Trade Centre Limited, the provincial crown corporation that runs the convention centre, had an operating loss of $622,558 lat year, almost three times its budgeted loss and nearly six times the previous year’s loss of $109,969. Once depreciation is factored in, last year’s operating loss was $2.1 million, compared to a budgeted loss of $1.9 million.
The losses have two causes, explains TCL spokesperson Suzanne Fougere. First, revenues at TCL’s ticketing agency, Ticket Atlantic, “were down due to lower than anticipated sales for outdoor concerts”—that is, the failed shows on the Halifax Common. The only concerts held on the Common during TCL’s 2009-10 fiscal year were the Paul McCartney and KISS shows. The Coast has previously reported that the McCartney show lost $700,000, and that TCL failed to pay back a $300,000 loan from the province because ticket sales were not as high as expected.
Secondly, TCL “also experienced decrease major event revenues as compared to what was planned and the prior year,” says Fougere.
Those losses were revealed via TCL’s annual report for 2009-10, which was posted on its website without announcement late Friday, seven months after the March 31 close of the fiscal year.
One noteworthy TCL liability mentioned in the report is former CEO Fred MacGillivray’s supplemental pension, a TCL bonus over and above MacGillivray’s regular public servant pension. In 2008, TCL announced that the supplemental pension would cost $800,000 over its lifetime, but “the most recent valuation performed reflects a total post retirement pension obligation of $1,198,970,” says this year’s report—half again higher than previously announced. MacGillivray retired April 1, 2009.
MacGillivray’s successor, Scott Ferguson, has no supplemental pension through TCL.
In addition to the convention centre, TCL operates Exhibition Park. In previous years’ annual reports, attendance information for the two operations was reported separately, but this year’s annual report combines them.
As operator of the convention centre, TCL is at the heart of the debate over the proposal for a new convention centre downtown. Last week, at thecoast.ca/bites, The Coast questioned the projected attendance figures for a new convention centre.
This Tuesday, November 9, Halifax city council will debate whether and how it will help finance the proposed new convention centre.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2010.
Real public wealth, the kind on which communities are built, is created through work. Work. Not party centres, sports games, skating rinks or concerts. Work.
It’s illuminating in my view to see how much of this problem emanates from TCL.
Leisure Economy schemes only have the effect of transferring existing public wealth in to a few private hands creating and illusion of public wealth in the minds of the wealthy Leisure Class – if they stay in Nova Scotia. Most times the wealth just slips away.
It’s not about the Convention Centre. Let’s stop here. As Nova Scotians of varied mind and manner let’s stop being duped into these mega-things – these easy ways and short cuts to prosperity that never work.
Let’s learn from the people around us who are building wealth through work. Let’s leave the people with enough of their income to invest in real work. And shop by shop, idea by idea, on small understandable scale, let’s get to work.
Nl can show you how its done. real econonomy, real growth REAL WORK. I worked at a mjor Uni in Halifax and if you want to talk leisure class, look no further then our so-called institutions ofhigher learning. It littleraly blew my mind on a daily basis the intense, grotesque waste and incompentence. In fact, they weed out anyone who is a hard worker and efficient. See it. been told it too by insiders. Any group that gets all of its money from tax payers and has no accountability, must go.
When all is said and done, why exactly do we need a provincial crown corporation to run a convention centre? I believe I’ve already seen a number of folks make the point that if there’s truly a half-assed business case for a convention centre, private businesses (like perhaps a consortium of hotels) would probably see fit to invest in such a thing.
As it is TCL is just another tired, money-losing provincial CC where ruling governments have some extra spots to park mediocre bureaucrats as a reward for being loyal.
Given that traditional democracy isn’t working too well when it comes to corruption like this, since every party we have perpetuates it, maybe we should consider some direct democracy, like the referenda or propositions in many US states. That non-binding plebiscite we had on Sunday shopping was a sop; it was a watered-down joke. What we really need are some initiatives that come from the voters, not from the vested interests.
The only reason why this is run by the province is because the private sector knows better then to invest in a money losing scheme. The private sector doesn’t want anything to do with it.
That’s what they get for trying to fill a large field with shows that are made for a small arena. Kid Rock and Counting Crows being similar to Rolling Stones? How much crack were they smoking?