The NDP has continued debating Bill 47--the Vancouver Charter Amendment Act, 2009--through the night and into the early hours of Sunday morning (January 18).

At 4 a.m., Vancouver-Kingsway NDP MLA Adrian Dix got up to speak during second reading, approximately 15-and-a-half hours after he spoke to the issue in first reading.

"It's the Saturday that never ends," Dix quipped.

Dix and other NDP MLAs have claimed that the Olympic Village project is another example of a failed public-private partnership deal.

"People in Vancouver are outraged," Dix claimed. "They want accountability."

Bill 47 will allow the City of Vancouver to borrow an unlimited amount of money to complete the billion-dollar Olympic Village in time for the 2010 Games, which will be held in Vancouver.

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon earlier blamed the City of Vancouver for  signing a  bad deal, and claimed that the Olympic Village was not a P3 project because it didn't transfer risk to the private sector.

One of the more amusing moments during the debate came well after midnight when Delta North NDP MLA Guy Gentner described the perpetrators of the deal--including Premier Gordon Campbell and his sidekick Ken Dobell--as members of the "Village People".

Community Development Minister Blair Lekstrom said in the legislature that the province had no part in the negotiations over financing the Olympic Village, describing that as a city project.