Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
While I have my doubts about how credible a new development involving Ken Reiss really is (although in fairness, he did get the parkade on King St. done), if that story is true and CV effectively sabotaged a legitimate proposal for a project that is EXACTLY what downtown Winnipeg could use, in order to help out its TNSE friends with a competing proposal, then that is absolutely unconscionable. It's like a doctor withholding medicine from a patient that needs it, or a firefighter deliberately failing to go to the scene of a fire. CV's whole raison d'etre is to get projects like the Reiss/Stuart Olson one off the ground, not to redirect the gravy to board members.
If this is all true, then I'd say there is a pretty sound argument for disbanding CV altogether.
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Presumably, Colliers was out representing the group in an effort to find a hotelier. There may be questions about Ken Reiss, but they won't be financial ones. If they had a hotelier, they'd have been in business and more or more it seems as if CV was actively stifling Stuart Olson and the Colliers and their effort to find one.
Because why wouldn't CV just hold Stuart Olson in contempt of the agreement? Or better yet - for the citizens of Winnipeg anyway - steer a potential hotel partner they knew of towards the group in an effort to generate $16MM in value?. Stuart Olson effectively had a $16MM option to develop a hotel. If they were in violation of the option - ie. it expired with no hotel contract in place - then why would CV let them off the hook for the $16MM?
Well, 1) we now know there was no contract because they're either negligent or incompetent or more likely both or 2) the difference between the $3.75MM and the $16MM is essentially hush-money that didn't stay quiet. There's no other explanation.
It needs to be blown up. And because nobody wants to go on record before Friday with the knowledge that the 'developer' in question is True North, while CV will acknowledge a member of True North sat on the CV board, nobody will publicly acknowledge it was Mark Chipman.