The letter below is from me to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Review Office, and is pretty much self-explanatory. It relates to my freedom of information request to the city for all of the city’s contracts with Power Promotional Events, the company that put on the concerts on the Common and which […]
Gig trouble
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Auditor general’s concert loan report delayed a week
City auditor general Larry Munroe and his staff finished writing their report on the concert loan scandal last week, but it still is not public. Typically, Munroe makes his reports public via his website, without any prior direction or communication with politicians. That’s the point of his office, of course: to provide an independent examination […]
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“Third party” impedes Coast request for Common concerts documents
Here we go again. Readers will recall I’ve long argued that ALL city contracts should be a matter of public record, as a matter of course. If the city contracts for services, the contract should simply be posted on the city’s website, with all the particulars spelled out—term, dollar amounts, details. Such a policy would […]
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Parks Canada details charges to Harold MacKay for Metallica show
I just got off the phone with Theresa Bunbury at Parks Canada, who I had called to find out what Harold MacKay of MacKay Entertainment was paying for rental of the Garrison Grounds for the July 14 Metallica show. While Bunbury wouldn’t give me the exact terms of the contract, she did say it was […]
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Merch rep says Harold MacKay still owes $63,000 for Black Eyed Peas show
On Monday it was announced that Metallica will perform on Citadel Hill on July 14. The promoter is none other than Harold MacKay, whose Power Promotional Events company put on the failed Black Eyed Peas show at the heart of the city’s concert loan scandal. Power Promotional Events has since gone out of business; the […]
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Mystery deepens: Metallica to play Halifax, but Molson isn’t presenter
I just got off the phone with Brian Harriman, a vice president for Molson/Coors’ Atlantic division, and he tells me definitively that Molson is not putting on a Metallica show—or any other show for that matter—in Halifax. “Of course we’d like to sell beer there,” he says, “but we’re not a presenter.” This contradicts The […]
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Who at City Hall knew what when?
[image-1] There are lots of questions in the concert loan scandal that remain unanswered. Here are three: Who in City Hall knew of the abysmally low ticket sales numbers for the Common concerts, When did they know it, and Why, with that knowledge in hand, did they keep booking shows on the Common? Some background: Scott Ferguson, president at Trade Centre Limited, tells me that he fully informed city officials about ticket sales figures for all the Common concerts. I believe him. But here’s the city’s policy on concerts, as adopted by council on March 6, 2007 (pg. 7): [image-2]
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Metallica looking to play Citadel Hill July 14
[image-1] This morning, Cole McLean of Atlantic Canada Rocks announced that Metallica will play Citadel Hill July 14. The group has been touring with Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax on a the BIG FOUR tour; there’s no word if the other bands will be playing in Halifax. And in the Saint John Times & Transcript, McLean tells us that: What’s perhaps more interesting is that it sounds like Harold MacKay, whose company Power Promotions went bankrupt after a series of outdoor shows in the city, is said to be the promoter behind the potential Metallica date. I called McLean to see
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Concert loan scandal documents
In the public interest, I’ll post all the concert loan scandal documents I have for readers to peruse on their own. First, is Cathie O’Toole’s memo to city council’s audit committee, which originally revealed the existence of the improper loan arrangement. The Attachment C to that memo is a schedule of the loans made in […]
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Update: Trade Centre gave wrong date to city
After publishing today’s article showing a discrepancy between the reported date of a Trade Centre Limited loan to Power Promotions and the date of the the city’s authorization for that loan, a spokesperson for TCL finally contacted The Coast to give their version of events. Suzanne Fougere acknowledged that The Coast followed all reporting protocols—we […]
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Breaking news It only looks like… Trade Centre Limited loaned Power Promotions $600,000 without city approval
Update, 2:35pm: Trade Centre blames sloppy paperwork and misplaced cell phone for the miscommunication that resulted in the article below. See here for the latest information [image-1] Up to now, the official narrative on the concert loan scandal is that it was all Wayne Anstey’s fault: For several years, the city’s deputy CAO acted alone and without authority to advance $5.6 million to concert promoter Power Promotions through a Metro Centre bank account. Mayor Peter Kelly was involved in discussions with Anstey and Power’s Harold MacKay, but Kelly says he knew nothing about the improper loans—it was all Anstey’s doing,
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Where did Harold MacKay get his numbers?
Failed concert promoter Harold MacKay told the Chronicle-Herald that the economic impact for last year’s Black Eyed Peas and Country Rocks shows was worth the loss to the taxpayer: The two shows that we did not make money on, and we lost money on, generated $13 million in economic spinoff,” he said in an interview. […]