The Hook

P3s

Are one of the worst policies that neoliberal politicians have come up with. See how easy it is for Taylor to hide behind the P3?

But for reducing political accountability, paying back cronies, and fattening up corporate coffers, they really do the trick!

Bad news for taxpayers

Wonder what new lawsuits this will bring? Will merchants demand compensation when the streets are being repaved? Perhaps when the streets are blocked for parades? Anyone cheering this decision is either a lawyer or non-taxpayer.

agree with reallife. disagree with G West

Good news ???? Millions of tax dollars that could have gone into education funding or healthcare will now go into subsidizing private business owners. I feel badly for them but I don’t see this as good news. If the cost to build anything increases by millions because of “loss of business” lawsuits I say god help the taxpayer.

Crap!

For anyone who has followed the case this is just what these rascals need - they have done nothing but lie and obfuscate at every step of the construction; a process which has been attenuated and complicated by numerous changes and delays.

Nothing these idiots promised in the beginning has come to pass - why do you think the court found in favour of the plantiffs?

As for spending money on education and health care, when exactly could we have expected the CEO to begin to distribute the largesse?

These turkeys got exactly what they deserved.

If the taxpayer had any sense they would have never voted Campbell and his business-friendly goons into power in the first place.

So please, switek and reallife, spare us the crocodile tears.

Get a grip realife and switek

If these projects are such a benefit to the public then the true cost must be considered. Why should a selected few make major sacrifices for infrastructure improvements? It is a typically right wing attitude from the privileged minority.

GW/SW

Ever heard of the expression "cutting your nose off to spite your face"? Cheering a decision that increases the cost of this project and future public infrastructure does not make sense. If the extra cost was only paid by your political opponents I could understand your joy but this expense will be borne by all taxpayers.

My nose is fine

Cheering a decision that points out the lies and misinformation perpetuated throughout this project is exactly the right thing to do. The blame for the legal bill lies squarely in Kevin Falcon's lap.

Totally disagree

The only thing the CEO understands is money - he clearly doesn't give a shit for people, services or poverty and he wouldn't spend anything on them anyway - the fact the courts have piled up decision after decision against him and his methods ought to tell YOU something even if it doesn't seem to have turned the bulb on for Campbell.

Where have you been for the last 8 years?

I had a call from a group of businessmen today soliciting funds to provide nutritious food for poor children.

I suggested the man who called me should be calling Gordon Campbell instead.

Where do you live realife and switek?

You obviously do not live in the Cambie Village area. I do and I attended two meetings in the community, attended by senior representatives of the Canada Line project, who PROMISED that no section of Cambie would be under active construction for more than three (3) months. In reality, it was fifteen (15) to eighteen (18) months. Misrepresentation would be a polite word to describe it.

The comment about compensation for a 'parade' is insulting and ignorant.

I for one am pleased she

I for one am pleased she won, even though all BC taxpayers will be footing the bill. Thanks Gordo.
And today we hear that BC Hydro will be paying 62 million for the homes under the hyrdo lines in Delta, that just had to be placed there, as Gordo wanted them there. Thanks again Gordo. And people wonder why an Independent candidate bounced Gordo's first line of defence. JUst think becoming famous for sying hyndreds of time Can't answe it's before the courts. Gordo has a poor track record in failed court cases.Great man at handling the Economy or so his supporters say.

BC NDP... No Then, Yes Now... How Politically Expedient :D

Anybody remember the Millenium Line... You know, the NDP's Skytrain extension in the late 1990's... Anybody????

To put things into perspective... it was something akin to the NDP MLA pay raise refusal just prior to the election... and after the election is now all over the NDP tells the BC Public that they now accept their MLA pay raises... 'cause it's no longer an election gimic to lure voters. :D

Anyhoooo... in that same vein... back to the NDP's Millenium Skytrain extension:

http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/SkyTrain-(Vancouver)

Damn, where were all you hard core NDP'ers back then and why weren't ya all screaming through the roof when that happened?

I know, I know, ya all turned on the mute button.

Why?... well it was an NDP government, that's why... just being regular NDP sheeple.

That's also why I just love the hypocrisy of many Tyee posters! For the entertainment value... that is. :D

There is far more in this case that meets..............

............the eye. Pittfield called the RAV P-3 a charade!

RAV/Canada Line was built strictly for Liberal political prestige in Vancouver, a rather boring little city that has a massive case of 'penis envy'.

The ridership needed to justify subway construction (about 500,000 passenger a day) is not there so the metro will cost the taxpayer millions. As the metro's cost escalated, the scope of the project was scaled back to such a point that as it stands RAV will only have about a half the capacity of LRT if it were to have been built down the Arbutus Corridor!

What is needed is a criminal investigation of TransLink and RAVCo.!

Oh Luke

Just because we like to see justice served when a corporation changes its mind mid-stream (from bored to cut and cover) doesn't make someone hard-core anything.

Can you actually debate any issue on its own merits?

reallife

"Cheering a decision that increases the cost of this project and future public infrastructure does not make sense. If the extra cost was only paid by your political opponents I could understand your joy but this expense will be borne by all taxpayers."

The bad decision on this project was the one made to build it in the first place, soon followed by the design-build format, which raises costs by 20% in good years and by more than 50% in the inflationary years we just lived through.

Jane Bird, formerly of the City's RTPO and now of the construction consortium, has massaged the figures and massaged the figures and still can't make them come out right, but if you take her last iteration, she takes all the optimistic projections of new transit riders from Richmond, Delta and the other 'burbs, and further increases them by shoving everybody off the local Vancouver north-south buses such as Oak, Cambie, Fraser and even reduced service on Main and pushing them onto Skytrain; with all this, the P-3 operator will nearly achieve their 105,000 riders per day target.....and they will still be short of enough revenue to finance the project at its advertised cost of $1.5 billion.

Which is why the provincial government has hidden some $800 million in overruns in other parts of the $2.3 billion budget.

Did you notice the P-3 operator has a new name? That it is, in fact a new operator, and probably even has a new contract, although there's no chance of us being allowed to look at it "because it's proprietary." As a representative to the BCIMC advisory board on the municipal side, I can't even get a look, and BCIMC is an investor!

All we know is that Jane Bird's original figures resulted in a $61 per rider subsidy to the line. Richmond Skytrain may one day make back its operating costs, but it will never, ever, ever pay back a dime of its capital costs.

So don't you talk too loudly about the one merchant who decided to fight the mugger off instead of lying down and taking the beating. You either have no idea what the history is here or you work for the big development industry, who is the sole beneficiary of this Roman circus.

switek

"Billions of dollars that could have gone into health care or education" instead went into the subway industry which takes more than $1 billion federal subsidies annually and can't sell its product anywhere except Canada to its captive markets here.

I bet you couldn't spell "irony" if you had all five letters in the dirt in front of you.

Luke

Your straw man's got no brains, buddy.

There was a huge outcry over the costs and priority of the Millennium line and the Dosanjh/Clark government would have fallen on it had it not been for the tremendous effort put in by one union and one union alone - IUOE 115 and its business agent. I try not to speak ill of the dead, but that bastard got the whole BC Fed to shut up even though hospitals and schools were protesting the diversion of funding from human resources to a bogus transportation alternative under the NDP.

We wuz sidelined by a development industry shill for a union leader/progressive MLA.

And so your argument is completely bootless, buddy, not to mention your source.

Sounds to me Luke...

... like the silly :D your so fond of, is on you!

Gosh I drove a mail truck in

Gosh I drove a mail truck in Vancouver When the road over the gut was being worked on. I don't recall us having mail delays. But I do miss the little coffee place in the area. There was a main station close by. Again, we have shifted from a court decision on Cambie to somewhere else, anyhwere else that the previous government was in any way involved. Did anyone sue the previous government over the delays that a poster writes about? I don't mind getting dinged for the Cambie mess because it shows us that the present government tends to get away with a lot of things that end up costing small businesses and us the tax payers.

Olympic Rush

Cut and cover was not only cheaper, but it also made it possible for the province and city to ensure the project would be finished before the 2010 Olympics, and if you recall, a big selling point was that we needed this line in order to manage the Games efficiently.