In a bizarre and inexplicable move, this past week the city of Halifax attempted to force the promotion company for the July 14 Metallica concert on Citadel Hill to pay the $359,550 bill for the Common concerts fiasco.
With the advice and encouragement of Scott Ferguson, president of provincial crown corporation Trade Centre Limited, Halifax mayor Peter Kelly and top city bureaucrat Wayne Anstey had from 2008 through 2010 signed contracts guaranteeing loans of $5.6 million in TCL money to concert promoter Harold MacKay’s company, Power Promotional Events.
Kelly signed the contracts even though they violated city financial rules and the city charter, and even though they were not properly vetted by the city legal staff; after signing the contracts, Kelly did not deposit the contracts with the city clerk, as is required. Ferguson, for his part, had been explicitly warned by an auditor that loans from ticket sales brought unacceptable risk, but he OKed the loans anyway.
Under the terms of the contracts, the last two loans, for $200,000 each, were to be forgiven if certain ticket sale levels were not met. Those levels weren’t met, and so MacKay was under no obligation to pay the money back.
But that didn’t prevent the city from threatening MacKay’s wife’s company, MacKay Entertainment, which is producing the Metallica show, with a cut off of city services unless it paid the money lost through Kelly, Anstey and Ferguson’s bungling. Without city services, the Metallica show would have been cancelled.
The whole episode was a poor attempt at bluster on the city’s part, and most observers saw right through it. City council argued about the issue in secret for four hours Tuesday, then did nothing. But after MacKay called a press conference at his lawyer’s office for Tuesday evening, city CAO Richard Butts quickly backed down, announcing a “settlement.” But the city will provide all services for Metallica and MacKay won’t pay any of the money lost by the bureaucrats.
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2011.
Why not add a $10 (or more) per ticket surcharge to cover city costs for all outdoor concerts? Wasn’t this done in the past?
A settlement, really, i wonder what that could be. Mr. Butts has put himself smack center in the dealings of a city that is, what would you say, going from one mess to another. This concert scandal business has been quite revealing to the mindset and level of competency that the senior managers and politicians possess here in HRM. We’ve witnessed the inner workings of the police and fire departments of lately. Taxpayer money being used to finance private defamation lawsuits on behalf of fire chiefs. How much money has been wasted by these so called city leaders and managers who just don’t seem to get it.
Can it get any worst for this city and the people running it….
Peter Kelly you need to resign, it’s only going to get worst it seems, oh and take some of your cronies with you. The press has caught on and before long, hopefully the citizens will demand your resignation, until then we’ll have to sit back and watch this show play itself out. One can only guess what’s coming next.
‘But the city will provide all services for Metallica and MacKay won’t pay any of the money lost by the bureaucrats.’ – Tim Bousquet, the worst ‘reporter’ in Nova Scotia….
It seems like the favorite past time in Halifax is to talk about all the negative WHICH DOES NOTHING TO ATTRACT TOURISM and certainly won’t bring in the big bucks you need to keep your city afloat. The slump in the economy has hit everyone across all 10 Provinces and Territories and that’s the biggest problem. In all FAIRNESS to Mayor Peter Kelly, he is a wonderful humanitarian of the highest order with tremendous integrity and in all his years as your Mayor, he’s done much more GOOD for the City and people of Halifax than anything! His LONG POSITIVE TRACK RECORD speaks for itself. He’s tried to put Halifax on the world map to become a WORLD CLASS CITY– Now that’s something worth CELEBRATING~and worth seeing in the headlines! Looking back on past articles. He did the best that anyone in humankind could do….he was a true blue LIFESAVER! A real HERO! For all the griping, how many of you have ever done that for anyone? Why don’t the people of Halifax focus on the positive for a change. The City has a great reputation because he’s had the vision to try to make it a WORLD CLASS City – What I see in your newspapers is just a bunch of small minded sour grapes with an axe to grind………full of a lot of hot air with nothing else to think about — Now that’s pretty boring. To all of you protesters….get off your huge soap box and realize that the country is bigger than Halifax; its TOURIST SEASON sooooooo LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE….focus on the positive so people will want to flock to Halifax to pay to see your attractions as a GREAT PLACE TO VISIT and spend their money! The Queen and Prince Philip always had a lovely time there. Why don’t you find a way to say thank you to your Mayor for ALL THE GOOD he has done….and be polite for a change~he’s a HUMANitarian and a great LEADER… I know that and I’ve never met him but I visited his City and spent a good amount and thought it was one of the BEST PLACES IN CANADA TO SPEND A HOLIDAY-it’s a slice of the British Isles across the Pond! Looks to me more like HIS OPPONENTS are making trouble for self serving reasons, now that’s NOT the Canadian Way. If you really care about your City of Halifax, try helping Peter Kelly bring in the tourists. That’s what you should be thinking about. Take a rest from the bitter bus. That makes must better Canadian Economic Sense!!! Go back to your roots and focus on the best of Celtic Music. Bring in Sarah MacLaughlin – she’ll do your city proud as will Canadian talent that is home grown. Way to go Peter Kelly!!! Your’re the best!
Prince William and his lovely new bride, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge are coming to Canada for their first official tour this week….perhaps focusing on something more sensational to celebrate their marriage and their great interest in Canada will turn the tide a little in a much more positive way…wouldn’t it be something if they had a nice quick stopover HALIFAX an impromptu visit – to the Base to say hello to the miliary families and children in Halifax? Just a thought. Good press always brings better things. Remember YOUR MAYOR PETER KELLY is a very good man & a LIFESAVER! Why don’t YOU Champion THAT FACT instead of trashing someone with a huge heart!
Peter Kelly writing notes under the pseudonym of Happy Tourist?
Halifax calssed as a world class city, are you serious? Have you been through the downtown core, it’s filthy and rundown. Several suburbs have deteriorated to slums, filled with druggies and crime, places where decent, law abiding people avoid. Any developer with a vision is immeditely bogged down with BS and the heritage trust, why they bother to try and bring this city up to national standards amazes me.
As for the concerts for cash fiasco – the mayor knew what and when things went south, but as there doesn’t appear to be a mechanism to get rid of him, we’re stuck with his “leadership” until next year, where he will be re-elected due to a low voter turnout and, as yet, no viable rival.
tim,it’s time to move on to a ‘real’ story…the yawn factor in your so called reports are themselves self serving and a real bore now…find a real journalistic piece,and develop it…no more ‘gossip’ please,it’s embarassing to watch you apologize for misquotes and factual mistakes…go to King’s and take a journalism course,it might help!!!
Haven’t I read this article once every other day for the past 3 months? Tim Bousquet has some sort of complex about this whole situation. I have no idea why he even lives in this city, since he clearly hates it so much.
I mean, I find everything that is going on to be ridiculous, immature and embarassing, but this guys obsession with the topic totally takes the cake.
Tourists rarely if ever take an interest in local (or even national) politics unless they’re touring in somewhere like, oh I don’t know, Afghanistan. Seriously, as long as the toilets flush and the roads are relatively smooth d’ya think anybody other than us gives a fuck about any of this.
Keep on it, Tim, staying on top of stuff like this is the whole point of journalists. People that tire of it and want to know what Amanda Bynes is up to can pick up Metro daily.
This horse is dead! Time to stop beating it. Negativity for the sake of being negative serves no purpose whatsoever.
Tell our leaders to stop giving Tim something new to work with then….
Good work Tim, another well written story on this EMBARRASSMENT that KELLY has fostered on our city. It is important the taxpayers of this Municipality be reminded of the FALLOUT of the actions of a SELF SERVING career politician like KELLY. We need to be reminded that this is not just a simple MISTAKE by KELLY but an ORCHESTRATED attempt to bypass accepted legal procedures for personal GAIN. KELLY’S REMOVAL from office is the only way to erase this STAIN.
Happy tourist…where do you find that wonderful product you’re smoking ?
I wouldn’t mind having a big bag of that stuff myself.
Kelly may have his heart in the right place, but he can’t control his council. Wastes more time on drivel, like cat bylaws & chicken bans for the Halifax area.
No matter how you try & spin the Bullshit. Kelly is responsible for breaking the rules, he is suppose to be the guardian of. He bald faced lied about his participation in it & is ultimately responsible for wasting almost 400,00 tax payers dollars ! What has he done to get to the bottom of the Fire Dept. shit ?
When your as disfunctional as he is , its way past time to go.
As for the Royal’s who are visiting…they flew over NS… IMO that isn’t a visit to us. THey’re visiting other places in Canada (& no wonder)
Nice thought, 10$ would be more than suitable for having emergency services (paramedics, fire, police)….. I bet the 40g paid wasnt so much for last year, but to cover this years costs…..