Tim Louis has his facts wrong on the accomplishments made by the current City Council on social housing.

Yesterday, former COPE Councillor Tim Louis wrote an op-ed on City Caucus claiming that the Vision Vancouver led Council has been responsible for no new social housing.

But here are the real facts that Tim failed to mention:

Under the NPA, the city signed a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding with the Province to open 14 sites of social housing.

At the time it was hailed as a landmark agreement, and on paper, it absolutely was.  It was very positive.

Except for one thing…there was absolutely no money attached to the commitment.

Fast forward to 2008, and no construction had started.  Why?  Because as Mayor, Sam Sullivan was unable to secure anything but lip service, and as a result, no provincial money had been set aside.  The social housing sites sat empty.

It wasn’t until March of 2009 that Gregor and Vision got the BC Liberals committed to funding the first six social housing sites in Vancouver, and subsequently in April of 2010, they committed funding to the rest, for a total of $333 million in new money.

MOU’s are great.  They signal inter-governmental cooperation – well, on paper at least.  Just take a look at the Evergreen Line MOU, which sat idle for many years without any commitments for tangible money, and you will see that the road to hell is always paved with the best of intentions.

It takes political will, negotiating, and a strong working relationship to make things actually take shape – something that Sam and his Chief of Staff Daniel Fontaine never seemed to grasp.  Truth be told, there are many within the Vision caucus that were open to a Rich Coleman leadership run because of all the progress he has been able to make with the City of Vancouver on social housing during this Vision Vancouver term.

So Tim Louis’ spin on no new social housing under Gregor Robertson is a sly trick and some great politics, but it really doesn’t reflect the reality of what has actually happened over the past two years in contrast to the previous three to Vision coming to power.

Christy Clark is expected to formally enter the leadership race Tuesday or Wednesday.

Christy Clark was poised to enter the leadership race either Tuesday or Wednesday, although after all of the intrigue arising from Carole James’ sudden departure, I have a feeling that Clark might make it official tomorrow.

Meanwhile, rumour has it that Patrick Kinsella, who is of course one of the BC Liberals’ top backroom boys, has signed on with the Clark campaign after his first choice, Rich Coleman, pulled the plug on his leadership candidacy last week.  I have a feeling that another Rich Coleman supporter Bob Rennie will also likely sign on.

Clark’s campaign seems to have a pretty powerful group of federal Liberal organizers already on the ground, although I am unsure about the Conservative contingent that people like Ken Boessenkool are going to be able to bring on board.

The line that is emerging from operatives and supporters of Kevin Falcon is that a Clark victory would prompt several current MLAs to leave the BC Liberals and provide the BC Conservative party with their first representatives in the legislature.  They are claiming that the party would become even more fractured if Clark, who has been out of politics for the past six years, were to win.

A pretty clever political ploy if you ask me, but complete and utter nonsense from a campaign that seems to have a candidate that is far more polarizing than a centrist like Clark.

Developing…

• I obviously ruffled one former mayoral Cheif of Staff’s feathers with Friday’s post, inspiring this lacklustre rebuttal.  Notice how Daniel conveniently ignores my points about EcoDensity being prepared for IN ADVANCE of a Council vote in much the same way as the Hornby bike lane was, and provides no explanation except for this:  “He even goes back in time and tries to redesign history by incorrectly alleging that EcoDensity was handled by staff in the same manner as the separated bike lanes.”  I anxiously await the promised future post on the subject for Fontaine to feverishly spin the virtues his former boss’ baby.  Oh yeah, and one more thing, Daniel: your allusions to future revelations are always humourous…so let’s clear something up about your constant accusations about my relationship to the Mayor’s office.  I do indeed talk to people in the Mayor’s office, Vision Vancouver offices, and electeds on the Park Board and City Council…this is something I have never tried to hide.  Why?  Well, because a) this is a political blog where my political loyalties are very obvious and b) they are in the thick of things and I like to try to pry information out of them.  On that front I am not always successful, but for the sake of this website, from time to time I have inquiries.

• I have definitely graduated from my former fandom of professional wrestling to MMA.  Nonetheless, the WWE didn’t just pull out of a scheduled event in Vancouver for nothing.  The City of Vancouver says it is not anti-combat sports, but it is putting up barriers that make it a) a bureaucratic nightmare b) a costly affair for any promoter and c) a process that directs organizations like the UFC and WWE to look at other options (in the case of WWE, they headed to Washington, where UFC is not adverse to moving into a city like Edmonton or Calgary for a third annual PPV Canadian event, according to my conversations with UFC Director of Operations Tom Wright).  I understand there is a liability issue that the City needs to insulate itself from when it comes to protecting taxpayers.  But after a successful UFC 115, you’d think they’d be willing to negotiate with a little more flexibility.  Based on recent meetings that happened with UFC officials over the past few weeks, however, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

• Seriously, with the way that Minister Rich Coleman has played games with the City of Vancouver in recent months on the social housing component of the Millennium Water development, I can’t see why the City wouldn’t use the time frame of the casino being built as a bigger bargaining chip.  If non-profit groups can benefit, or at the very least if the City can get some better cooperation on a range of issues with the Province, then it might very well be worth it, particularly with the state of the government these days.

• Once again, I think that the NDP caucus Carole James detractors are utter idiots, and handing the BC Liberals a free pass to get back into the game.  This article seems to suggest that Gordon Campbell might be invigourated to stay to fight a fourth mandate as a result of the NDP’s ever-emerging implosion.  But if I am one of the people that actually has a measure of influence with Campbell and who is still interested in the fate of the entire party (and I know of at least a few of those types who stop in to read this site), I would be saying “Look, they are giving us an opportunity to change everything.  So let’s allow a few more disgruntled NDP MLAs to publicly resign, go through these recall campaigns, and then let a new leader emerge as a person of the people by initiating an immediate referendum on the HST.”  Gordon’s ego is unlikely to allow him to arrive at the same conclusion without a little (or a lot of) cajoling.  But I do think it will happen nonetheless.

• I have a feeling that this public consultation process over the budget, which is currently forecast to have a deficit of $20.6 million, is going to be very political.  The City would be well advised to look at their Metro Vancouver partners and find out what kind of deficits they are encountering, because rest assured, most municipalities are in this financial position.  I am interested to see if the NPA can attract more than 200 people to their fundraising dinner on Wednesday (an event, by the way, that no one should be fooled about when it comes to that $185 ticket price – because they are just giving away tons of free tickets for, including many politically active youth), which will indicate to what extent they can organize.  Then again, with the way their candidate selection meeting is shaping up, maybe the crowds that are attracted to come out really will be concerned public members instead of…naw, I won’t go down that road again.

• The kind of political gridlock the Mayor of Toronto will encounter after winning is why I prefer the party systems that are in place in Vancouver and Montreal.  Locally, Gregor Robertson et al. were elected on a platform, and now they are implementing that platform that garnered them a mandate.  That is the way it should be…and the reason why I absolutely abhor minority governments.

• Speaking of the Toronto Mayoral race, it looks like a dead heat.  Unlike what people like my friend Warren Kinsella was saying, I think that Rocco Rossi’s exit from the race really gave George Smitherman the lift that he needed to pull even with Rob Ford.  Joe Pantalone currently looks like Toronto’s version of Ralph Nader, however, which should be very concerning in the Smitherman camp.  The bright side of the eqaution is that less than half of Pantalone’s backers (47.5%) declare their support as firm, which means that Smitherman will benefit from those scared enough of Ford’s potential victory to change their vote.  The next week is going to be very interesting.

OK, off to meetings folks.  Have a great day.

• Yesterday’s housing announcement was really something to behold because it was something that really showed off the efforts of many different individuals who incrementally contributed to the payoff.  Former Mayor Sam Sullivan really must be heralded for signing the MOU with the province in 2007 and putting forth city-owned land to start the ball rolling.  Current Mayor Gregor Robertson’s agenda setting when it comes to the homelessness file has pushed the provincial government into action when it comes to investing the money.  Frank Giustra’s $5 million contribution is a fantastic display of philanthropy in action – one that makes a direct and noticeable impact on the quality of life of many within our city.  And of course, I have to hand it to Rich Coleman, who in spite of his Conservative pedigree, has proven to be this province’s biggest supportive housing champion to come along in decades.  All in all, I am so very impressed with how this has all come together, and give so much thanks and praise to those who made this dream a reality.

• UFC’s announcement that they are opening up a Canadian office led by former CFL commissioner Tom Wright is great news for fight fans across the country.  What this means for Vancouver is that the spot that they have secured on this year’s UFC schedule is likely to have some stiff competition when Toronto comes on board, which as far as I can see, is inevitable.  Vancouver officials on the Athletic Commission would be well advised to start petitioning now to make Vancouver a secure and ongoing destination for Dana White, as June’s fight will bring in as much as $25 million in economic activity to the city.  The time is now to ensure that the MMA trial period extends into permanence beyond two years, and that Vancouver is able to become an annual lock on the UFC calendar.  That means that the red tape that this first fight had to endure has to be quashed with the experience that will be acquired next month.

• Having grown up around the area, I understand how badly the strip mall of the Arbutus corridor could use a facelift.  But 8-10 years from beginning to completion is absolutely ridiculous, and I can understand why residents are antsy about having to live amongst such chaos for that long a period.  Accepting change is one thing…but having your neighbourhood shut down by noise, dust, and inaccessibility for that long is not acceptable as far as I am concerned.  I mean, they have built entire neighbourhoods and even small towns in far shorter a time frame, and so maybe someone at City Hall should go tell Larco developments to give their head a shake with regards to their estimations for construction.

• Not everyone in the local municipal media are willing to give carte blanche to Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver.  Although I will say that the list of negatives that Howell comes up with in contrast to what the Mayor’s office sent out in the press release does seem kind of weak.

• This should be a go.  The area has been run down for a while when it comes to the residential aspect south of Marine, and there is little to nothing there when it comes to retail options.  After sucking the life out of economic activity for as long as it took to construct the Canada Line, these stations (particularly this one) should now be seen as catalysts to encourage economic and residential activity.

• So long, Mr. Fontaine.  You have been a worthy and respectable critic of the Mayor and Council, and your wit and policy depth will be missed…even by me.  How your partner, however, is going to balance running the site with his possible…potential…speculative…aspirations to run as a City Council candidate will be interesting to observe over the coming year.

• This is a truly a fascinating profile of the changes that Chinatown is encountering as it positions itself as a hybrid between history and relevance.  Having now moved into the area, I can say that Chinatown could be a model for revitalization while respecting the historical nature of the surroundings.  With Rennie in the neighbourhood, I have great hopes for what is possible.

Happy Birthday, Dad.  I love you very much, and will see you later on!