When Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals came to power in 2001, they promised to clean up government. The NDP of the 1990s stumbled from one controversy (Nanaimo Commonwealth Holdings bingo money laundering) to another (fast ferries cost overruns) and another (ex-BC Hydro chairman John Laxton and CEO John Sheehan's investments in a Pakistani power company).
But it is the Liberals who have been in power for the last dozen years, and they have their own self-inflicted scars – from the BC Rail privatization to the Prince George Wood Innovation and Design Centre – that will be scrutinized during the upcoming election campaign.
Transportation
Campbell won the May 2001 election with a platform that included a promise not to sell BC Rail. Two years later, the for-sale sign went up. CN (TSX:CNR) was chosen in November 2003, after CP (TSX:CP), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) (NYE:BNI:US) and RailAmerica (NYE:RA:US) withdrew their bids; CP and BNSF complained that the process was unfair.
Police raided the legislature between Christmas and New Year's 2003, and the ensuing BC Supreme Court trial came to a surprise halt in October 2010 when government aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk pleaded guilty to taking bribes from OmniTrax lobbyist Erik Bornmann, a BC Liberal strategist granted immunity from prosecution. Basi and Virk were forgiven their $6 million legal bills, contrary to government policy. Auditor General John Doyle is investigating government indemnities.
Liquor
Exel Logistics, which operates Alberta's private liquor distribution monopoly, pitched a public/private partnership to Attorney General Shirley Bond at Clark's downtown Vancouver office the day before the harmonized sales tax was defeated in August 2011.
Cabinet nixed privatizing government liquor stores, but opted to sell the Liquor Distribution Branch's hauling arm. BIV revealed how two of the four shortlisted bidders, Exel and Richmond-based ContainerWorld, separately lobbied liquor minister Rich Coleman and donated to the Liberals, but were connected to the same corporation, Deutsche Post DHL. Exel is a subsidiary of the German giant, and ContainerWorld has an exclusive agency association with Gori, an Italian subsidiary of DHL.
The privatization was scuttled September 27 when a new agreement was reached with the BC Government and Service Employees' Union.
Stadium
BC Place Stadium was renovated for $514 million. Part of the cost was supposed to have been covered by the sale of naming rights and lease payments from neighbouring property. Neither has come to fruition.
Paragon Gaming was one of only two bidders for the land and its board includes ex-BC Lottery Corp. chairman Richard Turner. Turner, who held Paragon shares while chairing BCLC, was found to have lobbied PavCo on behalf of Paragon. Telus (TSX:T) thought it had an agreement to rename BC Place as Telus Park in a deal worth $40 million over 20 years. It even installed screens and WiFi at the home of the Bell-sponsored Vancouver Whitecaps.
The deal collapsed in February 2012. Premier Christy Clark claimed the deal was not favourable for taxpayers and that the existing name was "iconic." The government quietly paid Telus an undisclosed sum for the installation work in August 2012.
Telecommunications
The root cause of the BC Place naming rights cancellation may have been ongoing complaints by Bell, Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) and Shaw (TSX:SJR.B) over the government's June 2011 direct award of a $1 billion, 10-year government-wide telecommunications contract to Telus. The three big telcos complained separately to the government that the award was unfair and contrary to both government policy and interprovincial trade laws. The companies were bidding for more than two years on nine separate deals before the government halted the process and combined the work into one contract. Telus is the province's biggest private sector employer and donor of more than $350,000 to the Liberals since 2005.
Real estate
The grand plan to build a wooden tower – a so-called "plyscraper" – as the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in downtown Prince George has put retiring Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Minister Pat Bell under the microscope. Jilted bidders Brian Fehr and Dan McLaren, both Liberal loyalists, claim Bell assured them they would be shortlisted. A complaint to fairness monitor Jane Shackell was deemed out-of-scope by Shackell.
