When Vancouver civic parties released their list of donations for the 2014 municipal election, it showed developer Rob Macdonald donated $60,000, far below the record-setting $960,000 that the president of Macdonald Development Corp. handed to the NPA three years ago.
Top donor this year for the NPA was Great Canadian Railtour Company Ltd., which donated $360,000. For Vision, it is three branches of Canadian Union of Public Employees that together donated $226,000. Total donations for the two leading parties, as of the date of disclosure, were close: $2.1 million for the NPA and $2.25 million to Vision.
Macdonald’s 2011 donation is considered the largest single amount ever donated to a Vancouver political campaign. Macdonald had agreed to be the fundraising chairman for the NPA mayoralty candidate that year but then had to step back.
“After I took over the campaign, a best friend became seriously ill, and I had to take over his business affairs for months,” Macdonald explained.
This dramatically reduced the amount of time he needed for fundraising and the campaign fell well short of its goal.
“I had made a commitment to raise money, so I wrote a cheque out of my own pocket. I had a commitment to live up to. It’s as simple as that.”
But Macdonald said he expects nothing from his donations but good government and an end to what he sees as a dysfunctional, adversarial and secretive city administration.
“City priorities should not be determined by who has made the largest political donation,” Macdonald said.
In this campaign, Macdonald said he is doing what he can to get the NPA elected and Kirk LaPointe, who is challenging Vison Vancouver incumbent Gregor Robertson, into the mayor’s chair.
“I’ll gladly knock on doors, make phone calls, speak publically, raise money or anything else that’s required to preserve good government,” he said.
Macdonald points to two issues that he says underscore the current problems with city council. The first is the future of the Arbutus corridor, an old and unused CP Rail line that runs through the west side of Vancouver. The second is community amenity contributions, a flexible and controversial levy that the City of Vancouver charges to real estate developers to cover the cost of extra amenities, such as neighbourhood parks, day-care spaces or social housing.
According to Macdonald, the current battle between the city and CP Rail over the Arbutus Corridor reflects the city’s adversarial stance.
“CP Rail is great corporate citizen and, I am sure, would like to see this as a legacy asset for the people of Vancouver,” Macdonald said, suggesting that the argument over what the corridor land is worth – the city says it’s willing to pay $20 million; CP Rail says the land is worth $400 million but is willing to sell it to the city for $100 million – has soured and sidetracked negotiations.
“What is Stanley Park worth? It is incalculable. And an Arbutus Corridor turned into the greatest civic linear park in North America would be the same.”
Macdonald said a compromise on the rail line should have already been reached, “[but] the people at city hall working on the acquisition file lack the skills to make it happen.”
Community amenity contributions are another example of a good concept gone sideways, Macdonald said. Currently, they are decided on a project-by-project basis, and, Macdonald said, instead of the money being spent on specific amenities “appears to be used as a general purpose fund for projects favoured by city council.”
His recommendation is that the contributions be set on standardized per-square-foot basis and the money raised be banked. Then, after wide public consultation, the funds could be targeted at specific amenities.
“It should be a much more transparent, fair system,” he said.
Macdonald said that, if the NPA wins the upcoming election, the real estate development community will see a “level playing field” emerge in their treatment at city hall.
He is also confident the NPA will fool the pollsters. A mid-October Jusatons Market Intelligence poll of 327 people showed 46% support for the current Vision mayor with the NPA’s LaPointe at 32%.
“The polls also show that 38% of Vancouver voters are undecided,” Macdonald said, “I believe in the wisdom of the public. And that wisdom will ensure the NPA is elected.”
