Bowman blasts CentreVenture

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This article was published 04/02/2015 (3874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Mayor Brian Bowman lashed out at the city’s downtown-development agency in a news conference Tuesday, accusing its officials of continuing to withhold vital information about a major downtown development.

But CentreVenture representatives say Bowman is using semantics to hide what he knows about the True North project and risking investment in the downtown area with his continued public dispute with the agency.

Surrounded by several members of his executive committee, Bowman disputed comments in Tuesday’s Free Press by CentreVenture chairman Curt Vossen and former CEO Ross McGowan.

Bowman said CentreVenture is still refusing to release details about the project proposed by True North.

“For too long, there’s been little to no accountability on how tax dollars get spent on massive projects in Winnipeg done under the cloak of secrecy. Lack of accountability, private discussions, secret documents is no longer acceptable,” Bowman said. “The old norm is not how we’re doing things at city hall any more… Information sharing on decisions for millions and millions of dollars, openness, transparency — that is the new norm and the new rule of thumb.”

New allegations were raised by Vossen and McGowan after the news conference. Vossen, chief executive officer of Richardson International, laid out his concerns in a letter to Bowman and all members of council about how the dispute is being viewed by potential investors.

“In attempts to oversimplify a very complex project with a very long history, people have questioned the actions of the board of directors of CentreVentre and True North,” Vossen states in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Free Press. “We are concerned with the way the facts have been characterized, the speed at which the matter was open and closed on us, without reasonable time and opportunity for co-operation and trust,” Vossen wrote.

“Our board’s concern now, alongside with many others in the community, is that future economic investment in our downtown and our city is at risk…

“Regardless of the view one holds of the Carlton Inn matter, alternative views should not be characterized with suspicion or doubt just because they are different.”

Bowman said all he and council want is detailed information surrounding the proposed development of the former Carlton Inn property. He said CentreVenture has withheld information or put conditions on information it provided that prevent the information from being shared with council and the public.

“We need to pull this into the public. This has been and remains fully about the process by which you conduct land transactions with taxpayers’ dollars and about transparency,” Bowman said about the True North deal. “Let’s get all the facts, option details and location of the hotel out on the table so we can all do the right thing, both as an arm’s-length agency of the city responsible for taxpayers’ dollars and as a council elected to protect citizens and their hard-earned dollars.”

Bowman disputed claims McGowan sent an email on Nov. 20 to his chief of staff, Jason Fuith, providing details of CentreVenture’s deal with True North.

“We don’t have any record of an email coming from Ross McGowan to me or my staff,” the mayor said.

Bowman said a video of the True North project shown to Fuith in the mayor’s office on Dec. 20 lacked key details about where the project would be built and if whether it included a hotel at 220 Carlton St.

Bowman said the video presented the True North project as “a cool downtown development, but where is it located? Those are the questions we’ve been asking.”

McGowan said Bowman was informed as early as Nov. 20 about the key details of CentreVenture’s deal with True North. McGowan conceded that while he originally told the Free Press he personally had sent an email with those details to Bowman’s chief of staff, it turns out he had verbally updated then-acting chief administrative officer Deepak Joshi, who then emailed Fuith with the same details.

“What difference does it make if (the email) went from me to Jason?” McGowan said. “The content is the same… To suggest ‘I didn’t get this email’ is — crazy.”

McGowan said CentreVenture always dealt with city hall through the CAO’s office.

“To suggest semantically, ‘I didn’t get the email,’ — the more important thing is did (Fuith) get the information, and what did you do with it? Did you inform the mayor as to what the conditions of the offer were or did not you not?”

McGowan said there were no restrictions in the email that prevented Fuith from sharing the information with Bowman and nothing to prevent Bowman sharing the details openly with council.

McGowan said the arrangement with True North prevents CentreVenture from sharing a copy of the actual option document with Bowman but added the details Bowman are looking for are in the Nov. 20 email.

“If you want to split hairs, Jason (Fuith) didn’t get the email from me, but he didn’t ask for it from me,” McGowan said. “Presumably, Jason was going to use (the information in the email) to brief the mayor.”

Bowman said the actions by McGowan and Vossen were a “pushback” to his attempts to make public all the information about the True North proposal for the 220 and 225 Carlton St. properties.

“This is the type of pushback that is to be expected when you change things so drastically,” Bowman said. “CentreVenture provided my office with some unclear information under strict restrictions of confidentiality over the last 21/2 months, and the information provided conflicts directly with what they’ve said publicly.”

Bowman said there were conditions attached with those documents that prevent him from sharing them with other members of council and the public, which he said is not acceptable.

Bowman said CentreVenture’s handling of the Carlton Inn property justifies his calls for a review of the agency’s mandate. He said discussions will be held with CentreVenture officials on how they operate and how they report to council, raising the possibility the agency, its staff and board of directors may not exist for much longer in its current model.

“Right now I’m not convinced we’ve got the structure in place to ensure we have all the information that we need,” Bowman said. “We need to follow better processes, and where they need to change, we will make changes.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca