MP Peter Goldring (Edmonton East) wants to be re-elected. He has been a member of the minority government of Stephen Harper – a government which has been criticised for not telling the truth to Parliament and, by extension, the people of Canada.
So perhaps the lies in Peter Goldring’s March 2011 constituency newsletter (#484, “Boyle Renaissance or Boyle Institution?” - pictured here) merely reflect the philosophy of his party.
I know politicians are not supposed to use the word “liar” in addressing each other in the House of Commons. It is considered un-Parliamentary. I am not a politician, and Peter Goldring’s lies in his newsletter are not protected by Parliamentary privilege because they were not made in the House of Commons. The actual facts were provided to me by request by the City of Edmonton.
LIE: Peter Goldring says the Boyle Renaissance project will have most of “a thousand more social subsidized units.”
TRUTH: A 150-suite apartment building and a 90-suite seniors’ residence, neither of them with ongoing subsidies. No shelters.
LIE: Peter Goldring says the Boyle Renaissance project will “move disadvantaged persons already integrated into the greater community throughout Edmonton into a ‘Boyle Institution’.”
TRUTH: Some of those units will be for people who were moved out of the closed York Hotel and Butte Apartments which were already on the site. The other units are to address the needs of the currently underhoused and the aging/disabled population. People already "integrated" into the greater community are not being moved.
LIE: Peter Goldring says the Boyle Renaissance project is largely funded by the federal government as “the single largest contributor to the Boyle ‘Renaissance’ development costs”
TRUTH:Not only is the federal government NOT a large contributor, but so far there is NO direct federal money at all AND requests for federal money have been DENIED.
He further suggests that
- non-profit sector operators will be making profit from rental top-ups. FALSE
- the City of Edmonton is giving away the land and tax breaks. FALSE
So what is the Boyle Renaissance really? It is a community renewal plan for a couple of blocks in downtown Edmonton. In three phases, the project replaces an aging community hall and under-used sports field, and rehabilitates empty lots and land currently occupied by a scrapyard. You can check it out by clicking here, or read on for a quick summary.
Partners in Phase 1 are the City of Edmonton, the Government of Alberta Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Edmonton YMCA, the Capital Region Housing Corporation and the Boyle Street Community League (BSCL). You don’t see "the Harper Government" in this list, right?
Phase 1 includes
1) a new Community Centre to replace the old hall, which was in disrepair and could not be easily or economically fixed. Do you see any mention of this community resource in Goldring’s letter? The flex space (useable as gym or major event space), community activity rooms, multipurpose rooms, and catering kitchen will serve the city at large as well as Boyle Street community. It will be operated by the BSCL under a 25-year lease (licence), and owned by the City of Edmonton. No federal money has been given for the community centre. This is a public facility, but it is unique in being operated by the community rather than through the city’s Community Services facilities department. This business model empowers the community and fosters pride in the facility.
2) Sharing the same building will be a 70-space day care run by the YMCA for anyone in the city of Edmonton who wishes to sign up their child. Is Goldring counting these kids as shelter units? The YMCA will also have a Family Resource Centre in this building, to serve families from anywhere in the city, including but not limited to Boyle Street, McCauley and downtown.
3) The other building in Phase 1 is a modest apartment building called the Welcome Village. Is this a shelter? No. The YMCA, in partnership with Capital Region Housing, is building 19 studio apartments, 61 regular one-bedroom suites, 15 additional one-bedroom suites which are fully accessible for the disabled, and 55 two-bedroom suites. That’s a total of 150 apartments, 70 of which are earmarked for families. This is not “a thousand more social shelter units” as Peter Goldring claims. The apartment building has no ongoing subsidy; it has to pay for itself like any other apartment.
4) 70 underground parking stalls under the community centre building, an enhanced streetscape on 104 Avenue, and parkland around the buildings. And the City of Edmonton, as a partner in the project, still owns the land – it is not being given to anyone.
So are those shelter units Golding is talking about in Phase 2? No. Phase 2 is a 90-suite assisted living facility for seniors, with a third of the suites wheelchair-friendly. The partners are Métis Capital Housing Corporation and Canadian Paraplegic Society, and the project is funded by the government of Alberta (46%), City of Edmonton (25%) and Métis Capital Housing Corporation (29%). Do you see the Harper Government listed as a funder here? No. But the main floor does plan, at this point, to have a full-service pharmacy, dental office and medical clinic, operated by Bigstone Cree Nation. The pharmacy is expected to be run by a pharmacy group or chain, and the medical and dental facilities to be tendered to private professionals. Bigstone Cree Nation Medical Transportation Services provides medical transportation to all of northern Alberta, and this building might become the base for their Edmonton dispatch services.
Phase 3 will be 50-60 units of market housing and the new site of the community garden, which has been in the neighbourhood for many years. Do you see any mention of these in Goldring’s newsletter? No. Do you see the Harper Government listed as a funder here? N0.
There will be NO city of Edmonton tax exemptions to organizations developing Phase II or III, but they may be eligible for other exemptions from other levels of government depending on their tax status (as charitable or non-profit organisation or First Nations). This would be true no matter where they build.
Goldring asks “Could it be the attraction (read profit) for some non-profit organizations of free building costs, free land, no taxes and full market rate rental income prospects after provincial top-up trumps enlightened community integration?”
Enlightened community integration is exactly what Boyle Renaissance is about. Goldring doesn’t mention that the Boyle Street community is also home to The Quarters to the south and another private development in the works to the north – both of which are market housing developments aiming to accommodate, in total, more than 20,000 people. He doesn't mention the exhaustive community consultations.
Open community meetings were held on the Boyle Renaissance by the Boyle Street Community League, the City of Edmonton, and consultants representing the Phase 1 owners. I have been in on a lot of those meetings as an interested member of the community living in full view of the site. The plan has had extensive community consultation which overwhelmingly supports it. The person who does not support it is our elected MP, whose agenda is unclear, although he has spoken glowingly about the subsidised Mayfair Village private development, which has about the same number of below-market units as Boyle Renaissance Phases 1 and 2 combined and received funding from the same public Cornerstones program! Which project do you think should be getting public money – the one where developers make profit and might ditch their altruism after taking the money (like Red Deer’s Monarch Place/Innovative Housing debacle - for the story on that one, click here), or the one which is operated for the community? Goldring seems to think tax dollars should go to the private developers.
Arithmetic might not be Goldring’s strong suit. He is, after all, part of a government that says it prides itself on fiscal responsibility but which has racked up a huge deficit. And area residents might remember Goldring’s arithmetic when his newsletter was about the riding boundary changes – he argued that the 5000 projected Railtown residents were not included in the committee’s calculations, and then he also did not include them in his own calculations of how he thought the boundaries should be changed. Well, here we are again. Goldring is making up the figures, ignoring the projected 20,000+ increase in Boyle Street’s population from market housing, and pretending that non-existent federal funding gives him the right to lie about the project and turn people against it.
(The project did apply for federal funding for a skating rink, but the request was turned down)
Goldring supporters might think that maybe he was genuinely mistaken and not deliberately lying; maybe he was operating on old information. Way back at the beginning of the Boyle Renaissance, the projected number of units (which included BOTH subsidised AND market rate units) was over 900. But that changed two years ago – and when Goldring continued to publish the wrong information in earlier newsletters, his staff was contacted and asked to correct it. I know, because I am one of the people who contacted them.
All these public and community meetings, plus updates in the local newspaper and readily available information from the City – right there on their website - if Peter Goldring’s facts are mistaken, it is NOT because the facts were not available to him.
I don’t want to re-elect a man who lies to his constituents and works against the community interests and consultation process. Why does he want constituents to call HIM? He has done nothing to support this project, his government has put no direct funding into this project – NONE, despite his claims – so it is frankly none of his business. Why does he make it his business? If his constituency newsletters have been any indication, it is because Goldring would rather not have community-based projects when the money could go to private developers like it has with Mayfair Village or Monarch Place.
When a politician supports private business over the community, he has lost sight of his mandate.
