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Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1839
Here are three more moguls we ran into today:
ADDITIONAL VANOC CONSTRUCTION FUNDING MAY HAVE CONDITIONS ATTACHED
VANOC's executive vice president of Construction, Dan Doyle, suggests the additional C$110 million pledged by the federal and BC governments may have conditions attached to it. He answered a direct question this way about whether there were any unusual conditions attached to the additional captial construction funding of C$55 million from each government: "As you know, both governments had due-diligence reports done, and we've only seen drafts of those. When they're finished and made public, I'm sure that out of that there will be some things they wish us to do." He did not elaborate, but added, "I've seen the drafts, and I'm very comfortable that we're doing most of what's there, and whatever else they want us to do is fine, too." The BC government's report, prepared by Pacific Liaicon & Associates was done by a team of several senior construction consultants, led by the company's chairman, Henry H. Wakabayashi. "It was a good report that provided us with some good information," says Doyle.
BC, FEDS TO VANOC: THE DOOR TO THE TREASURY FOR CONSTRUCTION IS CLOSED
Quote without comment, from the minister in charge of BC's portion of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Colin Hansen: "We made it quite clear to VANOC that the C$580 million budget that they now have for venue construction -- they need to make sure that's adequate. They need to be able to build the venues necessary within that C$580 million. The federal government and the provincial government have made it clear that if VANOC were to ask for additional funding for venue construction, the answer from both governments would be 'No'. Now that our C$55 million committment is formalized, we have a remaining contingency within our C$600 million [for the direct costs of BC Olympic commitments] of C$76 million. That's there for other [non-capital] unforeseen things that might come up. But we would expect VANOC, if they have other pressures on their operating budget, would seek other sources of funding, other than from the taxpayers of Canada. The C$76 million is there as a true contingency. If we see cost pressures coming up in other areas of our obligations, that contingency is there to assist them."
COBB CONFIDENT VANOC-RELATED PLEDGE TO OTP PROGRAM GOOD
VANOC's executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, Dave Cobb, agrees that VANOC has to convince more sponsors to contribute to the Own The Podium program if VANOC is to make good on its pledge to raise C$55 million for the program by 2010. At the moment, projecting forward, VANOC would be about C$10 million short. "Yes, we haven't hit the C$55 million yet, but we're in very good shape. We're well underway, but we have to raise more." He has two points to make. The first is that there are a number of Tier-2 and Tier-3 sponsors that are expected to complete their negotiations over the next few weeks and be signed up. "We have a number of them that are close. There are programs coming up, and additional sponsors coming on board. We're not theire yet, but we expected to get there." Second, that it's a best-efforts pledge, and VANOC simply said it would do its best to raise the funds, but there's no commitment for VANOC to spend money from its operations budget to top up the funding if there were a shortfall. "I wouldn't expect our Board would allow us to do it. It's not coming out of our budget. we said we'd help to raise C$55 million. There's no line item in our operating budget for it."
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on August 31, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1838
Here are three moguls we ran into today:
VANOC SAID TO HAVE HELPED MT. WASHINGTON ACQUIRE PARALYMPIC WORLD CUP
VANOC is being credited with being part of those who helped convince the International Paralympic Committee to choose Mt Washington, a ski resort located near Comox, about the middle of BC's Vancouver Island, to host the IPC's Nordic Skiing World Cup finals next March. And some of the Paralympic athletes from 23 nations who will attend the 2010 Winter Games are expected to be at the event. Jules Xavier, of the Comox Valley Record, a community newspaper, reports, "The lead for this sporting opportunity was born through the Strathcona Nordics Ski Club and Vancouver Island Society for Adaptive Snowsports -- both groups worked on attracting the event since the national disabled team held a spring training camp at Mount Washington two years ago. A follow-up by the Comox Valley delegation which attended Torino's recent Winter Olympic Games, and subsequent support from VANOC and Cross-country BC helped move the initiative forward." The reporter quotes Mike McLaughlin, chair of the Comox Valley World Cup organizing committee, as saying, "Canada hasn't hosted this particular World Cup in some time, making it a very strategic win for the Comox Valley to be able to show off our capabilities in hosting winter sporting events of this calibre as we get closer to Vancouver 2010... The event could bring up to 23 world nations to the Comox Valley, 158 athletes, in addition to coaches, friends and families,.. We are exploring an adopt-a-team program as well as holding the opening ceremonies off the mountain so businesses, schools and residents can meet these elite athletes and capture the Olympic spirit."
WHISTLER 2020 CORP TO PONDER ADDITIONAL ATHLETES
The directors of the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation, the subsidiary of the Resort Municipality of Whistler that's charged with building the C$130 million Whistler Athlete's Village for 2010, will likely get its first formal chance to discuss an expected 350-person expansion of the Village at its September 5 Board meeting. The International Olympic Committee, during the debriefing for VANOC that followed last winter's Torino Winter Games, said that more people -- athletes and their team supporters -- than previously expected will likely show up during the Olympics portion of the 2010 Games. The existing plans are based on the original request for 2,050 athlete spaces. The BC, federal and Whistler governments have all said publicly they don't feel they should be paying for the extra facilities, and that VANOC and the IOC should negotiate the matter. VANOC, for its part, says it is in discussions with the IOC about that and several other issues, but so far there's been no decision. The time for planning and designing the Village needs to start soon if it's to be delivered to VANOC by November, 2009, so it can be prepared for the athletes' arrivals in late January and early February, 2010. Meanwhile, Whistler mayor Ken Melamed says it's still not clear who will absorb the risk if the sale of legacy market units in the Village, which Whistler is relying upon to help pay for the ongoing buildings as apartments, doesn't realize as much money as expected. Melamed he's concerned about who will carry the debt from any empty units if they can't be sold. That risk may include increasing the amount of market housing to the project. The permanent athletes' village legacy neighbourhood involves about 300 housing units, with 10% allocated for market housing and the rest as employee-restricted units.
LOGOS OF VANOC, SPONSORS, PARADED
Two of VANOC's major sponsors have each been getting some good use out of a few large magnetic signs that prominently display their logos beside that of the equally prominent 2010 Winter Olympics. The logos of General Motors and Bell Canada are on clamped to the sides of high-end SUVs that pull exhibits in a nightly parade around the grounds that takes place during the popular 17-day Pacific National Exhibition in east Vancouver. About 900,000 people a year attend the Exhibition.
RESOURCES
On this map, the green arrow in the centre marks Comox. The white area to the left are the mountains of the Mt. Washington Resort complex:
maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=comox,+bc&ie=UTF8&z=10&ll=49.694729,-124.919357&spn=0.444168,1.330719&t=h&om=1
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on August 31, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1837
BIG BC CONSTRUCTION FIRMS WELCOME CONFIRMATION OF ADDITIONAL VANOC FUNDING
A group representing senior executives from BC's largest construction firms is applauding the federal government for agreeing to supply an additional C$55 million to bridge the gap between the original 2010 construction budget and "the reality of construction costs that exists today [in B.C.]"
Philip Hochstein, chair of the 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce, says, "Annual construction inflation hit double digits in 2004 and has continued at that pace since. During the nineties through to 2001, construction inflation was about 2%, so when the Olympic budget was being drafted, no one, not even industry insiders, predicted just how dramatically costs would rise."
The 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce, includes the owners and senior executives of 20 firms. It formed in July of 2003 to provide managerial advice on issues such as labour supply, costs and tendering.
"Given the market they are operating in, VANOC has done a tremendous job of exploring cost saving design and venue alternatives," adds Hochstein. He cited a redesign of the Nordic venue to make it more compact. He also suggested that moving the International Broadcast Centre to Vancouver rather than building one in Richmond as originally planned was part of the rationale, even though that was largely done because of questions at the time over tenure of the property involved.
Hochstein suggested that record high fuel and commodity prices, rising construction labour costs after years of wage stagnation, and the shortage of skilled workers which lowers productivity are the key components of the inflationary perfect storm. In BC, those have largely been triggered by a C$100-million capital construction list of projects, coupled with huge project developments competing for skilled trades people, particularly welders, at the tar sands projects in northern Alberta.
"No doubt the usual anti-Games, anti-fun and anti-business crowd will be pointing to the funding increase to advance their agendas," concludes Hochstein. "But higher construction costs are simply a fact and today's announcement that the Federal government will be sharing the burden should be great news to all British Columbians."
The BC government also cofirmed it chipped in a matching C$55 million contribution yesterday.
RESOURCES
The membership of the 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce includes: Bird Construction, Dominion Fairmile Construction, EllisDon Corporation, Emil Anderson Construction, Graham Construction & Engineering, Intertech Construction Group, JJM Construction, Kinetic Construction, Knappett Projects, Ledcor Construction, Metro-Can Construction, Norson Construction, PCL Constructors Westcoast, Peter Kiewit Sons', RAM Construction, Scott Construction, Stuart Olson Constructors, Task Construction Management, Vanbots Construction and the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of BC.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on August 31, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1839
Here are three more moguls we ran into today:
ADDITIONAL VANOC CONSTRUCTION FUNDING MAY HAVE CONDITIONS ATTACHED
BC, FEDS TO VANOC: THE DOOR TO THE TREASURY FOR CONSTRUCTION IS CLOSED
COBB CONFIDENT VANOC-RELATED PLEDGE TO OTP PROGRAM GOOD
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on August 31, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1838
Here are three moguls we ran into today:
VANOC SAID TO HAVE HELPED MT. WASHINGTON ACQUIRE PARALYMPIC WORLD CUP
WHISTLER 2020 CORP TO PONDER ADDITIONAL ATHLETES
LOGOS OF VANOC, SPONSORS, PARADED
RESOURCES
On this map, the green arrow in the centre marks Comox. The white area to the left are the mountains of the Mt. Washington Resort complex:
maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=comox,+bc&ie=UTF8&z=10&ll=49.694729,-124.919357&spn=0.444168,1.330719&t=h&om=1
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on August 31, 2006
Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1837
BIG BC CONSTRUCTION FIRMS WELCOME CONFIRMATION OF ADDITIONAL VANOC FUNDING
A group representing senior executives from BC's largest construction firms is applauding the federal government for agreeing to supply an additional C$55 million to bridge the gap between the original 2010 construction budget and "the reality of construction costs that exists today [in B.C.]"
Philip Hochstein, chair of the 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce, says, "Annual construction inflation hit double digits in 2004 and has continued at that pace since. During the nineties through to 2001, construction inflation was about 2%, so when the Olympic budget was being drafted, no one, not even industry insiders, predicted just how dramatically costs would rise."
The 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce, includes the owners and senior executives of 20 firms. It formed in July of 2003 to provide managerial advice on issues such as labour supply, costs and tendering.
"Given the market they are operating in, VANOC has done a tremendous job of exploring cost saving design and venue alternatives," adds Hochstein. He cited a redesign of the Nordic venue to make it more compact. He also suggested that moving the International Broadcast Centre to Vancouver rather than building one in Richmond as originally planned was part of the rationale, even though that was largely done because of questions at the time over tenure of the property involved.
Hochstein suggested that record high fuel and commodity prices, rising construction labour costs after years of wage stagnation, and the shortage of skilled workers which lowers productivity are the key components of the inflationary perfect storm. In BC, those have largely been triggered by a C$100-million capital construction list of projects, coupled with huge project developments competing for skilled trades people, particularly welders, at the tar sands projects in northern Alberta.
"No doubt the usual anti-Games, anti-fun and anti-business crowd will be pointing to the funding increase to advance their agendas," concludes Hochstein. "But higher construction costs are simply a fact and today's announcement that the Federal government will be sharing the burden should be great news to all British Columbians."
The BC government also cofirmed it chipped in a matching C$55 million contribution yesterday.
RESOURCES
The membership of the 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce includes: Bird Construction, Dominion Fairmile Construction, EllisDon Corporation, Emil Anderson Construction, Graham Construction & Engineering, Intertech Construction Group, JJM Construction, Kinetic Construction, Knappett Projects, Ledcor Construction, Metro-Can Construction, Norson Construction, PCL Constructors Westcoast, Peter Kiewit Sons', RAM Construction, Scott Construction, Stuart Olson Constructors, Task Construction Management, Vanbots Construction and the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of BC.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on August 31, 2006