Diligence overdue

In the hearing before Ontario Superior Court which terminated last week, the lawyer for the Friends of Lansdowne maintained that the only independent review of the financial arrangements supporting the Lansdowne Partnership plan, was the study in 2008 by Deloitte. That study was never released to the public, nor was its existence made known to members of City Council.
The lawyer for the City denied that claim and said there were other studies conducted. It is difficult to take that counter claim seriously.
It was said that the financial arrangements were studied by Graham Bird Associates(GBA) and by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC). But Graham Bird Associates was retained to carry the process through the administrative and legal hoops, not to analyse the deal. Although I believe the contract between the City and GBA is not public, it is difficult to imagine that the firm did not have a strong financial incentive to move the project forward. It is unlikely that GBA would minimize their revenue by placing obstacles in the quick execution of the LPP.
As for PWC, they were retained by GBA, not to analyse the financials of the deal but rather to create a business model based on assumptions provided by the City and their "partner" Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group.
In arguing the City's case, their lawyer also claimed that the two reports issued by the City Auditor General constitute an independent analysis of the LPP financials. While the Auditor General is independent, his range of examination was tightly controlled. Moreover, the report which the Auditor General received from an independent US consultant on the LPP is not available.
So the bland assurance in staff reports that due diligence has been conducted with respect to the financial arrangements behind the LPP seem to be pure and simple puffery.