This morning, I was a guest on the Jordi Morgan show on News 95.7. During the show, Morgan’s producer was able to reach Trade Centre Limited president Scott Ferguson on the phone, and I was able to ask Ferguson a few questions. Among other things (which I’ll get into in another post), Ferguson said that […]
Tim Bousquet
Posted inNews + Opinion
Peter Kelly’s dissembling explanation
What did Peter Kelly know and when did he know it? That question will determine if the Halifax mayor will survive the Common concert funding scandal. Kelly’s story seems to change as time goes on, but as I understand his line is basically that he knew that Power Promotions was being advanced loans somehow through […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Breaking news: Total of $5.6 million washed through improper Common concerts loan program
I have more details of the city’s improper loan program. Yesterday, we knew that through 2010 some $2.25 million had ben funnelled through the Metro Centre in the form of loans to Power Promotions. But the program had been in existence since 2008. That year, $950,00 in loans were issued to Power Promotions related to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
No time for customers
Metro Transit misses the bus again: Real-time schedule information is available to managers, but sharing it with riders has no arrival time. In a stunning display of bureaucratic tin-ear, Metro Transit is completely failing its riders. At issue: real-time scheduling information that can be accessed through a web interface and mobile phone apps. The need […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
No time for customers
In a stunning display of bureaucratic tin-ear, Metro Transit is completely failing its riders. At issue: real-time scheduling information that can be accessed through a web interface and mobile phone apps. The need for such a system is obvious. We live in a hilly city with narrow streets and crappy weather, so inevitably buses will […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Concert scandal rocks City Hall
[image-1] The city’s CAO office improperly authorized millions of dollars in cash advances to Power Promotional Events, a private company that managed a series of concerts on the Halifax Common. The loans were initiated in 2008, and most of the money was repaid, but the city is stuck with a $359,550 bill from two loans made last year related to last year’s Black Eyed Peas and Country Rocks shows. A total of $2.25 million was loaned to Power in 2010. The Coast has requested loan information for 2008 and 2009, but officials have refused to make those figures public. The
Posted inNews + Opinion
Does Trade Centre’s involvement kill convention centre proposal?
Trade Centre Limited president Scott Ferguson was fully aware of the city of Halifax’s back-door loan policy to Power Promotions, says Suzanne Fougere, Ferguson’s spokesperson. But TCL had no reason to suspect the loans were improper, says Fougere. “We were given direction by HRM to release the funds from the Metro Centre account. In the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mayor Peter Kelly was in the loop
Mayor Peter Kelly knew that the CAO’s office was funnelling money through Metro Centre to Power Promotions, a city document shows. But Kelly did not alert the full city council of the improper practice, and did not speak publicly of the matter for the next seven months. The document is a July 21, 2010 letter […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Updated—Common concerts: by the numbers
Updated with new figures 17 March, 6:18pm Country Rocks 2008 (Keith Urban) Paid attendance: 11,853 City loans: $950,000. City loan money paid back: $950,000 City in-kind contributions: $300,000 Paul McCartney Paid attendance: 26,504 Loan from province to pay McCartney’s upfront fee: $3.5 million NS Dept of Tourism for advertising: $300,000 NS Dept of Economic Development, […]
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Breaking news: Common concerts scandal rocks city hall
I’ll have much to say about this in a full article tomorrow, and obviously much more reporting in coming days, so for now, I’ll just say the city staff report is self-explanatory. Read the entire report yourself here.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax council recap
In a closed-door session Tuesday, Halifax council discussed the Argyle Street parking fiasco of a few weeks back: at 5pm on a Friday—happy hour for the bars—crews threw “no parking” signs on meters and went into businesses to warn patrons their cars would soon be towed. Businesses reportedly lost hundreds of customers. The city subsequently […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia’s green power failure
Oh, those were giddy times back on March 17, 2007, when the legislature unanimously passed the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, and officials made a bold announcement: Not only would Nova Scotia be the world leader in environmental stewardship, but by including the word “prosperity” right in the title, they told us we’d get […]
