Commonwealth bid fails, infrastructure hopes dashed

CITIZEN OPINION

By Craig Durling

For decades, Nova Scotia politicians have dismissed the benefits of healthy and active living by doing nothing significant to improve it. On March 8, 2007, our political leaders once again turned a blind eye to a philosophy of health promotion as they withdrew support for the 2014 Commonwealth Games bid; a venture that had the potential to change our province forever.

The showpiece of any major multi-sport games is the legacy of infrastructure. As one of Canada's oldest cities, Halifax has been the victim of decades of systematic neglect by infrastructure funding partners; namely, the federal and provincial governments. Many believed a major multi-sport event was the most pragmatic approach to righting years of neglect in one fell swoop.

There is no doubt that hosting the Commonwealth Games is a costly venture. Expensive too is the bid process. Considering this, one would expect politicians to take necessary due diligence in assessing the potential costs and benefits of the games before deciding to invest valuable resources.

After failed attempts to become the Canadian bid city for the Commonwealth Games in 1994 and 2010, it is doubtful Halifax Regional Council were not duly diligent when they voted unanimously to approve the domestic bid for the 2014 games. It is also doubtful that then Premier John Hamm didn't do his homework before proclaiming the province would be a funding partner in Halifax's bid. At the time of these decisions, politicians were convicted in their belief the games would be worth the cost. After years of funding abandon, Halifax would finally get its due: infrastructure funding from the federal government. What would happen 15-months following Halifax's domestic bid win couldn't have been predicted by anyone.

At some point leading up to March 8, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald and Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly decided to do an about-turn. While at the surface the decision to withdraw Halifax's bid for the Commonwealth Games for financial reasons might have made sense to some, the timing and abruptness of the decision couldn't have made sense to many.

It is a fact that Nova Scotia has one of the highest rates of adolescent obesity in Canada, this according to a 2005 Statistics Canada survey on obesity among children and adults. Our province is stricken with preventable illness and disease due to inactive lifestyles. Absurdly, on the same day NS health promotion minister Barry Barnet stood alongside Mayor Kelly to announce Halifax was withdrawing its bid, finance minister Michael Baker announced to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce that provincial healthcare costs were spiraling out of control and that something needed to be done to contain them. Baker's solution: two-tier healthcare. Sadly, the concept of preventative healthcare measures was notably absent from Baker's message.

While Baker's concept of fee-for-service healthcare is worthy of a separate comment altogether, the thoughtlessness of his message reinforces our government's outlook on healthy and active living and speaks volumes about Premier MacDonald's vision, leadership, and passion. Why was the decision to drop the bid made?

Perhaps it would have made some sense if after fruitless negotiation with the federal government and an aggressive public pressure campaign, the city and the province bowed out at the 11th hour. Perhaps it would have made sense if some kind of unpredicted obstacle arose that made the games unaffordable relative to the original cost projections. Both Mayor Kelly and Premier MacDonald would have the public believe these factors real and that their decision to withdraw the bid was prudent fiscal management in the best interest of the taxpayers.

This is nonsense.

After investing millions of dollars, it makes little sense for Mayor Kelly and Premier MacDonald to have abandoned the bid when they did. Mayor Kelly blamed the Commonwealth Games Federation for insurmountable extra costs related to bid requirement changes imposed by them. Yet, according to an article published in the Halifax Daily News on March 10, Mike Hooper, CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation, categorically refuted Kelly's accusation saying the rules for bidding for the multi-sport games haven't changed since Halifax began the process two years ago. If the proposed cost was too high, the bid should have been modified to better suit Halifax's needs and to minimize costs. If the federal government's commitment was too low, a public campaign to lobby for more money should have at least been attempted before throwing in the towel. Perhaps Halifax could have simply forged ahead with a no-frills bid even if it wasn't confident it could win. Why didn't Kelly and MacDonald pursue these options?

Aside from the peculiarity of the announcement's timing is the manner in which it was announced. Halifax regional councillors were called to an emergency meeting on March 8 to discuss the bid cost and how each level of government would contribute. During this meeting, Mayor Kelly moved for Halifax to pull out of the bid. Throughout debate following the motion, councillors discussed voting on a motion to defer the decision until March 20 and pressure the federal government publicly to boost its contribution. Before any vote could take place, at 11:30 am the province sent out a news release stating the city and the province were backing out of the bid. Included in the release was a quote from Mayor Kelly. Kelly's participation in the news release suggests he was aware of and likely participated in the decision before council even met that day. Many councillors were outraged at the lack of due process, storming out of council chambers in protest.

Throughout the bid process, the public was critical of the bid committee's secrecy. Despite this criticism, polls released in December 2006 and February 2007 showed nearly 4 out of 5 residents supported the bid. Full public disclosure from the outset could have softened the blow, and instead the government and bid committee could have focused their attention on convincing the public the bid was worth it. Was it the bid committee that instituted the gag order or were other people in positions of power ultimately responsible? Having met the mayor on a few occasions and looking at the premier's track record on being forthright, it would not surprise me in the least if these two alone had something to do with the secrecy that inevitably killed this bid.

Halifax's premature withdrawal combined with Baker's two-tier solution reinforces the idea that our current government is too short-sighted to realize the connection between physical activity and reducing health and crime related costs. In addition to our dismal health record, Halifax has the highest rate of violent crime committed against people ages 15 to 24 in the country according to a 2004 general social survey on criminal victimization by Statistics Canada. The legacy of both large scale venues and community-based training facilities that would have come with the games could have provided positive outlets for children and youth for generations to come. Instead, we are left with inadequate facilities and no plans to do anything about it.

Former Premier John Hamm was a champion of the games bid. He championed Nova Scotia and stood up to then Prime Minister Paul Martin on the offshore accord and won. He moved Nova Scotia in the right direction. Prime Minister Stephen Harper once said that Atlantic Canadians were defeatists. By pulling the plug, Mayor Kelly and Premier MacDonald not only left us with no plan or prospect for improving what little infrastructure we have, they just proved Stephen Harper right.