City making progress on Oly Village debt: S&P
Posted October 22, 2012 2:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The City of Vancouver is well on its way to repairing the financial damage caused by the Olympic Village, that’s according to an update from credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s.
It says Vancouver has re-paid about one-third of the $630 million in debt it took on as the main lender to the project and most of the units have been sold.
Jordan Bateman with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the city does not deserve the credit for its success on paying down the loan. He says the praise should be going to the realtor in charge of selling condos at the waterfront development.
“I do think that any progress that’s been made on the Olympic Village file has more to do with the leadership of Bob Rennie than anything that city hall has done,” he says.
“I think Rennie’s done a good job of trying to get real live people into these units, and pay down some of the debt that’s been incurred,” he adds.
The city’s credit rating was cut one notch because of the Olympic Village, but S&P says it could be restored in the next two years as the majority of the Village’s short-term debt is repaid. One weakness is the possibility of a “substantial increase” in Vancouver’s tax-supported debt burden in the next two years.
Bateman doubts the debt will be eliminated by the time all the condo units are sold and says at this time it’s unclear just how much of a loss Vancouver taxpayers will have to cover.
Along with the progress on the loan, S&P says Vancouver is running a “solid surplus” and the local economy “is recovering well from the recession.”
