Vaughn Palmer: Transparency shut out from debate about World Cup costs

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby promised this week that the New Democrats will be as open and transparent as they can about the costs and commitments of staging the World Cup.

“Absolutely,” as he told reporters during a news conference Monday.

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The B.C. United Opposition put that vow to the test the following day with cabinet member Lana Popham. Her Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Ministry includes responsibility for B.C. Place stadium, the chosen venue for seven Cup games in 2026.

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But Opposition MLA Trevor Halford mostly learned what Popham doesn’t yet know or won’t say about the cost of B.C.’s commitments to FIFA, the parent organization for the Cup.

Popham confirmed, during debate Tuesday on her ministry budget, that B.C. is committed to a substantial makeover of the stadium.

Subject to FIFA specifications, B.C. Place will add elevators, VIP suites, more food concessions, washrooms, a third-floor hospitality space and a walkway connection to the adjacent hotel and casino.

Other potential costs include a backup power supply and replacement of the stadium’s artificial turf with grass that will be approved, planted and maintained to the exacting standards of FIFA.

Plus, as Popham conceded in her closing remarks on the debate, FIFA may have more demands that B.C. doesn’t yet know about.

All this work must be completed by May 13, 2026, when FIFA takes exclusive control of B.C. Place, one month before the start of the tournament.

But little more than two years out, there are a lot of things that Popham and her colleagues in the NDP government still haven’t figured out.

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“There is no construction schedule at this moment,” Popham told the House.

PavCo, the provincial government Crown corporation that operates B.C. Place, is still trying to recruit a construction manager for the makeover.

“One of the roles of the manager will be to create that construction schedule.”

While waiting for the manager to come on-board, B.C. Place has started some preliminary work on the washrooms, hospitality space and the like.

“But there is not a finalized schedule,” said Popham. “They are just getting to work.”

Just getting to work. And without a final budget, according to the minister in charge. That, too, will be up to the yet-to-be-hired construction manager.

The minister did clarify one point of confusion around the cost of hosting the Cup.

Early last year, the province announced $230 million as a cost for the City of Vancouver alone. The amount has sometimes been mistakenly assumed to include provincial government costs as well.

Not so, Popham reminded the House. “None of that is a PavCo cost.”

Halford: “So the $230 million that people talk about — that number does not include anything to do with the upgrades at B.C. Place. Those are all going to be additional costs?”

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Popham: “That’s correct.”

Did the minister have a ballpark estimate for those additional costs, the ones not covered by the $230 million estimate from last year?

“PavCo’s overall costs are being updated right now,” she replied.

The operational costs are up because B.C. will be hosting seven games, up from the initial expectations of five.

“It’s the construction manager’s role to refine the capital cost estimates. We’re going to wait for that.”

That would be the construction manager who, by her account, hasn’t yet been hired.

Better hope he/she knows how to hit the ground running.

As the debate proceeded, Popham started to play games.

The province had “signed no agreement with FIFA,” she told the House.
“The agreement was with PavCo.”

Halford: “Your ministry is responsible for PavCo. So if PavCo signs the agreement with FIFA, then the province has signed an agreement with FIFA, right?”

Popham didn’t argue. She went on to claim that neither her ministry nor PavCo were bound by any non-disclosure agreements.

“There are no numbers that are being held back due to an NDA,” Popham claimed.

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Yet the numbers are being withheld. While Seattle made public its agreement with FIFA last year, the Tourism Ministry, B.C. Place and the City of Vancouver have rebuffed multiple media requests for the bid book, hosting agreement and economic modelling for the event.

For all that, Popham insists that a full accounting to the public is imminent.

“The numbers are coming very soon,” she promised the legislature. “In the next little while, when we’re able to release some updated numbers, we will be confident that those are solid numbers at the time that we’re in.”

Then she hedged.

“But let me also be clear that there are other things that will change the number. We don’t know how much the federal contribution is yet.”

Then there’s the relentless scrutiny from FIFA.

“FIFA still has to do some site visits,” she disclosed. “They may have other requirements. Their requirements may change.”

FIFA making arbitrary, last-minute and expensive demands when it’s too late for B.C. to back out? Say it isn’t so minister.

Why that would be as if the province had given FIFA “a blank cheque,” something the New Democrats said they would never do.

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vpalmer@postmedia.com 

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