WIDC Under Microscope In Legislature….Again
Monday, March 11, 2013 @ 3:02 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The Wood Innovation and Design Centre took centre stage once again in the Provincial Legislature only now, the NDP have labelled it “The 10 Storey Scandal”.
During Question period this afternoon, the New Democrats hammered the Liberals focusing on two different letters that were sent by the Northern Development Initiatives Trust to two deputy Ministers on March 8th of 2010.
One letter , the one provided to 250 News under a Freedom of Information request, makes no mention of involvement of local Government Ministers. The other letter, which was tabled in the Legislature last week, suggests the NDIT acted as a lender “at the request of the two local Ministers of the Crown” that letter was not provided to 250News under the FOI request.
Minster of Jobs Tourism and Skills Development Pat Bell says he had not seen either letter, but understands the letter which refers to the Ministers, had other problems which needed to be corrected. For instance, it only reflected the purchase of 6 lots, when in fact there were 8 lots purchased. The full purchase is reflected in the letter which 250News received.
Last week, Bell told the Legislature that he would advocate for projects in his riding, he also pointed out that under the NDIT Act, that local MLAs are to act in an “advisory” role. He also noted it was the NDIT Board’s decision alone on whether or not to provide loans to Commonwealth, and it was the City of Prince George’s decision on where it wanted the WIDC to be built. “I will not be embarrassed by saying I want the Wood Innovation Design Centre built in downtown Prince George, it’s going to be good for the community and we’re building it.”
The project has been under a cloud of controversy following a complaint filed last fall by Brian Fehr of the BID Group, and Dan McLaren of Commonwealth Campuses Inc, which allege they were promised they would get to build the project but didn’t make the short list. The fairness adviser reviewed the procurement process and determined there had been no wrong doing.
The announcement on the who will get to build the WIDC is expected within the next week or so.
Comments
So exactly which campuses is Commonwealth Campuses Inc. controlling or expecting to control?
Or, perhaps, I am getting this all wrong and it is an endowment fund.
Election time negative campaigning by the NDP. Back to writing memos for Dix ….
Wasn’t Pat Bell a former log truck driver ? He’s gotta know to keep two set’s of book’s.
The Minister of Finance keeps the books. I think the Minstry may have had to consolidate the two the NDP kept when the BCLiberals took over …..
Then again, Dix was not in the legislature yet …. he was still doing his memo writing adjustments for Clark then … ;-)
Hey, this is fun ….
much more fun to take pot shots than digging up facts …. ;-)
Why “fairness advisor” did not function? Why
FOI did not function? It seems all checks and balances in the system have been corrupted and compromised by the Liberal machinery in BC.
Not mentioning that “fairness advisor” is yet another BC Liberal. Not mentioning that Shirley Bond – implicated in this 10-storey scandal – is still in charge of Justice ministry.
Rez…, Rezai.., Rezain//Resign …
Premier Adrian Dix..
Deal with it Gus, it hurts doesn`t Gus, knowing your local MLAs are dirtier than babies diapers.
BC Liberals are dead, done, caput, adios corruption party de la BC Liberal.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/clark-overstepped-fiscal-bounds-with-failed-plan-for-tallest-wood-building-former-finance-minister/article9583295/
Yea Gus, changing the date on a single memo-to-oneself is hideous and obscene.
That`s much worse than selling a profitable railway in a corrupt way, paying $6 million dollars for BC Liberal admitted bribe takers.
Tearing up HEU contract illegally, stripping teacher`s rights illegally, CLBC scandal.
9 deficits in 12 years under BC Liberals, the 5 biggest deficits in BC history, a bogus HST tax Gordon Campbell lied his face over, Remember this..
Gordon Campbell stated this,,”$495 million dollar deficit maximum”
And how large was that deficit..over $3 billion dollars, Campbell the effing drunk!
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/03/25/news/story8.html
Canadian official fined
for driving drunk on Maui
LAHAINA >> “After drinking three martinis and some wine, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell drove erratically on Maui, speeding and nearly crossing into a lane toward another vehicle.
Campbell pleaded no contest yesterday to drunken driving and three other offenses.
As a first-time offender, Campbell was fined $500 for the petty misdemeanor of driving under the influence of alcohol. He also was ordered to pay $50 for failure to drive on the right side of the road, $50 for disregarding lane markings and $125 for speeding, going 70 mph in a 45-mph zone.
Campbell, who has publicly apologized for his behavior, did not appear in court, but was represented by Honolulu attorneys Steven Barta and Philip Lowenthal.
District Judge Reinette Cooper did not require Campbell to undergo 14 hours of alcohol abuse counseling and a substance abuse assessment, since he fulfilled the requirements before his court hearing.
Cooper said based on an assessment, she was satisfied Campbell required no further counseling.
“I do not believe there are aggravating circumstances,” Cooper said.
She said she felt Campbell had been sufficiently embarrassed in the public, “as well he should be.”
Barta said Campbell immediately accepted responsibility and has accepted a harsher penalty than usual.
Barta said usually, first-time drunken-driving offenders have lesser offenses dismissed, but Campbell decided to plead no contest to all of them.
Barta said Campbell’s license was suspended for 90 days in Hawaii immediately after he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and that Campbell has continued to observe the suspension while in Canada.
Campbell, 55, was arrested on the early morning of Jan. 10 on the two-lane Honoapiilani Highway near the Napilihau residential subdivision in West Maui while driving a rental car toward Kaanapali.
He has told the news media that he had three martinis and some wine while dining with friends Fred Latremouille and Kathy Baldazzi during his annual vacation on Maui and was returning to a place where he was staying.
Deputy Prosecutor Mark Simonds said that about 12:55 a.m. a police officer stopped next to Campbell at a traffic light, and when the light changed, Campbell sped his vehicle forward.
The police officer said Campbell crossed the double solid line to his left, then pulled to his right crossing into the bicycle lane, Simonds said.
Campbell’s driving was erratic, sometimes hitting his brakes, and he almost crossed into a lane that had a motor vehicle going in the opposite direction, he said.
Simonds said when the police officer stopped Campbell, he had a strong odor of liquor, an oily face and slurred speech.
When asked why he was speeding, Campbell said he was tired and wanted to return home, Simonds said.
Campbell was recorded to have 0.161 percent blood-alcohol in a field sobriety test and was tested at the police station in Wailuku to have an official blood-alcohol of 0.149 percent, well above the state limit of 0.08 percent, Simonds said.
Nonresidents arrested for drunken driving are subject to the same procedures and penalties as Hawaii residents arrested on the petty misdemeanor charge and can arrange to enter a no-contest or guilty plea by mail without being present, usually through an attorney licensed to practice in Hawaii.”
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/03/25/news/story8.html
This whole WIDC is a fiasco. Bell and his cronies say that they will build it, and that the people want it, is a pile of horse manure.
Maybe some land developers, some politicians, and some architects, engineers, and construction firms, want this building, and maybe UNBC if the Government will give them the money to move and establish offices in the building.
The average taxpaying citizen in Prince George would much sooner have paved roads, water, sewer, garbage, at reasonable rates.
Bell is whistling in the dark if he thinks he has community support for this farce. Its much like the proposed performing arts centre, maybe, 300/500 people support the PAC, however the City would have you believe that it has the support of most citizens.
If they really believe they have support then lets go to referendum on these items.
I think we are all missing something here.
Let just pretend that mclaren and fehr were promissed to be on the short list. This would have been an inside deal that was cut before plans, budgets etc were reviewed to see who should make the short list. If these two were told they were going to be on short list, then they BOTH would know this was incorrect proceedure and they said NOTHING. If they are so concerned about the fairness of the process
why did they not cry foul at that point in time. They thought they were getting an advantage in an unfair process and they were fine with that. you land speculated and lost. suck it up princess and stop trying to blame others.
It is the first I hear that the building was seeking public support. This is completely different in that it is being forced down our throats by some people who do not have the faintest clue about what makes a downtown precinct like PG’s start on the way to improvement.
By now I think we can determine that the following did virtually nothing to draw people downtown to shop, eat, enjoy the company of others, etc.
1. the building of Plaza 400
2. the building of the Court House
3. the building of the Civic Centre
4. the building of the Two Rivers Gallery
5. the building of the Library
6. the building of Chances Bingo
7. the building of the Police Station (an easy prediction)
8. the removal of canopies
9. the addition of pavers, street furniture, banners, etc.
10. the conversion from one way to two way streets.
11. the removal of meters
12. the addition of meters (another easy prediction)
The WIDC is going to be no different.
We have been throwing money and more money at downtown improvement withiut understanding why we are doing it. We do not even recall how many people used to be downtown on Fridays and Saturdays to shop, go to restaurants and bars and socialize while listening to entertainers from this region and the rest of Canada and North America. Even the Casino is failing to provide that service.
These are different times and we are not Robson Street or Commercial Drive or Queen Street or Rue St. Denis.
We are a yahoo town. SO lket us go and find a “successful” yahoo town and at least try to emulate that. Maybe we have the successful yahoo town.
Rattyboy …. you hit the nail on the head. For whatever reason they thought they had an inside deal in a situation where inside deals cannot be made ethically, legally, and logistically. Too many would have to be in on the deal. The process used by ParnershipsBC is very clear to anyone who takes the time to explore it.
I mean, we live in the days of having the process audited by an independent person. This is not 1963. It is 2013.
gus, I think Rattyboy got most of it right except for his last line
“you land speculated and lost. suck it up princess and stop trying to blame others.”
the difference in this case is that they weren’t using their own money but public dollars.
It seems they managed to use their political influence to get public funds out of the northern trust fund. Isn’t there some oversight at that organization or is it just a slush fund for those with power and insider influence?
If ever there was a reason for an independent investigation this is one of those occasions.
I guess we need to call Israel and see if Benjamin Netanyahoo would be our mayor. ;)
And then there would be some hush money for the independent investigator from a few. You can count on that.
So do you think that the airport authority did not use political influence to get their loan ….. LOL
The whole NDI board is set up in such a way that if you wish to lobby them, it is politicians one is trying to influence. It is almost impossible to avoid.
If a mayor wants money to paint an ice arena in some small community, put together a report on the back of a napkin at a restaurant, use the right words, and money will arrive to spruce up the arena as an enhancement for tourism facilities.
If you want a favour as a mayor, you have to return the favour.
Every now and then a quasi political organization enters the picture, and sometimes even private enterprise.
So, what should NDI’s role be? Maybe, if the province or the city wants to assemble land for some projects, they should be getting NDI to assemble that land directly rather than going through private parties. If that is how it should be done, then maybe someone will make those changes to NDIâs mandate.
If the NDI trust acted as a neutral middleman how would our local speculator make big profits for short term flips. New York has Donald Trump, Prince George has Arnold’s Rump(aka Dan McLaren:)
Criminalthoughts….Gordo is working in London and has been out of BC for some time…get over it.
Proper bidding process followed……enjoy it while you can. Coming soon all contracts rigged to go to the brothers and sisters in the union irrespective of additional costs:(
“Gordo is working in London and has been out of BC for some time…get over it.”
We really can’t get over it because his government was the last one elected. We will get over it when “Premier Adrian Dix”
gets elected.
The only problem with that scenario f-150 is that it would mean four years of speculation as to if we got the real election results of if is another case of forgery by the artful dodger aka the greased weasel dix.
So…….Blow’in Smoke……just like that there Vatican……….again……..LMAO
Well, one thing’s for certain, the Libtards certainly have no record of integrity or provincial improvement to run on this election…so the entire platform from the peanut gallery is smear Dix and bring up old deck building handshake deals that grossly pale in comparison to anything perpetrated upon the electorate by Gordo, Falco and Crisco in the past decade.
It would be nice to see just one post listing the Top 10 reasons to re-elect the Liberals, other than “Adrian Dix is a criminal!!”. If that’s the best ya got…stand down and let BC get rid of the even bigger criminals!!
How bout, the NDP have let us down too many times in the past. Good memories will always vote Liberal.
Stay on topic. You guys take a simple (yet complex issue) and make this about NDP V Liberals. This is about Pat bell and Mclaren along with Fehr. He said, she said. How do you believe, Pat or Dan. Put aside the political rediric (sp)If you know both these people and how they conduct themselves, then have some input. Who is right, who is wrong. State your opinion.
Once again if these two were promised something that was unethical at the time, why did they not cry foul then.
“why did they not cry foul then”.
Because they thought that they were getting a gift which they deserved to get because they are the chosen ones. ;-)
The thing about this UNBC WIDC scandal is that every major player in Prince George is implicated or have a finger in the pie. The 2 MLAs, the city of Prince George, the business, the university, even the chair of Northern health was interim UNBC president in 2009.
This is “the mother of all scandals”.
Global News tonight had a different portion of the events in the Legislature today.
The accusations were that something was promised – the world’s tallest wood building at a cost of $100 million – which the finance minister (Falcon) said could not be delivered since it was to expensive.
One would think that these people never get out. Certainly their street smarts are lacking bi time.
Projects go through phases, including review for business case. One turn was taken when the initial call went out for expression of interest. That brought concern from technical professionals that persuing the tallest wood building might not be the best approach.
Today’s environment with access to information makes it difficult to keep early thinking about projects out of the hands of the public.
So, time for the public to educate themselves of the various phases of such projects and that in the planning stages there will be cahnges, sometimes considerable.At least in this case it is a downsizing.
Gus–what do they call that phase where you flip the land for a cool $500,000 profit??
Ah yes. That is the land assembly phase which has not hit the legislature since the province is not involved with the land purchase.
That was a City matter and has not been disclosed yet from the point of view of why the City did not purchase the land directly from hotel owners.
So, we see the difference here between the Legislature and City Council. Council has no question period, no members opposite and no one brave enough to ask some real questions in open session.
“Dan Rogers, the former mayor of Prince George who was a member of the board of NDIT at the time, said the trustâs directors were looking for assurances before making the loan.
âI do recall there were concerns over the security of any loan and the need to ensure that there was some security, not only from those getting the loan, but some certainty as to the reasons for the loan and obviously, confirmation that Treasury Board was actually moving ahead with the project was key to those discussions,â Mr. Rogers said.
âThe expectation of the board was that there would be some certainty and that certainty would be in the form of Treasury Board approval,â he added.
Ms. North, the NDIT CEO, did not respond to requests for comment.
The Globe and Mail has previously reported that Ms. North was ordered by a senior government bureaucrat working under Mr. Bell to rewrite a letter about the WIDC project stating that NDIT made the loan to Mr. McLaren âat the request of the two local Ministers of the Crown.â In the second version of the letter, that phrase was removed.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/loan-for-wooden-building-bypassed-treasury-boards-approval-documents-show/article9647985/
1) We now know that: the WIDC Loan was to be made âsubject to approval from Treasury Board for the capital investment in the Wood Innovation and Design Centre.â
2) We now know that: according to former Minister of Finance Kevin Falcon, the Treasury board refused to approve the loan, and the loan went ahead “as the request of the two local Ministers of the Crown”.
It is clear that these two local Ministers (i.e. Bell and Bond) have undermined the BC Treasury board and acted in violation of the law.
The question is why minister Shirely Bond who has broken the law “according to his fellow BC Liberal minister” is now in charge of the BC Justice Ministry? Hasn’t she acted in violation of the law? Is she still continuing to act in violation of the law?
Someone should come up with some answers fast or the Hon. Minister Bond should submit her resignation fast.
“subject to approval from Treasury Board for the capital investment”
“the Treasury board refused to approve the loan”
The two are very distinct issues.
The only people who could approve the loan is the Board of the NDIT. No one else.
Treasury board has jurisdiction to approve the capital investment in the building. They obviously did that eventually, otherwise they could never have gone through the RFP process.
So, be clear you understand what you are saying. I sure do not know what you are trying to say.
Gus wrote: “Treasury board has jurisdiction to approve the capital investment in the building. They obviously did that eventually, otherwise they could never have gone through the RFP process.”
Where is your source that Treasury board approved it. Give a quote. We know that Falcon resigned (probably in protest to this fiasco) and Shirley Bond took over his finance portfolio.
In August 2011, Bond also took over the portfolio of Barry Penner after his resignation as attorney general and he later resigned as MLA. Did Penner also resigned because of another Bond Fiasco? What was that legal fiasco about?
Let’s connect the dots … . … .
The dots all disappeared in a black hole yesterday …..
but I am not sure whether it was yesterday or 5 million years in the future ….
one of he problems with black holes ….
“WIDC Under Microscope In Legislature….Again”
Can a black hole be detected with an electron microscope?
gus, we can use a Microscope to find out what type of valence bond you have to Shirley Bond.
You may need a pair of scissors from Falcon or Penner soon to cut the cord …
Maybe the recent fire at Wendy’s was caused by someone kicking the chicken fryer too hard during a hissy fit!
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