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Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2208VANCOUVER CALLS FOR TENDERS TO WORK ON OLYMPIC VILLAGE SHORELINE AND LANDSCAPING WORK
The City of Vancouver is asking for tenders from firms to do a batch of shoreline and landscaping work for the 2010 Olympic Village in southeast False Creek.
The work involves building an eight-metre pedestrian footbridge, along with its lighting and supports, a timber boardwalk with 10 viewing platforms -- seven made of timber and three of pavers. There will also be construction of temporary and permanent pedestrian walkways and bikeways, but this will take place in two phases. The first phase is to be completed this year, while the second phase is to be completed in 2009, when a lot of the building construction of the village is nearing completion.
The work also involves installing granite blocks and associated quarried stone riprap, which the city will supply, along with 37 metres of riprap shoreline protection as part of the phase-2 work in 2009. Another part of the work is to make, construct and install handrail, stainless steel wire rope rails, bull rails and posts.
Yet another part of the contract is calling for supply and installation of trees, plant materials and lawn in the same two phases; design, supply and installation of a design-build irrigation system and the two phases worth of supplying and installing pavers. There is also a need to supply and install architectural features such as logs, boulder clusters, snags and site furnishings.
There's a pre-tender meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on March 19, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2207
BC OLYMPIC SECRETARIAT ASKING FOR PR FIRMS TO HELP WITH 2010 BUZZ AT 2008 GAMES AND BEYOND
The BC government's Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat has begun asking for public-relations companies to contact it, so they can become one of three firms that will receive a detailed request for proposals on promoting the 2010 Winter Olympics during and after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
The closing date for firms to submit their resumes according to instructions found on BC Bid is April 11. The response can only be electronic through BC Bid, which means that firms have to be registered with BC Bid to submit a response. The three will be notified by April 18, and there's to be a briefing of the top three firms the week of April 23, The request for proposals is expected to be issued by the end of April, with the contract awarded by the week of April 18.
The Secretariat says it will be promoting the Province of BC internationally "in the core areas of business development, business investment and tourism." The starting place for these activities, it notes, is by using the BC-Canada Pavilion, located near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The PR firm that gets the job will be asked to develop strategic communication and media relations plans to promote 2010-related programs and projects for domestic and international editorial media, and to do media monitoring and media hosting. The project includes coming up with the milestones, deadlines and budget to ensure the media are aware of activities and events. There's to be a specific focus on the Chinese market. The firm won't be involved in media buying nor paid advertising.
Secretariat documents note, "The 2008-2010 Olympic connection is an opportunity to present the diversity of BC and Canadian business, art, culture and sport to the world. After the 2008 Games are complete, the world will focus on BC as the next host. As a result, the 2008 Games are an invaluable occasion for BC to leverage knowledge about Canadian and BC products and services, to increase international trade and investment, to raise awareness of tourism and culture, and to build awareness of BC as host of the 2010 Winter Games."
The BC-Canada Pavilion at the 2008 Games will be open for about six months, from May through September 24, 2008. This Pavilion, says the Secretariat, "should showcase BC and Canada in ways that create new relationships with foreign media and provide a unique conduit to tell our stories. [It] will host Canadian athletes, dignitaries, businesses and media, and be open to the general public." The project, it notes, will require the PR firm to deal with language barriers, foreign rules and regulations; cultural sensitivities and, as usual, tight timelines.
Once in operation, the PR firm will also be keeping the BC government's Public Affairs Bureau up to speed on what it's doing, through the Ministry of Economic Development.
RESOURCES
BC Bid's website, for the application documentation:
www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on March 19, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2206
VANOC RECOMMITS TO RAISING C$50 MILLION FROM PRIVATE SPONSORS FOR OWN THE PODIUM
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) said today that it is "committed" to securing C$50 million of the C$110 million funding for Own the Podium 2010 through corporate partnerships.
The Province of British Columbia has already contributed its C$5 million. The other half of the C$55 million funding for OTP is coming from the Government of Canada, and today's budget says that the federal government will accelerate Ottawa's share "in order to ensure that Canadian athletes will have the security of uninterrupted training." No numbers or time frames were provided, however.
VANOC, in a prepared statement, says, "the early advancement of the government's $55 million contribution is necessary as a significant portion of the privately raised funds will come closer to the Games," but neither it nor the federal government have defined the word "accelerate."
VANOC CEO John Furlong, in the same statement, interprets the word to mean the federal funding is now confirmed -- assuming the budget, provided by the Conservative government, which is in a minority situation, is approved by Parliament. Its defeat by the combined opposition parties would force a federal election.
Furlong says that, "In the eyes of Canadians, a large part of our success in 2010 will be defined by the achievements of our Canadian winter athletes. The additional support is a great reminder of how the Government of Canada and Canadian companies, along with the Province of British Columbia, are working together to guarantee Canadian athletes the support they need to train and prepare for the Games in 2010. With the funding now guaranteed by the Government of Canada, we look forward to building on the tremendous support we have already received from our corporate partners."
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on March 19, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2205
Here are three moguls we ran into today:
FEDERAL BUDGET SPEEDS UP OTP FUNDING
The federal government, in today's budget, has agreed to "accelerate" its contributions to the "Own the Podium" program because it's taking longer than expected for VANOC to arrange private-sector support for the plan. In 2005, the Government announced that it would contribute C$11 million per year for five years to support the Own the Podium program to help Canada become the number one nation in terms of medals won at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and to place in the top three at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. This federal funding, to be matched by contributions from the private sector primarily arranged through VANOC and C$5 million from the Government of British Columbia, provides money to the OTP program, which then distributes it to Canada's elite winter athletes as they prepare for the 2010 Games. The Canadian budget, tabled in Parliament today, proposes accelerates the federal contribution "in order to ensure that these athletes will have the security of uninterrupted training until the private sector comes on board with its support." However, the budget documents don't give any details about just what the word "accelerate" means. OTP officials were in meetings this afternoon, and not immediately available to comment.
FOREGONE REVENUE IN 2010 TAX RELIEF NOT YET AVAILABLE
In our earlier story today about the federal government's plans to offer tax relief to various aspects of the 2010 Winter Olympics, we weren't able to immediately find how much the government expects this relief to cost it in foregone revenue. We finally found the tables that list the costs of various tax measures contained in the budget list the 2010 tax relief measure -- it's on page 374 of the 408 page document -- but cells that list the costs to the treasury under each year of the program, from this coming fiscal year, which starts April 1, to March 31, 2009, are blank. By the way, that same story noted various people who are given income-tax exempt status, under a section called paragraph 20. We found on page 451 of the tax documents a bit of additional interesting fine print: "That every person who makes a payment to a non-resident of Canada described in paragraph (20) in respect of the income described in that paragraph be exempted from the withholding obligations..." of the Income Tax Act. FUNDING FOR ABORIGINAL JOBS PROGRAM DOUBLED
The new federal budget also pumps more money into a program that's been of some supportive use to construction of the 2010 Winter Games. The Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership is specifically designed to help aboriginal Canadians receive skills and employment training, and that's primarily been here in BC. The government says it will add C$105 million over five years to the current budget of C$85 million over six years (including the current fiscal year that's just ending). And it will plug C$35 million of that additional money into the program in the first two years. The 2010 Vancouver ASEP Construction Careers Project is one of nine projects the program supports, but it's not clear from the budget documentation so far just how much of the additional money will be funneled through that component of the p;rogram. Organizations involved in this initiative include the First Nations Employment Society; the Aboriginal Community Career Employment Services Society; the Métis Provincial Council of British Columbia; the Tsawwassen First Nation; the Spo7ez Society -- which represents the tow of VANOC's host aboriginal tribes, the Squamish Nation and Lil'wat Nation, which have been involved through construction subsidiaries in building 2010 venues in the Whistler area; the BC Construction Association; the Vancouver Regional Construction Association; the Vancouver Port Authority; PCL Construction Ltd.; Houle Electric Co.; Lockerbie & Hole; Peter Keiwit & Sons; and the Province of British Columbia.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on March 19, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2204
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BUDGET OFFERS TAX-RELIEF PACKAGE FOR 2010 WINTER GAMES
The Canadian government's 2007/2008 Budget, tabled today in Parliament, has provided a package of tax relief for people involved with the 2010 Winter Olympics, which the government says recognizes the "unique" nature of the Olympics and will make it easier for Canada to help host them.
According to Budget documents, the package has three components. First, which follows from pledges the Canadian government made during the Bid Phase of obtaining the Games, the Conservative government of prime minister Stephen Harper proposes to waive any non-resident withholding tax liability of the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
In 2006, the IOC and IPC began receiving payments, such as royalties, from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) connected with the use of intellectual property, such as the Olympic and Paralympic logos. Under Canada’s tax system, these payments would normally be taxed as Canadian-source property income. The budget is proposing measures that will make the IOC and IPC payments tax-free if they were made after 2005 and before 2011.
The budget's tax measures, proposed by federal Finance minister Jim Flaherty, are also designed to ensure that non-resident athletes and others connected to the operations of the 2010 Games are not taxed as a direct result of their participation in the Games. For example, the documents say, "Canadian-source income might arise if a non-resident athlete were paid by a commercial sponsor based on his or her 2010 Games performance. Or a foreign journalist who filed a story from the 2010 Games might be considered to be employed in Canada."
The third part of the 2010 Games tax-relief package deals with imported goods. As expected, there will be tax changes that are designed to return all or a portion of the customs duties, excise taxes and Canada's value-added taxes, the GST/HST, on specific types of goods -- such as personal effects, gifts, awards, display goods and equipment -- that are imported into Canada in connection with the 2010 Games. In these cases, the taxes will be paid as usual, but they can be claimed back through various application methods, depending on the type of goods and charges involved.
BACKGROUND
Thee two groups of tax measures connected with the 2010 Games will be implemented through amendments to the Canadian Income Tax Act. Specifically, they will provide a non-resident withholding tax exemption for the IOC and the IPC, and an exemption from ordinary income tax for Canadian-source income earned in the context of the 2010 Games by these types following non-residents:
The IOC and the IPC and their members, officers, employees and contract workers;Athletes representing countries other than Canada;Officially registered support staff associated with teams from countries other than Canada, such as coaches, trainers;People serving as games officials; andAccredited foreign media organizations and their employees and contract workers.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on March 19, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |General| #2203
E-COMMERCE PROFESSOR CONCERNED ABOUT PROPOSED LAW TO PROTECT OLYMPIC TRADE MARKS
Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, says the Canadian government's proposed legislation, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act, "is better characterized as the Olympic Corporate Sponsor Protection Act, since its primary purpose is to protect the multi-million dollar investments of corporate sponsors such as Bell, Rona, and the Royal Bank of Canada."
The government introduced the legislation earlier this month, which had been expected for about a year, as part of its obligations under agreements it pledged to the International Olympic Committee and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) during the Bid Phase of acquiring the 2010 Winter Games. The law is designed to give VANOC tools to deal with ambush marketing, and is similar to laws approved by governments, such as Australia, for the 2000 Summer Games. The British Parliament has already approved a stiffer, more wide-ranging law for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
As Geist says about the Canadian law, "The bill raises fundamental concerns about legislative fairness. Special-interest legislation, particularly legislation blatantly designed to protect a select group of corporate interests at the expense of free speech, should have no place in a government focused on trust and accountability."
Geist notes that the bill guards against ambush marketing in two ways. It grants broad protection to a wide range of Olympic marks including the word Olympics, the Olympic five-ring symbol, and the Olympic slogan "Higher, Faster, Stronger." The bill also lists about 20 expressions that, when used together, also garner protection. They include generic words such as "games", "2010", "medals", "gold", "silver", "bronze", "Vancouver" and "winter". It contains an exceptions clause that designed to allow criticism, publication or news reports relating to the Olympic Games, so it would not be challenged on the constitutional issue of freedom of speech. Geist, says, "The exception needs tinkering, however, since its narrow drafting potentially excludes parodies of the Olympics and non-conventional news reporting from bloggers or podcasters."
VANOC has said the law will be applied in a "disciplined, sensitive, fair and transparent manner," but Geist says "the experience in other countries suggests that the legislation will create a chill for artists, bloggers, and social commentators who fear that their legitimate expression may lead to a date in court."
Geist also notes that the bill gives VANOC the power to get an injunction to stop the distribution of goods that might violate the law. "This provision," he says, "remarkably eliminates the traditional requirement to demonstrate irreparable harm in order to obtain an injunction. Canadian courts have set a high threshold for irreparable harm, typically requiring evidence that monetary damages alone will not fully compensate the injured party. In the case of ambush marketing, it is likely that VANOC would rarely meet that standard since the opposite is true - the damage likely could be quantified and appropriately compensated."
RESOURCES
Michael Geist:
E-mail: <mgeist@uottawa.ca
Blog: www.michaelgeist.ca
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on March 19, 2007