccer is under pressure to root out any hint of corruption, CONCACAF appears close to rubber-stamping the presidency of a banker from a notorious tax haven. The optics aren't good.

Speaking of the CSA, the governing body for the game in the biggest country (by land area) in CONCACAF does not publish its financial information -- even for its members! It publishes an annual report without financial statements. But it does submit audited statements to the Government of Canada annually to qualify for taxpayer funds via Sport Canada.

I have exclusively obtained the CSA's 2010 financial statements, which show an $807,944 profit based on $16.163 million revenue and $15.355 million expenses. The biggest sources of income were membership fees ($6.617 million), sponsorships and donations ($3.479 million) and taxpayer grants ($3.145 million). Read the full report below.

Here's hoping the CSA does the right thing and proactively publishes its 2011 financial statements, instead of forcing a reporter to send a $5 cheque to the government.

CSA 2010 Report Mackin

March madness seals Clark’s fate

Mamas, don’t let your children grow up to be British Columbia premiers.

Why? Because they would have to endure the monstrous month of March. The west coast version of the Ides of March hath 31 days and its legacy is one of resignation and rejection.

In 1991, it was the last full month in power for Social Credit Party Premier Bill Vander Zalm. The Socreds, B.C.’s free enterprise coalition, lost six by-elections, 11 cabinet ministers either quit or were fired and party members defected.



Vander Zalm came to power as Bill Bennett’s successor in 1986 as the dark-horse, outsider candidate in the famed Whistler leadership convention. By March 1991, he was under investigation by conflict of interest commissioner Ted Hughes for his role in the sale of his Fantasy Garden World in Richmond to Taiwanese billionaire Tan Yu.

Finance minister Mel Couvelier resigned in protest, proclaiming that Vander Zalm should have stepped aside while under a cloud. Vander Zalm finally quit on April 2. Deputy Premier and Transportation Minister Rita Johnston, who ran a Surrey trailer park, took over as the first female premier in Canadian history but lost the Oct. 17 election. The Socreds fell from 47 seats to seven, Mike Harcourt and the NDP took power with 51 seats and the upstart B.C. Liberals went from zero to 17, making Gordon Wilson the leader of the opposition.



Fast forward eight years to 1999. New Democratic Party Premier Glen Clark’s evening was ruined March 2 when RCMP officers (who were trailed by BCTV cameras) raided his East Vancouver house to search for clues in the North Burnaby Inn casino licence caper. Two weeks later, police searched Clark’s office in Victoria. He quit the premiership on Aug. 21 and the NDP was reduced to just two seats in the Legislature after Gordon Campbell and the Liberals won the May 16, 2001 election by a landslide.

Now Premier Christy Clark (no relation to Glen Clark) is suffering the worst month of her political career. If history is your guide, she is at a point of no return -- stick a fork in her, she's done. She will be looking for a new job immediately after the May 14, 2013 election. Maybe sooner. All because of the March from hell.

Consider the timeline for Clark's chaotic, career-defining March of 2012:

March 2: The infamous Telus news conference with the Darren Entwistle/Adrian Dix photo opportunity. Clark was inexplicably absent from a jobs and investment announcement by the biggest private corporation in B.C. (A Liberal donor, to boot.) Two days later, the government broke its silence and claimed she wasn’t invited because of a certain unresolved issue: the B.C. Place Stadium naming rights negotiations with Telus.

March 5: School’s out. B.C. Teachers Federation stages a three-day, province-wide strike over the deadlock in contract negotiations and the government's plan to legislate a new deal.



March 6: B.C. Supreme Court trial management conference between lawyers for Quebec’s Canam Group and France’s Freyssinet reveals grease leaks from support cables have damaged B.C. Place Stadium’s new fabric roof. It could cost up to $10 million to fix. An 85-day trial is in the works to begin October 2013.

March 7: Minister responsible Pat Bell confirms the $40 million Telus naming rights deal is dead. Bell claims the B.C. Place name is “iconic.” The government claims the deal was $35 million and wasn’t “good” for taxpayers. When that explanation doesn’t fly, it desperately claims the Telus Place signs were too big.

March 9: The resignation of Liberal bagman and Howe Street tycoon Peter Brown from the B.C. Pavilion Corporation board is confirmed.

March 11: The Province begins a series of stories on the private college company Eminata Group, calling into question the credibility of government oversight of for-profit, post-secondary education. Eminata owner Peter Chung's previous private colleges in California were fined $12 million for defrauding students. Chung donated $4,100 to the Liberals in 2009.

March 13: Clark’s news conference at the Washington Marine Group shipyard in North Vancouver to hype the half-anniversary of her B.C. Jobs Plan is overshadowed by reporters’ questions about the failed B.C. Place naming rights deal, despite new communications director Sara MacIntyre’s attempt to make a list of reporters and limit them to one question apiece.

March 14: Gum-chewing MacIntyre prevents reporters from asking questions of Clark at a photo opportunity in the Globe 2012 trade show, despite a media advisory that invited reporters to come and ask Clark questions.

March 15: The Ides of March! Bill 22 to end the teachers’ strike and outlaw another walkout passes, but the day is all about multiculturalism minister of state Harry Bloy’s resignation for breaching his oath of confidentiality by giving a Province newspaper reporter’s email to an Eminata executive. Bloy was the only MLA to support Clark's leadership campaign in 2011.

March 22: Liberal MLAs Randy Hawes and Marc Dalton quoted in the Abbotsford Times after claiming $185,000 in repairs for a Mission hockey rink’s dehumidifiers came from a non-existent $30 million surplus from the B.C. Place renovation.

Clark calls April 19 by-elections in Port Moody and Chilliwack, labels popular ex-Port Moody Mayor, former supporter and new NDP candidate Joe Trasolini a “party-switcher,” and announces an audit of TransLink to find $30 million. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom found out about the audit like the rest of us -- from reporters.

March 24: Clark works a rare Saturday as she joins John Yap (multiculturalism), Rob Howard (transportation secretary) and Moira Stilwell (health secretary) for a hastily called, staged swearing-in ceremony with Lt.-Gov. Steven Point for their new junior cabinet posts.

March 26: Abbotsford South MLA John van Dongen, the former Solicitor General and a five-time election winner, stood up in Question Period and dropped the biggest bombshell of the month. He quit the Liberal caucus and party to sit as an independent MLA and join the B.C. Conservatives. He cited Clark’s ties to the B.C. Rail privatization scandal and the B.C. Place naming rights deal. He also announced the hiring of a lawyer to investigate Clark over the B.C. Rail matter.

"Mr. Speaker, I had hoped that there would have been renewal in my party and in government. But, in the past 12 months, that has not happened. Indeed, every week constituents question government actions and issues that I am not able to defend. What I believe people expect from political leadership are core values that include integrity and a genuine commitment to public service.

"Integrity includes honesty, ethics and personal character. Integrity is non-negotiable. It is foundational for a strong organization. Most importantly, integrity includes accountability.

"To this day, Mr. Speaker, there are still serious unanswered questions regarding the writing-off of 6 million dollars in legal fees in the BC Rail case contrary to government policy. Questions I have been asking for a year-and-a-half, and questions the Auditor General is seeking answers to through the courts.

"Most recently, the unexplainable cancellation of a 35 million dollar naming rights agreement with Telus is another example of failed leadership.

"There have been other lapses in proper accountability and I expect more to come. When more and more decisions are being made for the wrong reasons, then you have an organization that is heading for failure."

Clark's whereabouts are publicly unknown.

March 27: Appearing weary and with deep bags under her eyes, Clark resurfaced for a news conference to criticize van Dongen. "The only thing John van Dongen accomplished yesterday was making it a little easier for the NDP to get elected in British Columbia." Clark once again uses the "nothing to see here, move along" tactic, claiming a B.C. Rail public inquiry is unnecessary. (Two of the scandal's expert observers beg to differ on the need to know all the facts about the biggest government corruption case in the province's history.)

Meanwhile, an Angus Reid Public Opinion said her approval rating fell nine points since August 2011 to 33 percent -- the second worst in the country.

Liberal defector Rick Peterson, a prominent supporter of Finance Minister Kevin Falcon’s failed 2011 leadership bid, launches his campaign for the Conservative nomination in Vancouver-Quilchena, the riding held by ex-finance minister Colin Hansen. Peterson scoffs at Clark's claims that supporting the Conservatives will pave the way for the NDP. He says free enterprise is about competition and there should be competition for the free enterprise vote in 2013.

March 28: Liberal-friendly, Prince George academic Charles Jago appointed as mediator for the BCTF dispute at a rate of $2,000-a-day. Jago, the former president of the University of Northern B.C., called his task “mission impossible.” How’s that for optimism?

Jago has no apparent mediation experience and donated $1,000 to Liberal fundraising golf tournaments in 2007 and 2010. Jago was appointed to the boards of Partnerships B.C. and 2010 Legacies Now. The September 2007 opening of the $31 million UNBC sports centre named for him drew a who’s who of B.C. cabinet, including Premier Gordon Campbell.

Falcon and Education minister George Abbott tell reporters they might not run in the next election. The two leadership losers were gearing up for a fall 2011 campaign and, had they won seats, would be six months into a four-year term. Now they are waffling as it appears their party's grip on power is fading. Life is a little less interesting on the opposition side of the house, not to mention the paycheque smaller.

Was Falcon’s claim that he might quit politics in 2013 to devote more time to his young family an intentional or unintentional subliminal jab at Clark, a single-mother who is struggling as premier after only a year on the job?

March 30: The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union announces that it has reached an impasse in talks with the government for a new master agreement for its 25,000 members. The contract expires March 31. A strike vote is planned for April.

Clark's government, which previously said public sector workers would get no raises, is offering a 3 percent increase over two years, but BCGEU wants a 4 percent annual increase.

(The previous week, the BCGEU reached a deal with government that it claims will protect the 500 Liquor Distribution Branch workers when and if a private company takes over the government's warehousing and distribution of liquor in B.C. Odd how it took a quick month from Finance minister Kevin Falcon's announcement until the BCGEU announcement.)

March 31: The one-year countdown to the end of the Harmonized Sales Tax. The Aug. 26, 2011 referendum result effectively scuttled a fall election and forced Clark to phase-out the tax that ruined Gordon Campbell's premiership. The mail-in referendum attracted 1.61 million ballots (compared to 1.64 million total votes cast in the previous election.) Votes to scrap the HST (881,198) exceeded the number of votes the Liberals had in the 2009 election (751,661). Consumers and businesspeople alike have criticized Clark for her reluctance to phase-out the cash cow HST sooner.

In early March, Clark publicly repudiated the Telus naming rights deal for B.C. Place that would have eased the burden on taxpayers for the budgeted $563 million renovation. She ended the month in West Kelowna for the Hockey Night in Canada announcement of the $100,000 2012 Kraft Hockeyville winner.

Yes, the same Premier who declined the $35 million to $40 million deal because it wasn't "good for taxpayers" got involved in the cheese, crackers and snacks company's nationwide marketing promotion in the hopes that it would help renovate a public hockey rink.

Alas, the result was errantly leaked by Kraft to media outlets early Saturday morning. Stirling-Rowdon, Ontario beat West Kelowna by 1.2 million votes and will also get to host a National Hockey League exhibition game as a prize. West Kelowna got a $25,000 consolation prize to spruce up its rink.

Unlike the rest of her problems in March, there is no evidence that Clark is to blame. Just another case of bad luck and bad optics. 

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.

PlayNow to be "Paddy-powered"

It's not every day that I receive 950 pages of documents via Freedom of Information.

It's doubly special when it arrives before St. Patrick's Day and concerns one of Ireland's biggest companies which is cheeky enough to show nudity in its corporate reports. I'm referring to Paddy Power, the Dublin-based retail and online gambling giant that is now a key partner with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.

Read my story here about this timely relationship and the next step in B.C. gambling expansion in the Vancouver Courier.

Paddy Power wants to grow and enter the North American market. BCLC plans to re-launch its PlayNow legal online gambling website this summer (when the 2012 Olympics will occur) with a heavy emphasis on sports and event betting. Just in time for the federal government to relax Canadian gambling laws because of an NDP Member of Parliament's private member's bill.

By summer, it should be legal to bet on a single sporting event in Canada through legal channels, such as BCLC and the other provincial government monopolies. With this comes the legitimate concerns that more teenage boys will find a way to gamble and eventually become addicts. Read about the science here and watch the Gambling Boys documentary here. In addition to health, there are other worries about the proliferation of gambling and the risks of match-fixing, as chronicled by author Declan Hill.

Sports fans in Canada (particularly British Columbia) will be happy. But deficit-plagued governments across North America are revenue-hungry and, when it comes to gambling, tend only to see the benefits side of the ledger, not the costs.

All 950 pages are posted below. The file is so long, that I have included this list of highlights for your ease of browsing (with page numbers according to the Scribd.com tabulation).

Pages 2-3: The B.C. Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch registration approval for Paddy Power.
Pages 4-5: GPEB regulations (note how sections b, h, j, m, n and p do not apply to Paddy Power).
Page 6: Paddy Power's B.C. registration certificate.
The next 70 pages deal with Paddy Power's software provider, Playtech.
Page 76: 2010 Paddy Power annual report. (Note the iPad motif, a nod to mobile gambling on tablets).
Page 242: 2009 Paddy Power annual report.
Page 378: 2008 Paddy Power annual report.
Page 482: 2007 Paddy Power annual report (inspired by the hilarious Father Ted Channel 4 sit-com. The report contains a well-endowed woman in a wet T-shirt on page 491 and an Elvis impersonator in front of Buckingham Palace on page 493).
Page 586: 2006 Paddy Power annual report. (The company marked its 18th year with a Poker magazine cover marking a Paddy Power-sponsored world record strip poker tournament on page 588, rugby player Donnacha O'Callaghan losing his shorts and a streaker losing more on page 589).
Page 688: 2005 Paddy Power annual report.
Page 774: Playtech news releases.
Page 776: Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority corporate structure.
Page 777: Paddy Power news release on entering the French market.
Page 781: Article about Online Gaming in Kahnawake from the Nov. 6, 2011 Gaming Law Review and Economics by Kahnawake Gaming Commission lawyer Murray Marshall.
Page 791: internal GPEB email and records about the investigators' trip, travel arrangements and expenses to Dublin to inspect Paddy Power's operations.
Page 810: U.K. Gambling Commission: Licensing, compliance and enforcement policy statement.
Page 834: U.K. Gambling Commission: The Gambling Commission's betting integrity decision making framework.
Page 851: Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission: Online Gambling Guidance Notes for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorist Financing.
Page 943: Credit Suisse Private Banking Security Agreement.


Paddy Power to re-power B.C. Lottery Corporation online gambling

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."

Professor proffers Olympic predictions

Any Canadians expecting the gold medal dominance of their Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics team to translate into improvement for the London 2012 Summer Olympics team will be disappointed if predictions released March 12 come true.

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan-native Daniel Johnson, an economics professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., predicts Canada will win 17 medals, including four gold, in London. That was also his prediction for Beijing 2008. The actual tally four year ago was 18 medals and three gold. Not too shabby, eh?

Well, maybe if you're the Canadian Olympic team. That would put Canada in 15th on the gold medal scale and 12th overall. On overall medals, Johnson predicts Canada will be surpassed by Netherlands and Hungary (19), Italy and Japan (31), Australia (38). On the gold medal scale, he believes India, Poland and Netherlands will win 5. Romania (6), Hungary (7) and Australia (8), he predicts, will also beat Canada.

Johnson boasts a remarkable 93 percent success rate in his Olympic predictions over six consecutive Games, and his model does not include athletics. He instead relies on a nation's per capita income, population and its proximity to the host city.

Johnson predicts the U.S. will win the most overall (99) and most gold (34). China (67 including 33 gold), Russia (82 including 25 gold), and host Great Britain (45 including 20 gold) are the top four. According to Johnson's March 12-issued news release:

"During the last Summer Games, in Beijing in 2008, Johnson’s model forecast that the U.S. would top the medal count, and it did, winning 110 medals (seven more than predicted). He also correctly predicted that China would top the gold medal count, and it did, winning 51 gold medals (seven more than predicted). During the last Winter Games, in Vancouver in 2010, the model predicted 27 medals for Canada (they won 26 instead), but the American and German teams both vastly outperformed expectations and topped the podium more often."

What Johnson doesn't mention is that his prediction for Canada's gold medals in Vancouver 2010 was a paltry 5. Canada won a record 14.

Read more here and see the ranked prediction table below.

2012 Olympic medal predictions by Dan Johnson

It should have been Bob Ackles Field

If B.C. Pavilion Corporation and the B.C. government took my free advice, they could have saved a $40 million deal and prevented themselves a ton of embarrassment.

How, you say?

Back in 2008, just days after B.C. Lions' president Bob Ackles died, I proposed that the field at B.C. Place Stadium be renamed in his honour. See my column from the Vancouver Courier below.

Had my advice been heeded, there would never have been a Bell Pitch. The Vancouver Whitecaps and B.C. Lions would both be playing on a field named for one of the most important people in B.C. sport history. Telus could very well have its name on B.C. Place by now and one of the promises to taxpayers (revenue from the sale of naming rights) would have been fulfilled.

As it stands, Telus has its hand out to government, expecting to be paid for services rendered and equipment installed. The only way to soften the blow would be for PavCo to complete the exclusive supplier contract that is being negotiated.

The taxpayers wait to learn the final cost of the budgeted $563 million renovation and they also wonder whether the business-friendly B.C. Liberal Party is able to govern anymore.

Remembering Bob Ackles

BY Bob Mackin, July 11, 2008

Bob Ackles is gone. Why is he missed so much? He represented the everyman. He demonstrated that you can start at the bottom and make it to the top through honest, hard work. He wasn't a scholar and he wasn't the scion of a tycoon. Ackles was a six-decade-long, rags-to-riches story that began in 1953 when he approached B.C. Lions' original head coach Annis Stukus on the West Side's Heather Park field. He got hired on the spot as the team's first waterboy.

Ackles' vocation was Canadian football, a sport that unites big cities and small towns, anglophones, francophones and immigrants. His job wasn't just helping put the best players in orange jerseys or putting bums in seats at B.C. Place Stadium. It was to foster the sport of Canadian football for all ages and abilities in B.C., and to ensure the Canadian Football League remained affordable family entertainment in a city hell-bent on world class status.

After 32 years with the Lions, Ackles stepped away in 1986 at the team's peak to find new career challenges in the National Football League. The ship was sailing just fine, thank-you, three years after opening B.C. Place, a year after winning a second Grey Cup. While he was gone, two of the team's owners nearly sunk the franchise. Hamilton auto parts magnate David Braley finally came along in 1997 and brought Ackles home in 2002 to save the team. That he did. The Lions are a proud symbol of B.C. again. Just look at how many people wear orange at home games. Not long ago, blue--the colour of empty B.C. Place seats--was the dominant colour under the dome.

Some have suggested that B.C. Place Stadium be renamed for Ackles. That's not going to happen. Ackles was a humble fella and wouldn't have wanted his name on the marquee. What's more, it should have been called Terry Fox Stadium from day one. B.C. Pavilion Corporation announced in February that the stadium's name would be sold to a corporate sponsor.

PavCo, a provincial Crown corporation, should look south to the example set in San Francisco. When Bill Walsh died last summer, the architect of the San Francisco 49ers' Super Bowl dynasty was commemorated with Bill Walsh Field at Monster Park, which has since reverted to the original Candlestick Park monicker.

The same gesture should happen here. I urge Premier Gordon Campbell and PavCo chairman David Podmore to dedicate the playing surface at B.C. Place to Ackles. Whenever someone steps onto the FieldTurf for any sport, they should be on Bob Ackles Field at B.C. Place Stadium.

Ackles never played a down for the Lions, but he was as important to the game as all the players who did. There are sometimes hundreds of little people behind the scenes at sporting events who get little recognition. Some are volunteers, who gain nothing but the sense of satisfaction.

Let's hear it for the waterboys--and the watergirls. Let's have Bob Ackles Field at B.C. Place Stadium.

Exclusive: inside the B.C. government name game

Some observers of the government's snub of Telus over the B.C. Place Stadium naming sponsorship wonder why the government didn't just let Budweiser buy the name and be done with it.

Telus installed $10 million to $15 million worth of wi-fi and mobile phone systems and video screens as part of the deal it reached with B.C. Pavilion Corporation in March 2011. That $35 million to $40 million you've heard about is not all cash on the table. It relied heavily on the provision of goods and services. Now PavCo has to buy its way out with your money and mine. The only way it can soften the blow now is to designate Telus as an exclusive or official supplier.

But the bigger reason is that no provincial government building in B.C. can be named after Budweiser. Or Molson Canadian. Or Guinness. Or even the Sorrento, B.C.-made Crannog Back Hand of God Stout or Gael's Blood Potato Ale.

The province's Naming Rights Policy says government will not approve an opportunity for naming recognition:

"that involves an individual, business or organization whose main business is derived from the sale of alcohol, other than a provincial or national industry association that focuses on harm reduction regarding the responsible use of alcohol."

Yes, the province has a naming rights policy and applications are overseen by a little-known committee of bureaucrats (chaired by Executive Lead of Strategic Vendor Management Richard Poutney) under the Intellectual Property Program within the Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government. You can read it here. However, the policy contains a loophole that opens the decision to political interference.

Section 4.5 of the policy says cabinet will decide on naming opportunities if:

(a) the size or visibility of the asset is of particular significance;
(b) the value of the contribution is greater than five million dollars;
(c) the asset is or will likely be the object of media attention, or is otherwise in the public eye;

All three apply in the context of the B.C. Place naming rights opportunity. The minutes for the committee's only meeting in 2011 (below) show that the Telus proposal to rename B.C. Place Stadium as "Telus Park" was not submitted to the committee. This was handled (or, perhaps, mishandled) solely by cabinet and, therefore, we may not know the details until 2026 or 2027 when the particular cabinet documents would become public.

What do you think? Should the naming of any and all provincial buildings in B.C. be vetted first by a committee that reports publicly (and doesn't wait for reporters to file a Freedom of Information request)? Should cabinet have a role, particularly when the bidder is a major donor to the ruling party or a major government contractor? (Telus donated more than $350,000 since 2005 to the B.C. Liberals and was given a $1 billion, 10-year government service contract in 2011.) And what happens if the chairman of the public body with the name up for sale has close ties with the corporation that wants to buy the name of the public building? (David Podmore's Concert Properties board includes two senior Telus executives and two senior officials from the Telecommunications Workers Union.)

It is, after all, taxpayers' money and taxpayers' own the buildings...

Province of British Columbia Naming Committee