Originally Posted by random11
SAINT JOHN - Port authority board chairman Stephen Campbell is at a loss to understand how it is that the organization couldn't get a one-on-one meeting with Mayor Ivan Court to discuss Irving Oil's proposal to build its $30-million corporate headquarters on Long Wharf.
In fact, he says he did not receive any response after making a formal request for a meeting through the mayor's office.
Instead, says Campbell, a meeting with the mayor was organized by Pat Riley, the business agent for International Longshoremen's Association, Local 273, a union that backs Court politically.
In the end, two members of the port's board of directors - Campbell and vice-chairman Arthur T. Doyle - did meet with the mayor, but with Riley and Saint John Lancaster MLA Abel LeBlanc in attendance. LeBlanc is a longtime friend of Court's and has spent more than 40 years working at the Port of Saint John, including 18 years as an executive officer and 16 as president of Local 273.
The port authority first tried to get a meeting with Court after the May election, through formal channels, Campbell writes in briefing notes to a number of Saint John economic development agencies, port officials and local businesses that were obtained by the Telegraph-Journal.
"This was refused on the basis that he did not want to hold any meetings until he was sworn in, which we accepted," says Campbell in the notes. "We later learned he was having meetings with a number of other parties. After his swearing in, we continued to be unsuccessful arranging a one-on-one courtesy meeting through the mayor's office. The vice-chair and I were contacted and informed by Pat Riley, business agent for the ILA, that we could meet with the mayor and that he and Abel LeBlanc would be in attendance.
"I find it very disturbing that the port authority could not arrange a one-on-one meeting with our new mayor without the participation of a special interest group," writes Campbell.
"We would have preferred a formal response from the mayor's office and we would have preferred to have a one-on-one with the mayor - as we've always been able to do - without a private interest group," he said in an interview. "We never received a letter, e-mail or anything from his office."
In the end, the meeting that was held by the five men did not go well, Campbell has said, with the mayor making it clear he is not supportive of Irving Oil's Long Wharf proposal.
Court has responded by saying he has not made up his mind and simply wants the best deal for the city. Looking purely at the revenue side, Court has said, the port authority would make more cash using Long Wharf as a parking lot. He also says he fears he'll be going to Ottawa to fight for money to fix piers on the western side of the harbour at the same time he's looking for federal cash to bring the city's drinking-water system up to par and adds he doesn't like the terms and conditions of the Long Wharf proposal and has questions about whether the city is receiving "fair-market value" for the Lantic Sugar site.
Before the deal can go forward, the city must agree to sell the former sugar refining site to Irving Oil. That's where the city's involvement in the proposal ends. After that, it's up to the port authority and the federal government to work it out.
Court denies that a request for a meeting came from the port board, but says he did try to reach port CEO Al Soppitt.
"I tried for two or three days to get a hold of Al Soppitt to sit down with Al Soppitt. I never refused to meet with Mr. Campbell or anybody else. The bottom line was I said we should have all parties sitting at the table at the same time.
"I said to the city manager, 'We should get these people together and find out where they're coming from.'
"They were arranging it through, if I remember correctly, Pat Riley.
"He had called and I said, 'I'm willing to sit down with you guys and I think it's important that you both sit at the same table because I don't want to hear one side of the story and then have somebody else tell me something different.'
"I think he invited Abel to come along. Steve brought Mr. Doyle. I never refused to meet with Mr. Campbell or anybody else."
Riley insists that Campbell came to him to arrange the meeting with the mayor; he called him three times, says Riley.
For his part, LeBlanc makes no bones about his affinity to the port.
He knows his strong port ties are why Riley invited him to the meeting.
"It's been a good community to me," says LeBlanc.
"I met a whole new bunch of people by representing the longshoremen. I've been all over North America with these people. I feel a loyalty to the people who are still working the port, both in management and in labour. Pat consulted with me because of my background in the port and the years I worked there."
Post-Secondary Education, Labour and Training Minister Ed Doherty, the Saint John Harbour MLA whose riding encompasses the port, was not invited, nor was Saint John MP Paul Zed, said LeBlanc, who says he has received only two telephone calls about Irving Oil's Long Wharf proposal - one for and one against.
If the deal goes through, Irving Oil promises improvements to Long Wharf and the nearby Fort La Tour site, as well as a world-class second cruise ship welcome centre to complement one that is nearing completion at the former Pugsley Terminal on the uptown side of the harbour. The Irving Oil headquarters at Long Wharf would also concentrate 1,000 employees downtown.
The ILA is the only group opposed to the Irving Oil proposal. The port authority, Enterprise Saint John, the Saint John Board of Trade, entrepreneurs in the city, the Saint John Waterfront Development Partnership and city manager Terry Totten have all embraced the proposal as a "win-win" for the city.
Totten has said the proposal will have a "significant effect" on municipal tax revenues, adding perhaps as much as $2 million annually to city coffers. The city currently receives an annual grant from the port authority of $44,000 in lieu of taxes for the property.
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