This should be last major financial decision arising from the NPA’s colossal mismanagement of the Olympic Village file. Almost a year ago, council approved a proposal to step into the village’s financing, moving out a New York hedge fund and saving taxpayers as much as $90 million. In about 60 days, the market units will go on sale. If all goes well, the city’s financial investment will be repaid.

Nor, despite claims to the contrary from Councillor Suzanne Anton, is there evidence of a coherent budgetting process for individual Olympic projects, whether we’re discussing the Olympic Village or infrastructure like the Hillcrest curling centre, which was the subject of massive overruns the Park Board will be paying off for years.

As Ballem told council, projects were undertaken, designed and paid for, all in a single process. If costs rose, the bills were paid, often behind closed doors. Details were only released with the election of the Vision council in November 2008.

The latest and one of the largest bills to come due is the $32 million council is asked to approve Thursday to meet the very minimal commitments for affordable housing the NPA had incorporated in the Southeast False Creek Olympic Village.

The COPE Vision council had hoped to make at least one-third of the units subsidized, a middle range accessible at lower market rents and one-third at full market prices. Rolling back that commitment was literally the first order of business for the Sam Sullivan NPA council in November 2005. The new, reduced goal was 20 per cent affordable housing with half of that amount market rental.

Although Millennium paid the highest price ever paid for land in Vancouver up to that date, the NPA quickly allowed the entire project to go into the ditch. Overruns on the Salt Building and the Civic Centre amounted to tens of millions of dollars, but the worst mismanagement occurred on the affordable housing.

The preliminary budget there was $65 million but that soared to $95 million by the end of 2007 (approved in camera) and finally to $110 million. To achieve even the NPA’s vision of affordability will cost $32 million more.

The fateful December 2007 in camera meeting that quietly shovelled tens of millions of dollars into the Olympic Village program also directed the SEFC program manager to negotiate with BC Housing “with the expectation of recovery” of some of these funds.

However, this week’s report says, “it is noted that no agreement was ever negotiated with BC Housing.” Why bother? It seemed the NPA council never met an overrun it couldn’t approve.

Granville Mall without trolleys: a pedestrian thoroughfare with great views of the north shore mountains. Richard Campbell photo.

Cycling and transportation advocate Richard Campbell is urging Vancouver City Council to keep Translink’s trolleys off Granville Mall as an easy and popular way to create a pedestrian thoroughfare through the downtown core.

Campbell is speaking for many in an e-mail to council when he hails the beauty of the newly-designed street, particularly its striking views to the north shore mountains, now unencumbered by a spider’s nest of trolley wires.

But city transportation engineer Jerry Dobrovolny has reminded councillors that Translink invested $10.4 million into the mall’s renewal to preserve transit access, particularly close to Skytrain and Canada Line stations.

Work to restore the trolley wires will begin next week, but the existing wires on Seymour and Howe will remain. That will give the city tremendous flexibility to close Granville, with minimal transit impact, for street festivals or other activities.

The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, which feared Olympic street closures would hurt business, is now on the record favouring more such events to enliven the area.

• the four-in-ten British Columbians who never wanted the Games never changed their minds;
• those who were undecided going into the Games had the time of their lives;
• elsewhere in Canada the mood was more positive;
• by the end, almost everyone was having a good time.

Unavailable in the public opinion analysis I’ve seen, and certainly not commissioned by the city given its budget constraints, are answers to questions like these:

• did you find the transportation shift good, bad, indifferent? Will it change your commuting? Are you more likely to walk, cycle or take public transit?
• for downtown residents: during that wild, crazy time in the downtown were you a) using earplugs and praying it for to end? b) tolerating it because the Olympics are a once-in-a-lifetime event? c) pleasantly surprised at how much fun you found at your doorstep? or d) keen to see the city bring it on whenever possible?
• for residents and civil libertarians concerned about the bylaws: did you find the additional closed circuit TV obtrusive? How do you assess VPD management of demonstrations? Are the two issues linked? How did the city handle ambush marketing? Litter? Information?

The city moved outside the envelope in every respect for that 14-day period. What did people really find the best? What should not be repeated?

Just a new willingness to experiment would be a great Olympic legacy on its own.

In late January, the BC Federation of Labour issued a bulletin to its affiliates that symbolized one of the great missed legacies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Far from a political broadside, it set out the procedures agreed with VANOC to ensure union representatives had access to members working in Olympic venues during the Games.
But in the eyes of BC Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair, the bulletin was an absolutely minimal achievement compared to the potential the Games had offered to change the bad dynamic of BC labour relations.
“A great opportunity was lost,” he said on the eve of the Games, “not only to form a partnership, which was unfortunate, but to engage BC workers more in building venues, staffing them and providing a huge amount of added value.”
Although some unions were critical of the Games, the federation passed a motion in support of the bid in late 2002 after a heated convention debate.
“Our position was not to oppose the Games,” Sinclair says, “but to make sure workers did not pay twice, once with taxes and a second time with job loss.”
At the same time, the federation began quiet discussions with VANOC about formal co-operation on a wide range of issues important to both sides.
Labour was building on efforts begun by the BC and Yukon Building Trades Council that were inspired by a formal partnership between Sydney’s regional government, the local organizing committee and Australia’s very militant unions during the 2002 Summer Olympic Games.
Wayne Peppard, the council’s executive director, had a vision for a “collaborative Games” that would produce legacies of excellence in workplace safety, jobs training, and minimum standards for contract workers, while mobilizing the workforce to deliver on time, on budget and at the best possible quality.
The philosophy was completely consistent with VANOC’s commitments to establish new standards of environmental and social sustainability.
It was a tough sell to other union leaders at a time when the BC Liberals were rolling back labour standards and even contracts.
But the fatal opposition came from Victoria.
Labour cynics were vindicated when a draft memorandum of understanding between VANOC and the federation was quietly deep-sixed by VANOC, on Victoria’s orders, in the months leading up to the 2005 election.
Nor did the Building Trades secure a single positive response to their overtures, despite their close ties to VANOC chair Jack Poole, who had long headed Concert Properties, itself controlled by union pension funds.
To VANOC’s credit, senior staff picked up the file after the election to maintain informal connections with the federation and key affiliates.
There was much to discuss. Unionized workers are in every workplace vital to Games success: the airport, hospitality, civic and private venues, media, communications, transportation, health care and much more.
Tens of thousands of other unionized workers stood to be impacted, including film industry workers who jobs may go on pause and workers in facilities like Hastings Park Race Track, closed to create a security perimeter.
Ultimately, Sinclair says, almost all the issues were resolved on the ground, noting initiatives like VANOC efforts to ensure displaced track workers found alternate work. The federation’s Occupational Health and Safety Centre even delivered some training programs under contract to VANOC.
But the big prize was thrown away.
When labour offered to help ensure the success of our province’s time in the global spotlight – perhaps opening the door to a new and enduring relationship — Victoria simply turned its back.

March 2-8, 2010

The agreement means they will be on the job when almost 40,000 visitors try to leave town after the Closing Ceremonies. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the settlement, which reduces the threat that union members won’t be able to access new jobs at YVR concessions when some existing restaurants close.

From an initial scepticism and ambivalence, Paterson found himself changing his perspective at the torch relay and then at the opening ceremonies: “You could feel the hunger in those 60,000 people, to go higher, to be more, to be better than we normally than we are. It was a mountain top peak moment, when people said it isn’t impossible.”

Paterson, partner of councillor Tim Stevenson, would definitely own the pulpit in a preaching Olympics.

Perhaps even more significant: 56 percent said the Games were exciting and not inconveniencing them, up six percent in a month. Thirty-nine percent of transit users say it’s taking them longer to get to work, but only 18 percent of drivers have the same complaint.

Motion to make it unanimous?