• Black Nova Scotia
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Health
    • COVID
  • Investigation
  • Journalism
  • Labour
  • Policing
  • Politics
    • City Hall
    • Elections
    • Province House
  • Profiles
  • Transit
  • Women
  • Morning File
  • Commentary
  • PRICED OUT
  • @Tim_Bousquet
  • Log In

Halifax Examiner

An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

  • Home
  • About
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Commenting policy
  • Archives
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
    • Gift Subscriptions
  • Donate
  • Swag
  • Receipts
  • Manage your account: update card / change level / cancel
You are here: Home / Featured / Moncton’s bid to host the Francophone Games is a disaster

Moncton’s bid to host the Francophone Games is a disaster

Morning File, Friday, December 14, 2018

December 14, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 7 Comments

News

1. Secret police commission meeting

Yesterday, the Police Commission received an update on the street checks report in secret. No legal justification for the secrecy was spelled out beyond “legal matters,” which isn’t actually in any of the governing regulations for holding secret meetings. But even more remarkably, the Commission’s debate about whether to have the street checks update in secret was itself done in secrecy. Never before have I seen a debate about going in camera held in camera. It’s meta-secrecy.

Why the secrecy? I can only guess it’s because the Commission wants time to prepare its spin on the report before it is finalized and released next month.

2. Francophone Games

Large sporting events — the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games, what have you — as a rule are economic disasters and black hole budget items for governments. That’s because backers always oversell their ability to control costs and overestimate the economic impact of such games.

Which brings us to the Francophone Games.

The Jeux de la Francophonie mirrors the Commonwealth Games, but for the French-speaking world. Besides sporting events, the games also have competitive artistic events, with medals awarded in categories like Storytelling and Song. Started in 1989, the Games are held every four years, and usually attract around 50 participating countries and a couple of thousand competitors. Last year, the Ivory Coast hosted the largest games to date, with over 4,000 competitors; I don’t know if the large turnout reflected increased interest in the Games or just simple geography.

Back in 2015, New Brunswick started aiming to host the 2021 Francophone Games in Moncton. “One of the big strengths of our candidacy is that the region holds all the elements and infrastructure needed to host exemplary Games of La Francophonie,” Eric Mathieu Doucet, a member of the Moncton-Dieppe bid committee, told the CBC. “We have demonstrated time and time again that we have what it takes to host events of international scope,” echoed George LeBlanc, the Mayor of Moncton.

Reporter Jennifer Choi noted that:

If the province is successful in its bid for the 2021 games, the province estimates it will cost $15-million to host.

New Brunswick wants to split that bill between the federal, provincial and municipal governments.

The government also estimates some of the cost of hosting will be covered by ticket sales, sponsorship and private partnerships. 

Here’s a tell: when someone starts going on about “some of the cost will be covered,” understand that there is not a solid financial plan.

At that time, two other cities, Sherbrooke, Quebec and Guadeloupe, France, were in the race to host the games, but both had dropped out by March 2016. That left only Moncton.

“The economic spinoffs of this event are considerable,” announced a celebratory press release issued by the bid committee. “The 2021 Games are expected to attract more than 3,000 athletes from nearly 60 countries. The spinoffs are estimated at $25 million, including $22 million in the two host cities.” The press release didn’t say who made those calculations.

At the same time, another CBC article noted that “the New Brunswick government has estimated it will cost $15 million to host the games, while the mayor of Sherbrooke Que., which also made a bid, estimated it would have cost his city $50 million.” That’s quite a spread, but the line was that Moncton could produce the games at a lower cost because it already had the Moncton stadium.

But on Tuesday, in a bombshell exposé, Radio Canada reported that the cost of hosting the Francophone Games in Moncton is not $15 million, not $50 million, but $130 million.

I’ve run some of the article through Google translation:

The July 2015 application file, then evaluated at $ 17.5 million, was revised after the visit of five experts appointed by the International Organization of La Francophonie in Moncton and Dieppe. Their mission was to evaluate the facilities, particularly in terms of accommodation. This review led to a new budget of $19.5 million a few months later, in December 2015. Accommodation and food costs of $1 million and $1.5 million, respectively, 2 to 2.5 million.

Two million were also added to the bill even before the Moncton-Dieppe bid was accepted. But despite this first review, the budget tabled in December 2015 was not realistic: the business plan unveiled this week exposes the thinness of the 2015 evaluations.

The costs associated with security alone are multiplied by ten between 2015 and 2018. The 2015 budget estimated them at $1 million, but recent figures show a bill of $10 million. Security fees are rising for all major international events in recent years. The relevant authorities have not yet submitted their assessment for the Moncton and Dieppe Games. The [price] could continue to swell.

Infrastructure, and especially the restoration of existing infrastructure, has been significantly undervalued. In the 2015 nomination, four amounts of $1 million are allocated to temporary sports, cultural, activity and equipment acquisitions. The 2018 business plan is more like 36 million for infrastructure, including 24 million so-called essential investments.

But the explosion of operating costs, a category with fuzzy contours, is unparalleled. The 2021 Games will cost $84 million in operation, according to the business plan. The 2015 application file does not expressly mention operations, but some categories seem to be related to it. Coordination costs were estimated at 2.1 million, the most expensive line of the 2015 budget after the restoration. And the highlight of the show, the opening and closing ceremonies, was to cost, together, $1.5 million.

See the original Radio Canada story here; it includes a chart with a line item breakdown of costs.

The soaring price tag of the Games is ensnarled with New Brunswick provincial politics in ways that are beyond my understanding, but Jacques Poitras gets into that aspect here and here.

Anyway you view it, Moncton’s Francophone Games bid is a complete clusterfuck.

“I think shock, or surprise,” Moncton deputy mayor Greg Turner told CTV reporter Kate Walker. “We had never heard anything in that range.”

Donald Savoie, the Canadian research chair in public administration and governance at the University of Moncton said: “Somebody was either irresponsible or incompetent; you pick it.”

Five members from the board of directors organizing the games have now resigned.

But while the enormous escalation of costs — over eight times what was originally estimated — for these particular Francophone Games are indeed extreme, it’s no surprise at all that any such event goes far over budget. The first investigative piece I did in Halifax was a look at the failed bid for the Commonwealth Games, which had ballooned from a “right size” budget of $785 million sold to the public to $2 billion. This is a normal occurrence for such games.

Oh, remember that the Francophone Games were going to generate $25 million in economic impact? That seems pathetic in terms of a $130 million Games price tag, but fear not! There’s always a way to spin that…

“Officials are optimistic the games will bring economic spin offs,” reported Walker after Radio Canada reported the busted Games budget:

“These games are a game changer,” said Mathieu Doucet [a bid committee member]. “We’re talking about the biggest event ever in the history of Atlantic Canada.”

It could potentially attract newcomers to the region.

“We know immigration is an important topic in our region and we can look at these major events and see how we can maybe attract families, students, so they can start a new life here,” said City of Moncton spokeswoman Isabelle LeBlanc.

Game changer! Immigrants!

But I’m disappointed they didn’t talk about how the Games will put Moncton on the map. Those New Brunswickers need to up their bullshit game.

3. Northern Pulp Working Group

Earlier this year, three organizations — the Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, and the Pictou Landing First Nation — formed the Northern Pulp Working Group to coordinate opposition to the plan to pipe effluent from the Northern Pulp Mill into the Northumberland Strait.

In June, the Working Group hired Temple Scott Associates, an Ottawa firm, to lobby the federal government on its behalf. Temple Scott has three people on the Northern Pulp file, but only one, Kevin MacAdam, has actually lobbied federal officials, and MacAdam hasn’t contacted any officials since August.


Government

No public meetings.


On campus

Dalhousie

The Development of a Biocatalytic Approach to Unnatural Nucleosides Therapeutics (Friday, 1:30pm, Room 226, Chemistry Building) — Gregory Hughes from Merck and Company will speak.


In the harbour

05:30: Atlas Leader, car carrier, arrives at Autoport from Zeebrugge, Belgium
07:00: Nolhanava, ro-ro cargo, arrives at Pier 36 from Saint-Pierre
10:00: Radcliffe R. Latimer, bulker, sails from National Gypsum for sea
11:30: Atlas Leader sails for sea
16:30: Nolhanava sails for Saint-Pierre


Footnotes

A very short Morning File today because there’s not much news and because I’m editing an article by Linda Pannozzo, which we’ll publish later this morning.


The Halifax Examiner is an advertising-free, subscriber-supported news site. Your subscription makes this work possible; please subscribe.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Donald Savoie, Eric Mathieu Doucet, Francophone Games, Greg Turner, Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, Isabelle LeBlanc, Jacques Poitras, Jennifer Choi, Kate Walker, Kevin MacAdam, Mayor George LeBlanc, Moncton, Northern Pulp Working Group, Pictou Landing First Nation, Police Commission, the Maritime Fishermen's Union

About Tim Bousquet

Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. email: [email protected]; Twitter

Comments

  1. davidmorash says

    December 14, 2018 at 12:01 pm

    I’m disappointed that every member of the Police Commission voted to take the interim street check report in camera. Really disappointed.

    Related to that, since this seems in violation of the Police Act, would it be the RCMP that would investigate that?

    Log in to Reply
  2. Evelyn C. White says

    December 14, 2018 at 1:26 pm

    Get real people. The white man brought in from Toronto to tell Black folk what Black folk (and CBC Nova Scotia) have already told everybody in the province is going to (chocolate) milk the coffers for as long as he can. “Consulting” fees, hotel, food, transportation expenses, etc. This grown-ass Black woman was not born yesterday.

    Log in to Reply
    • Colin May says

      December 14, 2018 at 3:18 pm

      He’s been busy writing a report for another jurisdiction. The Human Rights Commission chose Wortley because they know what his opinion will be and his opinion of street checks is widely known through previous assignments,articles and videos. He was in Toronto a few days ago and as CBC reports
      ” A black person in Toronto is nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by police, according to a new Ontario Human Rights Commission report on race and policing. The report, titled “A Collective Impact,” analyzed two periods of data from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) between 2000 and 2006, and 2013 and 2017. The analysis was conducted by Prof. Scott Wortley, a criminologist at the University of Toronto. ”
      And : ” “Clearly, we’ve established that these gross disparities and disproportionalities exist. The next step in the analysis is going to try to explore the various explanations for these racial disparities,” Wortley said. “I don’t think we can ignore these differences and sweep them under the table.”
      Source : https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ohrc-interim-profiling-report-1.4939242

      I’d say you owe Wortley an apology for an uninformed rush to judgment.

      Log in to Reply
  3. TedM says

    December 14, 2018 at 1:41 pm

    What if every olympic event was awarded FREE to the hosting country based on a plan submitted and overseen by the Olympic committee all sponsorship money is given to the guiding committee and all countries participating split the entire costs based on their wealth and the hosting countries receive all the residual profits from the event . Many smaller countries could submit plans and host the events at a cost of zero to the host country. Costs would be kept in check then and if the Olympics are such a big money maker the host country would end up with new facilities and living quarters which definitely benefit many third word countries.

    Log in to Reply
  4. enedla says

    December 14, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    Big sporting events and new convention centers seem to be our politicians’ favorite boondoggles;
    they seem to think these hair-brained schemes somehow shore up the economy and create jobs.
    It would be nice to be able to link their salaries and pension schemes in an inverse way to how much public money they squander on crap like this while in office.

    Log in to Reply
  5. Ken Donnelly says

    December 14, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    When government goes into secret meetings for reasons that violate regulations, the only prudent reaction is to assume the worst.

    If even the debate about going into the secret meeting is held in secret, the only prudent reaction is to assume that there is something worse than what was previously imagined could be the worst.

    Log in to Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Moncton’s bid to host the Francophone Games is a disaster | Friendship First, Competition Second – An Amateur Sport Website says:
    December 14, 2018 at 6:19 pm

    […] Bousquet is editor of the online Halifax Examiner, in which this article first […]

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

Sign up for email notification

Sign up to receive email notification when we publish new Morning Files and Weekend Files. Note: signing up for this email is NOT the same as subscribing to the Halifax Examiner. To subscribe, click here.

Recent posts

  • Dartmouth man charged with wilful promotion of hatred May 19, 2022
  • “Representation matters”: Vince Williams talks about the inaugural CFL Officiating Academy training camp May 18, 2022
  • Developer wants to clear trees early at fast-tracked Dartmouth development sites May 18, 2022
  • Property owner applies to infill Halifax Harbour at Dartmouth Cove May 18, 2022
  • Halifax chief administrative officer Jacques Dubé resigns May 18, 2022

Commenting policy

All comments on the Halifax Examiner are subject to our commenting policy. You can view our commenting policy here.

Copyright © 2022