BC Conservatives: Liberals - come clean on BC Place deal

Courtesy of the BC Conservatives:

After blowing $40 million of taxpayers’ money by cancelling the sale of the naming rights to BC Place, the Liberal government needs to explain why this decision was made.

“Every day we seem to get a new story on why the government cancelled the deal,” said John Cummins, Leader of British Columbia’s Conservatives.

Last week they said the deal was cancelled to protect the “iconic” name of BC Place. This week Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Pat Bell told the Vancouver Sun the deal fell apart because the sign that Telus wanted to place on the side of the building was too large, but he later told CBC that the size of the sign was not the issue that caused the deal to be cancelled. Now CKNW is reporting that Bell has left the door open to sell the naming rights in the future.

“Which is it? Why did the government decide to throw away $40 million. BC’s families worked hard to earn that money and paid their taxes expecting it to be spent wisely, instead it was wasted by an increasingly confused government. Premier Clark and the BC Liberal government must come clean and explain why this deal was cancelled.”