Why is Mayor Green & his VLN Slate attacking the Langley Events Center?

Staying true to form, Mayor Rick Green continues to promote “misleading information”. Over the past week, he has been running a series of political advertisements in all the local newspapers in support of himself and his Vote Langley Now (“VLN”) Slate. These political ads definitely contain “misleading
information”.


The Mayor and his VLN Slate ads prominently display the following phrase:


“Paid a settlement of $8.83 million for the financial mismanagement of the Langley Events Centre “no P3 Agreement” fiasco.”


Those are pretty strong words. In this Editor’s opinion, the above statement clearly implies that there was financial mismanagement on the part of the private partners and that they were bought out for $8.83 million because of it. What evidence is there of financial mismanagement?  (If I were one of the private partners, I’d be on the phone to my lawyer right now!).

Let’s examine the real facts.

1. There was never any “financial mismanagement”. The Langley Events Center was a design/build contract for ~ $57 million. It was built on budget and on time.
2. The Township received $22.5 million from provincial and community partners towards the construction of this facility: $15 million (Province) + $3.5 million (Trinity Western University) + $3 million (Langley School District #35) + $1 million (Langley Gymnastics). 
3. Therefore, the cost to the Township was $34.5 million ($57 million - $22.5 million).
4. In 2011, an independent real estate appraisal valued the completed Langley Events Center at $100 million.
5. The agreement between the Township and the private partners was based on the “Chilliwack Model” which specified a $5.53 million baseline development fee and a 20 year operating framework.
6. The Langley Events Center is ~75% larger than the Chilliwack facility and the private partners left after 2 years rather than the 20 years to which they were entitled.
7. The $8.83 million settlement was calculated as $5.53 million (Baseline Chilliwack Model) + $3 million (for a 75% increase in facility size over Chilliwack and a private partner exit fee after 2 years of operation rather than 20 years).
8. The final cost to the Township is therefore $43.33 million: $34.5 million construction + $8.83 million development and exit fee to the private partners.
9. Bottomline: The Township has a $100 million facility that it paid $43.33 million for.

The Langley Events Center is a major asset in this community (and region) for sports and events tourism. It has literally put Langley ‘on the map’ and is bringing in more revenue every year from significant sports tournaments and conferences which of course all have considerable spill-off effects into hotel, restaurant, and other small business revenues in this community.

You decide: How is an asset costing $43.33 million and valued at $100 million a bad deal for Langley taxpayers? This is a 43 cents on the dollar investment!

After reading Mayor Green’s Vote Langley Now (VLN) political slate ads and reviewing the real facts on the Langley Events Center, one cannot help but ask: Does “VLN” really stand for “Vote Lies Now”?

Can you really believe anything this Mayor and his slate say? And why do they keep attacking the Langley Events Center?

P.S. I encourage anyone to take excerpts in part or in whole of this posting to send or republish this message to others by Letters to the Editor, news articles, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Election candidates feel free to quote the true facts above. Go viral. Help set the record straight & true!