Bowman’s moral crusade takes a hit

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This article was published 05/02/2015 (3927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Brian Bowman’s credibility as a moral crusader for honest government suffered a setback Wednesday when evidence emerged he has not been forthright about his knowledge of an estimated $400-million mega-deal involving two parcels of downtown land. In the process, he’s put the city at risk for a lawsuit and potentially created a chill for future business prospects.

Mayor Bowman has repeatedly claimed he only heard rumours about the initiative led by Truth North Sports and Entertainment and its partners. He said he was offended that as mayor of the city, he was denied access to the details of such an important project.

Those and other assertions have been directly challenged by True North president Mark Chipman, who said the entire project has been put on hold while he and his partners consider what to do next.

Mr. Chipman says the mayor viewed the video last November weeks after the municipal election. The video clearly shows a dynamic cluster of buildings on a surface parking lot on Carlton Street and on a vacant lot across the street, the site of the former Carlton Inn. The first site is owned by MPI, while the other location was purchased and levelled by CentreVenture, the city’s downtown-development agency. It’s this piece of land that is the subject of the controversy.

Mayor Bowman is angry CentreVenture decided to negotiate a deal that would see True North acquire the former Carlton Inn site for fair market value. He says the space should have been made available to other potential buyers as a matter of fairness and transparency. Accordingly, council unanimously passed a motion to reopen the process, even though True North has a legal contract. Unfortunately, neither the mayor nor anyone else on his 15-person council bothered to ask if CentreVenture was within its rights to deal directly with True North over the land.

In fact, it is. And it has done similar deals many times. CentreVenture was established to operate along private-sector principles, as opposed to the normal rules of civic government, although it keeps the city informed of its progress.

The mayor now says he doesn’t like the way CentreVenture operates and he intends to review the mandate of CentreVenture, which council is free to do, but it should not retroactively overturn a perfectly legal deal.

His reckless action has put the city at risk for a lawsuit, although Mr. Chipman says that’s not his preferred option. More importantly, it could kill a $400-million development that could transform the downtown into a much more exciting and vibrant place than it is now.

The mayor’s actions have also sent a worrisome message to the business community, which naturally wonders if it will be able to conduct any business on a confidential basis under a mayor who has made transparency his holy mantra.

The fact is CentreVenture only became involved in this unholy mess at the request of the city itself, which needed someone to rescue it after the main contractor for the RBC Convention Centre reneged on its obligation to build a hotel in the area.

CentreVenture did a superb job in partnering with True North, but instead of praise, the mayor accused it of operating inappropriately.

Some critics accuse Mr. Chipman of having an unfair advantage because of his position on the board of CentreVenture. He did later resign. In a big city with dynamic development, the optics might be an issue. The problem for the city, the convention centre and CentreVenture, however, is that despite many efforts, there was no credible interest by anyone in a high-end development on the land in question. True North was the logical and natural developer.

What we’re left with is a mayor who screwed up a perfectly good and exciting development. And he did it in a way that leaves troubling questions about his ability and candour.