This Campbell government is supposed to be business oriented. In fact, they are worse than any government I can remember. The litany of bad monetary decisions, overruns and waste would take a book to cover but suffice it to say that just an ordinary, everyday government fiscal fuck up makes the NDP look like prudent business leaders by comparison such that the “fast ferry” fiasco pales into insignificance. Now we find yet another fiscal fiasco with the ½ billion dollar enterprise, BC Place Stadium.
It seems that the retractable roof can’t be closed if there’s a sudden storm. This, I point out, is a sudden storm climate we live in.
We’re told that if there is a storm with the top open, the patrons will be fine as the roof will protect them – just the players will be affected! Never mind that the players will look like drunken ice skaters on the soaking wet artificial turf!
What must astonish us is that the BC government of both stripes has known that the roof had to be replaced and that a retractable roof made sense. The example of Safeco stadium in Seattle was there for all to see and other precedents from other retractable roof stadiums abounded.
This raises a couple of issues.
Why wasn’t the design suitable for the climate we live in and how come it took us until now to know the truth?
A better question is why the hell are we the taxpayers paying a nickel let alone half a billion dollars for games, rock concerts and motorcycle jamborees?
Our society is replete with homeless in the streets, hospitals with overcrowded emergency rooms containing people whose need is now, not 6 hours from now and badly underfunded schools, yet Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell can afford half a billion to entertain the jocks and pay off friends – and then screw it up.
No alternative government of whatever political stripe could possibly be as bad as this bunch of liars and wastrels is.
Need to keep the masses entertained so they won’t revolt. Seems to be working.
So we will asume that this roof will be closed during all events like car, boat, home shows etc. and only ever opened when there is not a spec of adverse weather on the horizon. Sports fans: better take your umbrellas anyway.
So met office: The ball is in your court (pardon the pun)!
What a #^%*ing waste of our money!!!
I figured the roof wouldn’t work the second I heard about it. Montreal’ Olympic stadium also had a retractable fabric roof (year late) and it ripped during a storm. They stitched it closed permanently.
Well said.
It is shameful that while they were building bridges, highways, stadiums B.C. had the highest rate of child poverty, seven years running. The cost over runs were huge and then they cut $22 Million from group homes.
campbell’s government destroyed rivers and tried to destroy Fish Lake.
during campbell’s reign B.C. lost 45K well paid forestry jobs. When campbell threw out the HEU collective agreement and contracted out hospital cleaners we not only got dirty hospitals but a lot of people who had to take jobs which paid below the poverty level, if they had kids, which most of them did.
Campbell did well for Campbell and company this past 10 years. The rest of us, not so much.
I am very happy campbell is resigning. I can’t see the back of him fast enough.
He was not good for the enviornment. He didn’t seem to care that the enviornment would have to sustain us for generations to come, not just during his mandate.
Your position on the rivers has been interesting to read. I guess there is something we can agree on.
“No alternative government of whatever political stripe could possibly be as bad as this bunch of liars and wastrels is.” I beg to differ. We had the NDP twice, and both times they were liars and wastrels as well.
The problem with BC Place is the same as with most government projects, and that is that no one spends someone else’s money as carefully as they spend their own. Inefficiency and a lack of accountability are just how government operates. Anyone who has any dealings with government at any level can see that right away. Systemic incompetence, blundering and money wasting. The only thing government is good at is implementing soft tyrannies in the form of tax collection systems that bludgeon the unwary, and in quasi totalitarian bodies like the BC Human Rights Commission (and its equivalents in Ottawa and elsewhere).
The advocates of big government always conclude that if we just throw these bums out, and hire some other bums, things will get better. This despite the clear evidence that this is not the case.
If the private sector wants a new stadium, feel free to build one. If people are worried about homeless people, feel free to take as many of them into your own homes as you can fit. Handing these issues off to government leads to failure, 100% of the time. The people in Europe are just beginning to wake up to this, too late of course.
how about revising building code to build cali type condos in a rainforest enviornment
Why is the media not addressing this issue ??.. Why aren’t lawsuits initiated … a wee bit of rain on the Lions and Whitecaps heads ( we are assured the fans are OK ?) will be great as the artificial turf is laid over concrete with insufficient drainage… Sue the bums … head at BC Pavco should roll.