Two city officials are implying there’s a simple solution to the $359,550 bill related to concerts scandal: Don’t pay it. That course of action, suggested by both city auditor Larry Munroe and city councillor Gloria McCluskey, threatens to create an epic legal battle between the city and Trade Centre Limited, a provincial crown corporation. But […]
Trade Centre Limited
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Concert report slams Peter Kelly, Wayne Anstey, Fred MacGillivray and Scott Ferguson
Halifax auditor general Larry Munroe released his report on the concert loan scandal Tuesday. Mayor Peter Kelly, the city’s former chief bureaucrat Wayne Anstey and former and current Trade Centre Limited presidents Fred MacGillivray and Scott Ferguson are particularly implicated. The report names names, assigns blame and provides explosive new details about how city and […]
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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. […]
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Did TCL act properly?
The improper loans to Power Promotions were funnelled through the Metro Centre, a city-owned facility that is managed by Trade Centre Limited. Officials at TCL have said that they were under no obligation to vet the appropriateness of the loans—the city owns Metro Centre, so when city official Wayne Anstey called them up and directed them to loan Power Promotions money from Metro Centre accounts, they simply complied without asking questions. But what if Anstey had called and directed TCL to cut a cheque to his wife? Would TCL have complied without question? What exactly are TCL’s responsibilities to vet
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Scott Ferguson’s explanation for concert loans doesn’t wash
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 […]
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Trade Centre Limited losses skyrocket by half a million dollars, partly due to failed Halifax Common concerts
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 […]
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Fred MacGillivray’s latest whopper
The board of directors at Trade Centre Limited, the quasi-public agency that puts on events in hopes of bringing tourists to Nova Scotia, recently “declined” to renew CEO Fred MacGillivray’s contract. Which apparently was enough to get the Chronicle-Herald to give MacGillivray a long-sloppy good-bye kiss in way of an softball interview with no analysis […]