Press the reset button!

On Nov. 12 I appeared before the Committee of the Whole and delivered the following speech.

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In my view, the appropriate decision is to "press the reset button". I urge you to end this process now and stop wasting resources on a faulty approach. I am not challenging the assertion that you have been acting legally. I expect you to avoid illegality; I hope that you seek to make wise decisions.
So I have written my remarks with the objective of contributing to your debate. Feel free to steal any ideas you like.
Back on April 22, Council authorized negotiations with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group. You provided an impossibly weak negotiating position to the City team involved in the process.
As far as I can see, Council’s instructions were – come back with a deal, any kind of deal. You did not put the City negotiating team in a position in which they could walk away from the table. Such negotiations result in one-sided arrangements.
And now that the outcome of the negotiations is before you, here are some pointed questions I urge you to address in your debate.
Why should taxpayers stump up $110 million for upgrading the stadium and arena? The correspondence from the Canadian Football League does not call for luxury. The documentation before you does call for some work on the facilities. It notes that strengthening of the raker beam is required to end temporary loading restrictions, but with those restrictions the stadium can be used. It calls for cleaning and painting the stadium roof and addressing the problem of water infiltration. The documents do not specify the need for comfy new seats or crystal chandeliers in the VIP boxes. And it is not just a question of inflating the cost of the upgrades, this also delays until 2013 the possibility of having a football (or soccer) team on the field generating revenue.
Why should taxpayers provide $19.3 million for parking? None of this parking is for the stadium or civic centre. Those parking requirements are fully grandfathered – what ever that is supposed to mean. No, the parking paid for by the city is for the customers coming to the shopping centre and cinema. I expect that small business owners who are forced to satisfy the zoning by-law’s onerous demands for parking might question why their competitors receive this kind assistance.
And if the parking requirements for the stadium and civic centre can be grandfathered because those facilities exist today, why could the same not be done for the trade and consumer show industry?　
Consider the fundamentals. In a risky business venture, a prudent businessman will attempt to limit his financial exposure by minimizing the investment up front. In the Lansdowne Partnership, the investment in upgrading the stadium is the most risky part of the project. That is paid 100% by the taxpayers but we have seen no real analysis to reduce this up-front investment.
Now some people consider that the project at Lansdowne is "revenue neutral" and will not cost a penny. I submit more of our citizens believe in the tooth fairy than in the fiction of "revenue neutrality".
For decades Council has consistently failed to adequately provide for upkeep at Lansdowne but now your solemn pledge to do so in the future is bankable? Not at my bank!
Moreover you are contemplating a new policy in which property taxes can be designated to support specific city undertakings. Please do not take this path. If you truly believe that taxpayers’ money should go into rehabilitating Lansdowne, say so. Do not hide behind this Enron-style accounting sleight-of -hand.
Finally, the only financial return to the city from this partnership comes from net cash flow dribbling down through the famous "waterfall". Note that the Auditor-General has pointed out that there is no definition of "net cash flow". It is whatever is left over after OSEG has been fully reimbursed for its management, coordination and other services (of which I am sure there will be many).
In conclusion, it is time to abandon the Lansdowne Live detour. We have wasted eighteen months on this fruitless exercise. Get back on track by making decisions about what is to be done and how it will be funded. Take more than a passing interest in the financial impact on the taxpayer. Put to rest ideas of inventing new ways of cooking the books. Secure good value for the tax dollar. Press the reset button!
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I guess my delivery (by which I managed to fit all this into five minutes -- not easy -- try reading it outloud with a stopwatch) was a bit vigorous. At any rate, Dave Reevely, writing in his blog "Greater Ottawa" described it as "virulent". Well I probably should be happy that he saved "violent", "vituperative", "vitriolic", "voluble", "virus-spreading" and "vulgarizing" for another day. However I wouldn't have minded "vulpine".....