The whole "controversy" is trumped up. I have yet to meet a single person who has voluntarily brought up the convention centre while listing their gripes. The homeless problem, the utter lack of affordable housing, gang violence, the Olympics (in general), and a general feeling that Vancouver is full of itself to an unhealthy degree are all common themes that I come across.
If the NDP is seriously trying to get behind it as a wedge issue I wish them luck but it won't win them elections. In fact it could have some serious backlash if a review of the project leads to the Province swearing off directly managing any construction projects ever again. The Convention Centre is the biggest urban public works project the Province is undertaking. It is coming in at approximately twice the Province's contribution to the Canada Line and I don't think Victoria has any involvement with the Seymour Capilano Water Filtration project (totally off of everybody's radar despite its billion-plus price tag, and promises to virtually eliminate chlorine in our water, and give us arguably the cleanest drinking water in North America and at the very front of the pack for the entire planet).
The convention centre is not another fast ferries project. It isn't meant to foster an entirely new industry, as the Fast Ferries sought to do with aluminum shipbuilding. The convention centre (VCCEP for short from now on) is meant to be a money spinner and if it fails to do that, then it will be a boondoggle. Right now it is just over budget. The Fast Ferries fiasco wasn't initially about them going over budget. If I remember correctly the media was pretty forgiving about the delays for some time, after all, these were state of the art vessels and our people were learning how to build them as they went. It was when they started being sea tested that the controversy really started. They couldn't run as fast as planned because of their wakes and their inability to steer around logs at speed. The fear was that their more fragile aluminum hulls wouldn't be able to stand up to smacking a deadhead log at thirty knots without reenacting the Titanic (or the Queen of the North). Also, the engines were touchy and I seem to remember a Fast Cat being towed once or twice.
The nail in the coffin for the program was when the ships became (1) grossly over budget and behind schedule, (2) unable to perform to their design specs (which was the whole point!) and, (3) there would be no appreciable time savings on the route because they needed to fit into a crossing schedule that also featured conventional models because of the lower vehicle capacities of the Fast Cats (intended to be off-set by their speed). The post script included (4) was a complete lack of orders for the Fast Cat design from other companies and ferry operators, and (5) there were no buyers for the Fast Cats and they were eventually sold to Washington Marine Group for LESS than they were worth as scrap metal.
Put it all together and Fast Ferries were to the NDP government what a sneeze would be as one takes a piece from the bottom in a game of Jenga.
In time we will know if the VCCEP is worth the price we've paid for it. I think it will be worth it. We're getting an impressive multi-use structure in a central location with a whole whack of adjacent amenities and infrastructure, we're getting a functional addition to the existing VCC, and we're investing our own money locally, which is never bad for the economy. That investment just spins and spins and, as has been mentioned before, a good chunk of it will come back to the Province. Think of the opportunity cost of what the 0.9 billion could have bought. A debt pay down would be my best guess. Possibly some tax credits and a few new bridges and roads throughout the province. Some more money to health care and education. All worthy causes but usually sunk costs.
The VCCEP, touch wood, will make money that the public can then invest in all those other things. And honestly, if the convention market sours, which is very likely at some point between now and when the building rusts itself to the point of collapse over the next century or so, we can always shutter the old VCC until the market improves or another use comes along. A giant grow-op maybe?
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) way. So who cares.
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