ACCORDING TO the auditor general’s annual report to the legislative assembly, the province con- tributed over $19 million to the B.C. Year of Music Society for the Music ’91 project. By Michael Becker News Reporter Music 91 took in an additional $7 million from ticket sales, cor- porate sponsors and other sources. The society received and spent almost $26 million over a three- year period. The auditor-genera! investiga- tion was conducted to determine whether the provincial government had established and maintained an 5 - BOOKING AGENT Sue Cook... gov't must establish gvoater : accountability for public fund- ‘ing. “adequate relationship of account- nbility with the society and whether the government received ‘sufficient information to deter- raine if the project had met its ob- jcctives. The audit did not concern itself wich how the society operated in- termmally or how it handled market- ing and eve:.‘s. Te audit covered the period from Feb. 1, 1989 (she date of the pre-incorporation meeting of the society) to Dec. 31, 1991, the date when the project wrapped up. In i988, the B.C. Pavilion Corp. hired a consultant to prepare a proposal for a project Wednesday, August 5, 1992 - North Shore News - 3 | Society received $19M from prov. - report corporate money Music 791 spent almost $26M over three-year period Aci, Corpo 35%. mane that incorporated band music as a theme to promote tourism. A business plan given to the government figured that a pro- vince-wide program could be delivered for less than $12 million. Income and corporate support would bring in $4.5 million, while the project would be funded with $7.5 million of public money. The B.C. Year of Music Society was incorporated in March 1989. As first stated within its consti- tution, the society was to “manage, operate and promote a musical extravaganza for the year 1991 and arts and entertainment festivals...."” In April 1989, then-tourism minister Bill Reid said that Music 91 would be a major province- wide tourism marketing vehicle. Also in April of that year socie- ty directors were told that the government had budgeted a max- imum of $12 million for Music "91, Organizers planned to draw tourists from beyond B.C. and to keep B.C. residents at home as tourists within their own province. In August 1989, the society en- visioned a $24.6 million project calling for just over $12 million worth of government money. In November 19895, then- premier Bill Vander Zalm said the government had committed $12 million for Music "91. In early 1990, cabinet confirmed. $12 million worth of funding from lottery funds. In June 1990, a society budget showed a deficit of $11.7 million. At that time an ambitious pro- gram included major events, a road show, a corporate identity program, a mall tour and televi- sion coverage. The plan was pared down. In September 1990, the society budget raised the public money component from $12 million to $18 million. fhe extra $6 million was to come from the Ministry of Tourism, the lottery fund and “unnamed Crown corporations.” Said Sue Cook, a North Van- couver resideat and a_ booking agent with Siegel Entertainment who is pushing for an inquiry of the financing and management of subsequently the provincial entertainment pro- gram, ‘“‘We want to know who the unnamed Crown corporations are."’ In March of 1991, Cabinet OK’d another $5 million for the society, increasing the total public money dedicated to the project to $17 million. Grants from lottery funds are not subject to the same ad- ministrative controls that apply to the expenditure of most other public money. Lottery money grants are made at the discretion of the provincial secretary. According to the Lottery Act, lottery funds may be paid out “for cultural or recreational pur- poses or for preserving the cultur- al heritage of the province or for any other purpose the minister considers to be in the public inter- est.”’ The $12 million and $5 million grants to Music '91 were not sub- ject to scrutiny by the Treasury Board or the Legislative Assembly. In July the Treasury Board ap- proved another $3.2 million to cover a shortfall in corporate sponsorship and ticket sale reve- nues. The society had in early 1990 budgeted for $4.6 million worth of corporate sponsorship and $3.3 million in ticket sales. But by June 1991, those figures were revised to $2.8 million and $4 _ million, respectively. Actual ticket sales totalled $3.2 million. The Music ’91 program went on ‘to include roadshow concert per- formances with ‘‘name”’ acts in 50 communities throughout the pro- vince; 12 major weekend events with ‘“‘major’’ acts; community showcases with ‘‘non-profes- sional”? entertainers; 75 perfor- mances by professional street musicians. Said Cook, ‘‘Crown societies are a big issue. I’m not sure what the government can do, but I do know they have to establish a much greater public accountability in terms of public funding. This is just entertainment we’re looking at — how far else has this sort of thing gone?’’ nee NEWS: photo Torry Peters VSO on the waterfront THE VANCOUVER Symphony Orchestra put on « delightful performance for over 6,090 people at North Van's Waterfront Park on Monday evening. This was the fourth concert in thair sur- mer outdoor series - the fiith and final performance is scheduled for Whistler on Sat., August 8 . at2 p.m. Flow of info threatened, press council warns ‘New NDP freedom of information legislation would restrict media access, charges BCPC B.C. MEDIA outlets will likely have a tougher time getting information out to the public once the new provincial Freedom of information and Protection of Privacy Bill is fully implemented, according to a spokesman for the B.C. Press Council (BCPC). The B.C. Press Council’s man- date is to deal with public com- - plaints against its 43 member newspapers and to preserve and protect freedom of the press in the - province. . BCPC executive secretary Gerry Porter joined members of a media coalition in sessions keld with the provincial officials who put together the new act. “ The media coalition, which in- cluded representatives from Pacific Press, Canadian Press, CKNW,, The Victoria Times Col- onist, the B.C. and Yukon Com- munity Newspapers Association, BCTV, CBC and U TV, had law- yers present an extensive brief to government officials. “Basically the people at the table were saying, ‘Look, this iv going to make it harder for us to do our work,’ ’’ Porter said. Porter said the legislation as proposed ignores the coalition’s input... By Mickzel Becker News Reporter “Ladner Downs was hired by the media coalition to help present a case for -access. They wrote a quite good submission, 100 pages of detail. Not one of those expe- riences has been taken into the bill,’’ he said. The new act lists close to 100 possible exemptions from disclosure. “I know that the general con- sensus here is that this: bill is a good idea, but the real concern is that there are so many exemptions in this bil} — they go on for pages, it’s almost like a nightmare, like something out of Franz Kafka,’’ Porter added. In the case of requests for in- formation from governmental agencies, bureaucrats have 30 days in which to respond. 46 There are so many exemptions in this bill ... it’s almost like a nightmare, like something out of Franz Kafka. 99 But said Porter, ‘‘News is per- ishable.”’ The legislation particularly hits news-gatherers hard in the area of information concerning law en- forcement matters. Under the new law, the police will not be able to warn citizens about pedophiles or sexual abusers. The police will be able to delay for 30 days the reporting of major crime and mishaps, in- cluding car accidents. According to a lawyer with Ladner Downs, a provision of the new legislation destroys existing access to ‘‘personal information.”’ For example, the provision will block B.C. media access to the names and addresses of victims of crimes. Now such information is routinely available. —BCPC executive Secretary Gerry Porter Said Porter, ‘In this area of public safety, the bill tightens up the type of material that the police are required to give. I guess we won’t know how bad it is or how good it is until it is tested.”" Porter said the B.C. legislation is patterned after Ontario freedom of information law and in many areas it is the same as legislation preposed vy the former Socred government. “Great parts of it were taken from the Ontario bill. As a matter of fact, the provincial government even hired some of the NDP peo- ple from Ontario to come out and to help the B.C. people put this bill together,” he said. Implementation of ‘the B.C. freedom of information law has yet to be determined. Said Porter, ‘‘The government ‘has said that they want to establish an advisory committee from the public and the press to make ongoing recommendations to fine-tune the legislation as these things arise. “‘My own feeling is that it’s not a good way to do it. The feeling of the lawyers at Ladner Downs was that governmeni had a cam- paign promise — it wanted to br- ing something in, so they jumped on the old Socred bill, the one that the NDP decried as a bad bill basically hiding more material than was available. “They’ve taken that and some of the more contentious aspects of the Ontario bill, and they’ve put the two of them together. They made a cursory consultation with the media, and they did not basically incorporate any of the major media concerns at all,’ he said. The new legilsation will come into effect in the fall of 1993. The legislation applies to gov- ernmenta! ministries, provincial Crown corporations and more than 209 other boards, commis- sions and agencies.