Updated below
In April, The Coast broke the news that the provincial Department of Tourism spent $600,000 in support of the 2009 Paul McCartney concert on the Halifax Common, and had floated private promoter Harold MacKay with a $3.5 million cheque to cover McCartney’s upfront fees. This was over and above the $150,000 the city spent in support of the concert.
But that government support for the private concert promoter evidently wasn’t enough. Earlier this year, MacKay asked Percy Paris, minister of the department of Economic and Rural Development, for an additional $700,000 in taxpayer money to cover expenses incurred during last year’s McCartney and KISS concerts on the Common.
MacKay wrote a letter to Paris on March 29, 2010 requesting $400,000 in “infrastructure costs” related to the concerts and $300,000 for “project development incentive to be used to acquire capital assets,” confirms department spokesperson Toby Koffman. What is a project development incentive? “I don’t know what he means by that,” says Koffman.
After receipt of the letter, there were face-to-face meetings between Paris, MacKay and Halifax mayor Peter Kelly. “I was there,” confirms Kelly. “I probably helped arranged the meeting. It was a matter of intro, discussion and I would leave and they would continue on. But I did not stay for the meeting.”
The Coast’s story on the initial $600,000 provincial contribution in support of the McCartney concert was published April 13 on thecoast.ca, and April 15 in the paper edition. On April 15, Paris wrote a response letter to MacKay, rejecting the request for additional funding.
In The Coast’s April article, we quoted an anonymous source with knowledge of ticket sales figures. Even though other media reported 50,000 people had attended the McCartney contest, our source said just 26,000 tickets were sold. MacKay subsequently dismissed our reporting. Although we did not report it, in April the same source claimed MacKay lost $700,000 on the McCartney concert, a figure that matches MacKay’s request to Paris.
This week, CBC implicitly questioned the economic viability of Common shows by reporting that “hundreds, perhaps even thousands” of free tickets had been given out for last weekend’s Black Eyed Peas concert. The Chronicle-Herald reported that 20,000 people attended the show, but didn’t say how that figure was calculated, or what percentage were admitted on free tickets. And even though the city contributes $100,000 in support of each show, ticket sales and attendance figures are considered proprietary information and are not released to the public.
MacKay did not respond to a request for comment.
Update, 1:15pm Friday, July 30: This morning, the Chronicle-Herald followed up on The Coast’s exclusive report from Thursday. In the Chronicle-Herald article, promoter Harold MacKay claims his request for $700,000 in funding from the department of Economic and Rural Development was related to this year’s Black Eyed Peas concert, and not to the McCartney or KISS concerts, as I reported above.
MacKay’s statement contradicts what I was told by ERD spokesperson Toby Koffman. I went back and checked the audio recording of my interview with Koffman. The relevant part follows Koffman giving me the dates of the two letters.
Bousquet: And they’re related to the concert in 2008, is that correct?
Koffman: Yes. It makes reference to the Paul McCartney concert and the KISS concert.
We went on to clarify that both concerts were actually in 2009.
This morning I called the department back, for clarification. Koffman has the day off, but spokesperson Vicki Roberts called back, and said that while she hasn’t read all the correspondence, MacKay’s request was related to the Black Eyed Peas concert, not the McCartney and KISS concerts.
I have asked for a copy of MacKay’s letter but, citing proprietary information contained in it, the department declined to release it.
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This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.
The real truth comes out on the commons. We the taxpayer are getting ripped off, over priced tickets, faked ticket sales numbers well below estimates, only a few pocketing our tax money. Enough with this junk, time for a full accounting of where our money has gone!!!! Public money is for the public not backdoored for the already rich few in this town. Another rule of living has been removed from the barn door at Animal Farm….?
Halifax, small town with too many people selling snake oil.
Halifax, small town with delusions of grandeur.
Halifax, on the map since 1749.
No more of these shows. WTF city council. WTF. Oh, and while I’m using internet acronyms, DTMFA.
That just sickens me. And they get to leave their crap up there for two weeks, blocking 1/2 the Commons, in the middle of summer. This was a horrible idea.
So how is this news??? Did they get the $700K? Groups, organizations and businesses request public funding all the time. Are you going to publish an article on every funding request ?
Also Tim please try to get your facts straight $300k in a provincial grant for the concert was announced well in advance of the concert as reported in The Chronicle Herald.
So in reality all you can claim is the reporting of the $300k loan that was not required to be paid back. It is pretty clear that you do not research your articles very well as shown by yesterday’s pubic apology in The Coast.
Just what is your issue with Paul anyways? How many times have you wrote about this now?
These concerts are great! I hope they have them every summer. It gives sleepy, stodgy, grumpy Halifax a reason to get out of bed and do something that adds a bit of life to this backwater burg. Go Harold Go!
Tell Mackay to hire Fred Connors.
Fred will mention the concerts during his daily interview on the Stepanie Domet show ‘News from my neighbourhood – a daily litany of what my friends are doing’
She’ll even give tickets away and a six pack of eggs, answer the skill testing question ‘Where does Stepanie get her hair done’ and you’ll get brown eggs – Fred says they are better for you.
No more taxpayers money and resources to private businesses. The name for that is ‘corporate welfare’.
Socializing the costs and privatizing the profits seems to be the way businesses in Nova Scotia thrive.
Also, the ‘Commons’ is owned by ‘the people’ for ‘the people’, not by the Mayor and certainly not for the benefit of Harold MacKay.
We need an elected CAO… the only way to guarantee more accountability, is through less appointed officials in charge of purse strings. What is this, Venezuela? lol. Democracy in this country is a farce.
Why isn’t anyone discussing the common thread throughout this and other boondoggles foisted onto the people of NS? See if you can figure out what (who) it is.