Vancouver Secrets

And Then I’ll Bring World Peace.

Vancouver’s new Mayor Gregor Robertson will not only head our city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but he also promises to solve an issue that has no one has been able to fix.

“Job No. 1 is calling together an emergency task force on homelessness and working on solutions to getting people off the street into a safe place to live as quickly as possible,” said Robertson, a 44-year-old businessman and former MLA, who won the Mayor contest in a landslide.

“We will bring out brightest minds together and end homelessness in Vancouver,” said Robertson.

You’d think that with an average expenditure if $44K per homeless person, they’d manage to at least get them a room.

The East Hastings area is the fastest growing area of Vancouver… it attracts the homeless from across Canada due to the the quality of drugs and services down there.

Good Luck Greg, you’ll need it.

photo credit: tris

Putting on the Ritz

Construction was halted on Vancouver’s premier property yesterday…

Advertising signage around the site was missing and construction trailers had been removed from the site.

Bob Rennie, who markets the project, said 50 per cent of the condominium units were pre-sold.

“I’ve just been instructed by Holborn (building’s developer) to make it clear that it is a suspension of construction until they go through redesign,” Rennie said Tuesday.

This makes it the tenth development canceled lately, causing a wee bit of concern in Vancouver’s booming high rise development.

But, as we all know, the Olympics are coming. Prices for condos should continue to rise.

Get out and buy before it’s too late.

(Ritz homes are priced from $2.5 - $10 million. Penthouse pricing available upon request)

We Usually Only Take Their Homeless

photo credit: Vlastula

BC has been a little mad at Alberta ever since Ralph decided to give one-way tickets to Vancouver to all newcomers seeking welfare benefits - along with a list of how much better Vancouver’s benefits were.

Seems that Vancouver is now looking to Calgary for a better type of export.

A banner was seen flying high above Calgary’s skyline Tuesday reading, “Join Vancouver’s Finest”. It’s part of a public relations campaign paid for by the Vancouver Police Department to try and bolster its ranks for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“It’s a trying time to hire new officers — the days when we’d get 1,000 applications just by running a cheesy ad are over — so now we have to go to extraordinary means.”

John Dooks, head of the Calgary Police Association, wasted no time in hammering the air-recruitment stunt.

“I think they’ll be hard-pressed to get any of our current members to leave Calgary, but this could be an opportunity for someone who wants to get into policing, but didn’t qualify for classes here, due to high standards,” said Dooks.

“They could go to Vancouver, learn about policing, and when they get good, they can come back here.”

The war continues…

What Happens When The Ski Hill Goes Broke?

photo credit: Andre Charland

Seems like Intrawest, the owner of Whistler Blackcomb and 10 other ski resorts, is being hit hard as it struggles with $1.68 Billion in debt that comes due October 23rd.

The London-based Financial Times broke the story.

How this could impact the Olympics is unknown. Maybe we’ll end up owning the hills?

The NDP Discovers A New Angle In Vancouver

The headline reads:

Queers win BC by-elections

Jenn McGinn is now believed to be the first out lesbian to win a seat in the BC legislature. She was one of two queer NDP candidates to win seats in a pair of Vancouver by-elections held Wednesday.

More…

Meanwhile NDP Spencer Herbert, Vancouver’s gay parks commissioner, won in Vancouver-Burrard. The seat was previously held by gay Liberal Lorne Mayencourt who resigned to run unsuccessfully for the federal Conservatives in the Oct 14 federal election.

I guess sexual preference is now a deciding factor here in Vancouver. “Not that there’s anything wrong with it”.

The progressive nature of Vancouver means the other parties need to start attracting more gay candidates - especially when voter turnouts are in the 20% range. It works better than being green.

In other news… Vancouver to host Outgames a year after Winter Olympics.

photo credit: roland

Look on the bright side…

photo credit: 96dpi

Canada’s economic outlook downgraded

The OECD has cut Canadian growth forecasts and now predict growth of less than 1 percent for the year:

Canada’s economy will expand by just 0.8 per cent in 2008, down from the 1.2 per cent forecast last spring, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projected in a revised economic outlook Tuesday. That’s also less than the 1.1 per cent now projected by the Finance Department.

The U.S. economy, however, will expand by 1.8 per cent, up from the 1.2 per cent projected in the spring, and the G7 countries will grow on average by 1.4 per cent, unchanged from the spring projection.

The only G7 country that will post weaker growth than Canada is Italy, now projected to expand by 0.1 per cent.

Big drop in Lower Mainland home sales

‘This summer, sales went off a cliff,’ says urban economist
Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun

The turn of the Lower Mainland real estate market’s cycle has been more dramatic than expected with real estate boards reporting another drop in sales and slide in prices at the end of August.

In Greater Vancouver, August Multiple Listing Service sales were down almost 54 per cent to 1,568 units, compared with 3,348 units in the same month a year ago.

Lower oil, home prices and pressure on retail prices… all the things that may let Vancouver fall back in line with the rest of the country.

Now’s the time to start putting away cash, and this time next year there may be real deals out there.

Good thing the Olympics are almost here to save the day.

The Olympics - Are They A Trap?

I thought there was something odd about the Beijing Olympics… :}

Never trust the Chinese government.

85 Million for Homeless

photo credit: Laura Grace

According to this Globe and Mail article, the government will be spending another $85 million on helping the homeless with shelters - and this is only the amount listed and doesn’t include welfare already given (average $969/person), or existing project costs.

So let’s say conservatively they are spending $100 million on new projects.

Divide this by the estimated number of homeless in the east side - 2,592 - according to this count.

This works out to $40,000 per person.

Average salary in Vancouver = $51,628 (family).

Interesting…

The average Canadian spends $11,200 a year on housing. Government-run supportive housing where residents get social services, such as counseling costs $28,000 a year.

You’d think that with the kind of money they throw at the problem, there would be a decline in homelessness…

You’d be wrong.

In the US, homelessness has been in decline. The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation’s streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent — from 175,914 to 123,833 — from 2005 to 2007.

The US project called “Housing First” is working… I’m hoping that Vancouver is going in this direction.

Vancouver is doing at lot in preparation for the Olympics - hiding the embarassment of the homeless situation seems to be top priority now.

Vancouver Will Pass Montreal In Olympic Debt

photo credit: kevindooley

It took Montreal 30 years to pay off it’s Olympic games - Vancouver is shaping up to blow away the record.

In 1976 the games left Montreal with a $1.5-billion debt, and oddly enough much of the debt was serviced through a special tax on tobacco. (At $10 a pack, not sure you can add more tax to raise any money here.)

Montreal projected the games cost to be $300 million.

The B.C. provincial government claimed the cost of the Olympics wouldn’t exceed $600 million. Estimates passed $2.5 Billion a while back and it’s still going strong. Best of all the B.C. taxpayers are on hook for at least $1.5 billion.

The auditor-general pegs the Games’ total budget at $4.3 Billion. About $1.8 billion of that will be recouped from Olympic revenues.

Ottawa will contribute $607 million and local government $389 million, leaving B.C. taxpayers on the hook for about $1.5 billion, the report estimates.

Some examples of surprises still to come:

- Security - 1 Billion - original estimate $175 mil.

- The Canada rapid rail line - way over budget (plus the destruction of Cambie Street small business worth millions)

- A $150 million US currency blunder (organizers delayed entering into currency hedging contracts).

- The sports facilities are all in trouble - no one dares to publish the actual overruns. They were given $110 million earlier to cover cost overruns. Expect these to be at least $200 million.

Projects being done for the Olympics (but not included in the budget):

- the $775 million Sea to Sky Highway

Good news: The $1.3 billion in infrastructure and other costs, including some serious cost overruns reported in the past, are mostly accounted for in its general budget. This means we get to start paying for these now.

This is starting to sound like the way the Gov’t has handled my favorite company - ICBC.

They should have hired Calgary to look after the management.

Best of all is that nobody is responsible for reporting to the public on the overall cost of the Games.

If you have a link to any finance reporting on the games, I’d be very happy to get it… the Province seems to be the only one privy to any details.

Your estimate of what the final tally?

My guess is $3 Billion in debt. $1.5 Billion if we’re lucky.

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Whistler Is Now 8 Hours Away

photo credit: Adrian Lee