A $100-million election issue?

The political fallout from an apparent $100-million bailout to the developers of Vancouver’s Olympic Village continued Friday with the city’s opposition party calling for a reconsideration of the controversial loan.

Vision Vancouver has been trying to pin the blame on the ruling Non-Partisan Association and its mayoral candidate, Peter Ladner, after a media report emerged this week detailing how city council had secretly approved a $100-million loan to Millennium Development Corp.

“I have grave concerns of the $100-million that was approved,” said Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson.

Although four of his colleagues sit on council and voted to okay the loan, Robertson now says his colleagues lacked the necessary context to make the decision.

“I’m concerned the Vision councillors didn’t have enough information,” Robertson said in calling for reconsideration of the loan, which was unanimously approved at an in-camera Oct. 14 meeting.

In-camera meetings are commonplace in civic government; they are used when making personnel and land use decisions that affect privacy rights or the city’s market competitiveness.

City councillors are expected to keep in-camera meetings private. However, that meeting’s discussions were leaked and published in The Globe and Mail this week.

The report also suggested the $100-million loan was related to the alleged departure of the city’s director of finance, Estelle Lo, who was said to be concerned over the spending of significant tax dollars. The city has refused to confirm whether the loan was granted or whether Lo still works for the city.

But Vision says Lo was not present at the Oct. 14 meeting, raising questions as to why such a significant decision was made without input from the city’s chief financial officer.

With a week to go before civic elections, Vision has been trying to stick the blame with the NPA’s Ladner, despite the fact the loan decision was apparently unanimous, as was the original 2006 decision to award the Olympic Village deal to Millennium.

“The project there today is designed and built by Peter Ladner and the NPA council,” said Vision council candidate Geoff Meggs.

The strategy was largely effective as the story broke this week, leaving Ladner on the defensive and his NPA council colleagues silent.

But Olympic watchdog Chris Shaw blames all parties.

“There is no one on city council who is innocent in this, not the NPA, not Vision, not even COPE,” Shaw told my colleague Bob Mackin.

“Each and every councillor failed in their fiduciary responsibilities to the people of Vancouver.”

Comments

[stevevbc]

Robertson says that the Vision councillors didn't have all the information.

Are Vision councillors really that clueless?

How many other votes have Vision councillors made without having all the information?