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Accountability: MIA

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Submitted by Steven Kaszab

Large Builds of all kinds have a way of costing the public far more than originally promised. It is a fact. Toronto’s Union Station overhaul is a good example. Promised to cost $624 million dollars it sky rocketed to nearly a $Billion and it was later too. Mammoth projects have a tendency to get out of hand whether it be scheduling for a finished product or maintaining its promised costs. Overruns are always expected while plans with great expectations for a future project are often never seen.

1990’s Spain experienced a massive housing build near Madrid, a project promising tens of thousands of homes for the people of Spain and the EU. Land was basically given to the private sector free of charge, regulations decreased and funding flowed in the $Billions. After tens of thousands of condo’s were built or near built the economy flopped and work stopped. These homes are still empty and in some cases will be demolished for safety reasons. 

The private sector walked away from these projects with billions while the public sector faced ruin and debt. The Spanish government chased after those involved in the project but contractual agreements left them, their public partners free and clear. The private sector will not engage in a public project without including clauses that allow them to do the following…

a. Fully control and be able to redirect all moneys involved in the project.

b. Clauses include protection towards both the private and public agents involved in the project. They become untouchable. 

c. All debts are the public domains responsibility. Co-signee’s are always banks and or the public sector.

d. Deign, materials and future shapes of the project are always left in the private sectors hands

Serbia has thrown the development dice by financially and politically supporting the build of a massive stadium. Located in the center of Serbia, this stadium will have the capacity to seat 52,000 across nine levels. It has become the shining example of Serbian Pride and Future Advancement to be opened before the Expo 2027 Celebrations. Costs have gone to the roof, while no visible builds can be seen. This project will become an example of how not to build such a massive project. Construction has not yet started in a location far from urban sources. The police are investigating what corruption can be seen and expect a further erosion of Serbia’s national budget. Environmental agreements, structural stability notes, safety concerns are all ignored or not considered. Contractors have complete freedom to carry out their contracts without any government regulation. In fact the financial aspect of the entire project remains rather opaque. 

Canadians can consider this when thinking about the agreements made by the Ford Administration with the private sector regarding both housing builds and EV Builds and Battery Plants. Large Corporations received $billions from both Ontario and the Federal Governments who signed agreements with the private sector which the public can not  read. Secrecy and total lack of transparency is a corporate style Premier Ford should be aware of, yet his minions signed agreements that followed this pattern…

The Public Monies need not be returned or paid back for a very long time. How much was given, at what interest rate and loans for what duration?

Who were the public and private signee’s  to these agreements?

Can these corporations simply pack up and leave without paying back the monies? 

Is there any penalties to the corporations and how will they be put into effect?

Has any of these funds flowed to the Conservative or Federal Liberal Parties/officials/personnel.

Has anyone in the Ford – Trudeau Government benefited financially in any way?

Colossal builds give both the corporate and public sector a chance to benefit themselves financially and politically. Photo shoots, travel and gifting may all be involved here. 

One needs to ask yourself a question. What countries have made a societal, political and financial benefit/profit by acquiring a gigantic project like the Olympics, super builds and the such? Who really gains? Employment is created for a time, money is exchanged hand to hand, image of a nation, City or People can be improved but what else do we see? Olympics/Pan Am Games create builds that will be torn down in the near future, debt’s flow into the budgets of these organizations while individuals and corporations profit. 

Public Auditors and the Ombudsman need to have clearance to review such documents and have the legal authority to side step governments in order to achieve real transparency and both private and public accountability. Better said then done eh? Who appoints the Ontario Ombudsman? You guesses it folks!

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7 responses to “Accountability: MIA”

  1. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    These are the problems with capitalism. Not that capitalism does not have benefits too, it does.

    However, Western capitalism has thusly produced a formation which makes societies unbalanced perpetually, and getting worse.

    In China we’ve seen complete cities empty but waiting for industrial expansion.

    Western scribes have long cited these as a sign of socialism with Chinese characteristics failing.

    Wrong!

    When these cities are engaged by people, industry and the resulting seven or eight percent GDP growth. Levels of growth which have continued for over 30 years, these ignorant Western claims morth into other perceived weaknesses of Chinese socialism, with classical economic characteristics.

    And the classical economists included people like
    Adam Smith, David Ricardo and even Karl Marx himself. To believe that Marx was a Marxist is akin to believing that Jesus was a Christian. Can a man follow himself?

    The thing about the classical economists which separates them from everything which happened before or afterwards, within the Western logic, is that the classical economists generally believed that capitalism could have worked best if central planning freed business and labour of the costs of medical care, education cost and the building out of infrastructure.

    And it is precisely the classical economic idea, as inserted into the Chinese model, which makes it possible for the Chinese never to be defeated by the West. How history rhymes!

    Of course, these historiographies are vastly more complex, but few would be interested.

  2. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    More would be interested if the writing style was more simple. People don’t generally like reading “text books” or listening to lectures.

    Though he is a professor, Dr. Richard Wolff has a style that engages the brain in a non-stuffy way.

    Even I, who loved both text book and lecture, am getting too old to handle the stiff stuff. Unless I have had a very good night’s sleep, I have to read three times before it clicks.

  3. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Well, for historiographies, we could have said ‘history of histories’. True.

    But that does not capture the methods applied by the historians and all the other forces which make them come alive.

    Don’t know bout others but economy of words is always front of mind.

  4. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Donna
    The author is telling you, corruption is rife. A “Skills Development Fund” is the latest to be fingered. Once the news breaks, all involved run for cover, like they were oblivious to the corrupt practices occuring under their watch. Who could have known, or even suspected, free money (grants) would be subject to such evil forces??
    Full enquiries, calls for return of funds, Commissions, all only to provide more fodder for those close to the political class.

  5. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    https://youtu.be/6pUbyemlm6s?si=VYBq8uFlXt_KRe–

    Doctrove! The geo-political and Russia. Nuclear weapons use!

  6. David Avatar
    David

    Real estate battle reaches Bajan shores

    The investors are headed by a billionaire real estate investor, Ruby Weihong Liu, who has registered some of her family’s large holdings in Barbados and the British Virgin Islands.

    By Tony Best

    A legal tug-o-war over real estate leases in distinct parts of Canada is reaching into Barbados and an Ontario provincial court may soon have to settle the wrangling.

    The case is making news across Canada, which is the original source of billions of dollars in investments registered in Barbados’ offshore financial sector by rich Canadian firms and individuals.

    At the heart of the case is a wealthy Chinese family whose roots can be traced to China’s province of Heilongjiang. The investors are headed by a billionaire real estate investor, Ruby Weihong Liu, who has registered some of her family’s large holdings in Barbados and the British Virgin Islands (BVI). She is often described as one of Vancouver’s wealthiest women.

    Liu wants to acquire leases to stores once operated in shopping malls and commercial districts for several decades under the brand of Hudson’s Bay, one of the North American nation’s oldest and largest department store chains.

    Lui, whose reported rags-to-riches story began when she was a teenager in China and had to leave school early to help support her family, is being chronicled across Canada these days, ever since Hudson’s Bay stores ran into financial troubles and eventually shut down operations after years in existence.

    The Chinese investor group now wants to buy as many as 25 leases to properties in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, but several landlords and others with an interest in lease sales are fighting the acquisition in court.

    Co-owner

    “The company that Liu wants to use to buy the Bay [stores leases] is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Techion Global Incorporated in the British Virgin Islands,” said Michael Gotlieb, an attorney quoted by the Vancouver Sun. “Liu also co-owns Barbados-based Central Walks with her brother.”

    According to published accounts in Toronto and Vancouver, Liu, a permanent resident of Canada, is seeking to buy at least 20 Hudson’s Bay leases with the intent to add multiple lease locations to her company’s portfolio.

    She is currently chair of the Ruby Liu Commercial Investment Corp’s Central Walk, an investment firm whose core business is said to be acquiring, developing and running commercial real estate across Canada.

    Both Lui’s corporation and Hudson’s Bay are disputing suggestions by critics that the money needed to develop the properties was not in the easy reach of the Chinese family’s ability to pay for the leases, whose value was pegged at CAN$70 million. Lui has indicated she plans to spend as much as CAN$400 million upgrading a new chain of retails stores.

    Some of them have gone to the Ontario provincial courts to block and delay approval of the sales of leases.

    Critics of Lui have complained that too much of the family’s wealth was registered offshore in so-called tax havens like Barbados and the British Virgin Islands and not enough put in Canada itself.

    Almost four years ago, Canada’s Supreme Court rejected the argument of Canada’s Revenue Agency that Loblaw, owner of a Canadian offshore bank in Barbados, had owed the agency hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes that were traceable to operations in Barbados.

    Source: Nation

  7. Terence Blackett Avatar
    Terence Blackett

    ESTONIA, DENMARK & INDIA HAS GONE FULL TROTTLE INTO DIGITAL IDs WITH BRITAIN* IN A SERIOUS QUANDRY AS 3+ MILLION BRITS SAYING HELL NO!!! 100s OF OTHER NATIONS ARE MOVING TOWARDS AN ID SYSTEM. BARBADOS’ MOTTLEY CREW LEADER WAS CALLED OUT FOR LYING TO THE BAJAN PUBLIC OVER HER INTENTIONS TO ROLL-OUT THE TRIDENT ID CARD

    Digital IDs are not just a “THEORECTICAL PHENOMENON” – they are based on “OBSERVABLE RISKS” & the potential 4 misuse!!!

    In Britain, these are the “ISSUES”:

    #PrivacyErosion

    #ChineseCreditSystemSurveillance

    #ExclusionDiscrimination

    #MissionCreep

    #FunctionCreep

    #CybersecurityDataBreaches

    In a “LIL ISLAND”, with small island thinking – if the PM resigned 2 prove a point – she would still be “RE-ELECTED” @ the next election with a similar mandate (30 – 0)…

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