Governments often release the worst news late on a Friday afternoon.
It's a way to push a story out the door under the radar of the public.
But I must confess that even I was surprised when Premier Gordon Campbell chose a Friday to announce the opening of the expanded convention and exhibition centre.
The government news release today (April 3) made it sound like this $883-million project was the greatest economic engine to hit Vancouver.
The reality is that the government's piece of puffery neglected to mention the key statistic--delegate visitor days. I can only surmise that this information was kept off the news release because it tells a sorry tale about the convention industry in this town.
When I looked at this data in 2005, the number of delegate days had fallen sharply since the industry's heyday in the late 1990s.
Then there are the construction costs. I can recall the cabinet minister who launched the project, Rick Thorpe, telling me several years ago that the convention-centre expansion wouldn't cost a penny more than $495 million.
Later, another cabinet minister who oversaw the project, John Les, told me it wouldn't be more than $565 million. They each missed the mark by well over $300 million. This project will stand as a monument to the premier's hubris in the same way that the fast ferries were a powerful symbol of the hubris of former premier Glen Clark.
If that's not enough, there's still another shoe to drop, if you can forgive the cliche. In 2004, the B.C. Liberal government passed a law, which will enable Tourism Vancouver to collect a "voluntary levy" from "tourist-related businesses" to cover $90 million of the capital costs.
Rick Antonson, president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver, told the Straight in 2005 that the payments start "ramping up" after the 2010 Winter Games and will level off in 2019.
So what's a tourist-related business? Will restaurants have to pay a tax? How about the taxi companies? Or will patrons of Grouse Mountain's skyride or the Capilano Suspension Bridge have a surcharge levied on their tickets?
We don't know yet. We do know that the premier has claimed that he is on the side of small business, but many entrepreneurs might take exception to this if they're going to have to fork over a bunch of money to cover the cost of his white elephant on the waterfront.
This brings me back to why the premier announced the grand opening on a Friday. People often go out on Friday nights, so they don't watch as much television news. If the announcement happens late enough, it can also miss the deadlines for national newspapers like the Globe and Mail.
And the public generally doesn't spend as much time focusing on current affairs on weekends, when newsrooms are notoriously understaffed.
By Monday, the convention-centre opening will be old news with most media outlets. This is just what the premier wants as he gets ready to go into an election campaign.
Most Popular
- 1. Peak oil educator Richard Heinberg challenges “binary thinking”
Comments (4) - 2. J.C. Penney and Ellen DeGeneres stand up to One Million Moms Comments (5)
- 3. Your horoscope for February 9 to 15, 2012
- 4. B.C. government changes rules to allow liquor licensed venues to screen movies Comments (31)
- 5. The Georgia Straight's 2012 sex survey: The lust and thrust report Comments (1)
- 6. Gwynne Dyer: The Syrian opposition’s great mistake Comments (5)
- 7. Vancouver musicians get to the heart of sex, love, and rock ’n’ roll Comments (2)
- 8. What’s the most unusual location where you’ve masturbated? Comments (5)
- 9. Women who want sex constantly Comments (67)
- 10. What’s the most unusual place where you’ve hooked up in the Lower Mainland?
Comments
I hope the march for housing ends up at the open house...
Ian Weniger, Vancouver
Over and over again the FastCats were brought up front and centre and over and over again Baldry referred to them as deteriorating hulks. But the province doesn't own them any more!
By the way Kieth & Vaughn and Bill Boring too, those new German Ferries, now referred to as Deutch Zitrones, have many problems, including a Ferrari like consumption of fuel! problems, problems, but only the Tyee and the Straight report these problems.
And what about the biggest Campbell government cost overrun, the RAV/Canada Line, which was first to cost about $1.2 billion in 2003, is now topping $2.5 billion (DoRavRight)! That's a $1.3 billion cost overrun, but nary a peep from Palmer, Baldry and Bill Boring, NOT A PEEP!
No wonder the CBC has surpassed the once mighty 'NW'98 in the ratings - old man Griffiths must be spinning in his grave!
If it were up to people like Beth and Grumpy, Vancouver would continue to be some backwater industrial port, full of chickens, drug injection sites and homeless shelters. Thankfully, some of our politicians have a lot more foresight than that.
Good morning Charlie.
Read your story on politicians delivering bad news on Fridays, and your reference to yesterday afternoon’s opening of the Convention Centre expansion.
Since I helped organize the opening, I thought I should drop you a note and set the record straight.
The day and timing of the opening was actually set to allow the convention centre’s sales folks to organize a multi-day visit to Vancouver of meeting and convention planners from around the world. Those are the people we’re after to book conventions here. Their response and reaction to the building and the city has been terrific. Many of them will be leaving today, Saturday to head home.
I can tell you, there was certainly no effort to try and hide the opening, on the contrary. Hundreds were invited to the opening and the evening sales reception.
As for the late afternoon timing, it was nothing more than trying to time the ribbon cutting around the building with an evening sales reception that showed how the building might look and work during conventions, again a show-and-tell for clients both new and prospective. The idea was to go from one event to the other with no gaps in time.
We’ve got public open houses today, Saturday and Sunday, and we’re hoping for big crowds.
As for sales and delegate days etc, if you’d like to meet with Warren Buckley, the President, just let me know. He’s a pretty candid guy, so you’ll get the straight goods. His experience and international background give him a pretty good perspective on this and other convention centres around the world.
So far, 57 conventions are already booked that could not have come here without the expansion. In addition, the payback period on this building is 9 years.
Let me know if there’s anything we can organize or provide, I know Warren would be happy to give you a tour.
Thanks
Norman
Before believing in any figures coming out of that area of the city would Norman kindly release all the figures, including the specific 57 conventions that would not have come here and of course the so called study that indicated that the payback period for the $900 million visitor palace on the sea would be in 9 years!!!
While the government forked over an additional $400 million for the construction of the centre it lost opportunties to invest that money elsewhere especially in areas where all of the people of BC benefit, not just the foreign owned hotels.
Lenin once said, "If you tell a lie often enough you will come to believe it."
Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, 1935, ""The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed..."
I also take issue with you looking down on someone for being a waitress or waiter. You'd be surprised how much some of these individuals make - we're definitely not talking about McJobs, in fact quite the opposite. I have plenty of friends that work in this industry and it helps them pay their rent, so I don't accept your argument that the tourism industry in Vancouver only supports greedy corporations and the brothel industry. There's a lot of honest, hard working people who depend on this industry just like your community maybe depends on forestry, fishing or mining.
I get the sense a lot of people have disdain for Vancouver and feel as though we're robbing them of opportunities in their own community or something of that sort. I would love to hear from some of you about how the province should be investing in your community, in a way that would generate a return on investment and benefit all of BC.