$10 million from the feds into secretive airport contract

Whew! I was getting worried about the Hamilton Spectator - becoming bored with their news. That is until Saturday when they launched another investigative report series on Hamilton's secretive airport contract with the City of Hamilton.

The first part is here

What is most important about these articles is that the writers have compared Hamilton's airport to other airports run in Canada - in particular those run by the same company.

It's been a complaint of mine that the Spec didn't compare how the City of Hamilton is run or other institutions for that matter, with others in the province. Now they are starting to look outside the box so it becomes more apparent that this City is strange.

Although some Spec reporters, those covering the antics at City Hall, think it's run the same every where. At least I've had the opportunity and experience living in different cities in Ontario and I can say, with some accuracy, that NO, it is not the same every where.

I have never seen such blatantly disregard for legislation and other areas of regulation as I've seen in Hamilton. It's so open that it is quite beyond me how it continues without anyone doing anything about it. And my complaints about The Spec lately have been that they are better at covering up the news than reporting it.

I just wish there were more investigative reports from The Spec than one every 8 months.

These are the links to the second part of the report in three articles: 1, 2 and 3

Here are some highlights:


But not all municipalities chose to run their own airports when Transport Canada handed them over. A handful went to the private sector instead, turning the management of their airports over to companies that specialize in the field.

Each municipality negotiated its own unique deal with the private operators and demanded different levels of access to the private company's financial data.

But few, if any, agreed to the level of secrecy that Hamilton did when it signed a lease with TradePort International Corp.

[...]

TradePort won the competition and on July 1, 1996, took over managing, financing and running the airport under a 40-year lease with the city.

Its three shareholders are -- in order of size of ownership -- YVR Airport Services of Vancouver, Westpark Developments Inc., owned by Hamilton businessman Tony Battaglia, and Labourers' International Union of North America, Local 837, headed by Joe Mancinelli.

[...]

Ten years into its lease agreement with TradePort, the city has no idea how much money the airport or its operator makes, how much the company pays its top people or how money flows within TradePort's complicated corporate structure

[...]

You're not allowed to know how the city financed a mysterious $4.5-million land deal at the airport last year -- or even why the city bought the land.

[...]

You're not allowed to know what kind of security the city received when it allowed TradePort to obtain a $15-million leasehold mortgage in November 2004.

And even though the airport is owned by the taxpayers of Hamilton, you're not allowed to see key elements of TradePort's lease agreement with the city

[...]

Although TradePort has received almost $10 million from Ottawa, the city says it has never been paid a share. In fact, the city wouldn't know what a proper share would be because it has never exercised its right to access TradePort's books.

[...]

If Bill C-27 had passed, YVRAS would have been required to prepare separate financial statements showing how it specifically accounted for money generated at its airports in places such as Hamilton and Moncton.

Bill C-27 would have also required airport operators to hold annual public meetings.

[...]

One of Bill C-27's opponents was the Liberal party's Stan Keyes, the former Hamilton West MP. In fact, Keyes was a member of the Standing Committee on Transport, and former parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Transport.

FYI read this web post on the Labourers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) by the Federal Bureau of Investigations that includes this union as labour raketers in the United States.