Is
Lansdowne 2.0
good for Ottawans? Hard to tell. But I can tell what’s not good for Ottawa: how the mayor was trying to
get ahead
of the report with some political spin.
Let me explain what happened Monday morning at Mark Sutcliffe’s hastily convened press conference. The mayor
highlighted a new staff report
and took questions from the media, while standing by a large screen that read “Lansdowne 2.0: More for Less.” (The shopping retailer Target already cornered “Expect More. Pay Less.”)
But the problem was that the report didn’t exist — at least not in any form that journalists, or anyone else, could see. We were told it would arrive at 2 p.m. — “or so” — with a two-hour window to question staff on background (read: but don’t quote them on it).
Why the urgency? CBC’s Arthur White-Crummey smartly put the question to the mayor: Why get ahead of a staff report and present it yourself? Sutcliffe responded that “There’s been a lot of information that’s been in the community on this. Much of it has been misleading, and so I thought it was important … to make myself available to answer your questions, to put some information out there that’s true and accurate, and to do it in a way that was suitable for your deadlines.”
It’s reassuring that, as a former journalist, the mayor pretends to understand our deadlines. Less comforting is inverting how public information is supposed to work. Flipping that order felt like a political hide-and-seek: sign here; we’ll send the details later.
When I asked who put forward the successful bid of $65 million for the air rights to develop the two mixed-use towers above the retail podium — much more than the earlier estimate of $39 million — the mayor said, “That will be in the report that will be out shortly.” Why not just tell us, Mr. Mayor? (If anything for our deadlines!) Or had he not seen it, either?
(For the record, we learned much later, after the working day was done for most Ottawans, that it’s Toronto-based Mirabella Development Corporation.)
Sutcliffe seemed less interested in giving us actual details at the presser and more keen to warn us about “misinformation.”
“It’s really important that we tell the truth about Lansdowne to counteract the misinformation campaign that is underway,” the mayor warned, adding that the very small group of people who opposed Lansdowne a decade ago were at it again. “It’s okay to have your own opinion,” he added, “but because the facts aren’t on their side, some of them are spreading misinformation. They’re deliberately misleading and twisting the facts. … Let’s not listen to the people spreading false information. They were wrong last time, and they’re wrong this time.”
The answer had the ingredients of American-style political theatre: call the other side out for “fake news” because they disagree with you.
The mayor, meanwhile, used some spongy analogies to buttress the plan, likening it to buying a $418,000 house for just $130,000, but failing to mention the many roommates, or that the parking’s not free.
The mayor also did not mention perhaps more relevant numbers, which came via an annual update the very next day, that Ottawa’s partnership at Lansdowne with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group lost $11.1 million last year — despite hosting 188 events at TD Place in the fiscal calendar. As my colleague Joanne Laucius reported, “the partnership has posted net financial losses for every fiscal year and has yet to generate net positive cash flows.” That’s 11 straight years of losses, for you sports fans keeping track.
And I don’t know specifically who’s in this very small group of fact-twisting hooligans the mayor is warning us about, but one long-time critic — Coun. Shawn Menard, whose Capital Ward includes Lansdowne Park — was there,
offering a different tally.
The mayor and Monday’s fact sheets put the total cost of Lansdowne 2.0 at $418.8 million. Menard says it’s closer to $483 million once you include costs the city keeps in separate buckets.
“Unfortunately, the mayor is not being accurate in communicating that the price tag is $483 million,” Menard said. “The mayor did not include the extra costs for the retail podium, which are going up to $44 million, and he did not include the $19 million parking costs that the city is building for the residential towers.”
That explains how two observers end up $64 million apart. You can agree or disagree with the accounting, but at least they’re talking about the same figures.
There were plenty of warm, fuzzy platitudes from the mayor: “a terrific investment,” “a great deal for taxpayers,” and “say yes to growth and progress.” For listeners still unconvinced, Sutcliffe painted a cautionary tale of doing nothing: aging infrastructure, lost events, less cash in the coffers for affordable housing, and, as a bleak punctuation mark, the spectre of 24 Sussex Drive, once the home of the prime minister and now a $100-million sinkhole “filled with rats.”
I’m not normally such a grump, and there are lots of things about Lansdowne that I think are great, including the vibe. The new projected revenues from the sale of air rights are much higher than originally anticipated. Maybe this deal is too good to pass up.
And perhaps some of the things we’re being asked to sacrifice — the north-side roof, say, or much of the Great Lawn — are reasonable in light of the 700+ condos/apartments and mid-size event centre we’ll get.
What was jarring on Monday was the hurried, my-way-or-the-highway posture — echoes of another mayor with another P3 project sold as “on time and on budget.”
If you want buy-in on a 50-year financial structure, don’t stage it like a product launch where the spec sheet arrives later.
Two p.m. came and went with no report, as did 2:30, 3:00 and 3:30. I was among the three reporters who stuck it out to the very end, only to be told the information session was cancelled. The report wouldn’t be out until after 4 p.m. — and they only had the room booked til four. Shortly after 5:30, I received an email from the city saying that the report was online
If “More for Less” is the city’s new promise, try starting with more information and less spin.
