McGuinty and Hudak feud over 2015 Pan Am Games

Share

The 2015 Pan American Games are on schedule and will come in on budget, Ontario's premier said Sunday in response to what he called a distraction tactic from his Progressive Conservative opponent during the election campaign.

Tory Leader Tim Hudak released an open letter Sunday to Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, suggesting the Games – to be hosted by Toronto – are not on track.

"With less than four years until the opening of the Games there has been no progress on site selection, let alone construction of venues," Mr. Hudak wrote.

"It is up to you to explain how you will stop the 2015 Pan Am Games from unravelling further, and how you plan to protect Ontario families from cost overruns that appear inevitable."

Mr. McGuinty refuted Mr. Hudak's characterization of the Games preparation, saying Infrastructure Ontario has a 99 per cent success rate in bringing projects in on time and on budget.

"I'm very confident in our ability to deliver them on time and on budget," he said after an event at the Hospital for Sick Children.

The Games' organizing committee said in a statement that five major new builds are now at the request-for-proposals stage and construction is scheduled to start in the spring or summer of 2012.

The venue plan is "on time and on scope," the committee said, and venue test events will take place in 2014.

The Liberals also say there is a $45-million contingency fund already built in to the $1.4-billion Pan Am budget.

But, NDP candidate Paul Ferreira said the $45-million contingency fund sounded like a "low-ball figure," but that Ontario taxpayers need more information.

"I think that the public has a right to know in complete detail how much money is being spent and what it's going towards," he said in an interview.

The premier quickly tried to tie the Pan Am accusations to his party's oft-repeated assertion that Mr. Hudak has a $14-billion gap in his platform that would force Progressive Conservatives to slash public services or raise taxes.

"If you've got a $14-billion hole in your plan, and you're going to have to make cuts to health care and education, you're going to want to throw any kind of a distraction you possibly can out there," Mr. McGuinty said.

Mr. Hudak compared the Pan Am planning process to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, writing that by this stage sites for the Olympic venues had been selected, with some under construction, contractors had been chosen and contracts had been signed.

The organizing committee said last month that the Games' soccer venue, also home to the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats, will be completely rebuilt instead of renovated, though they say it can be done under budget.

There has also been talk of building a permanent velodrome in Hamilton instead of a temporary one. Local media reports suggest it could cost between $35-million and $45-million and that the city's taxpayers could be on the hook for a shortfall of up to $17.3-million.

"On the fact of it, you appear to have passed the critical point for being able to deliver the Pan Am Games venues on time and on budget," Mr. Hudak wrote.

Mr. Hudak is also taking aim at what he calls a lack of transparency in the whole process, and points fingers at Liberal appointees on the organizing committee. Meeting minutes, salaries and expenses of Toronto 2015 staff are not public, he said.

Mr. McGuinty said the board, comprised of federal, provincial, municipal, Canadian Olympic Committee and other representatives, is already open enough.

"The necessary accountability is there, the necessary transparency," he said.

The Pan Am Games are the Olympic qualifier for several sports. The Toronto event – which is to take place in venues across the Greater Toronto Area and elsewhere in southern Ontario – is expected to draw 10,000 athletes to the region in July 2015. The week-long Parapan American Games will be held in August 2015.