Missing

and Incorrect Information in the Trade Centre Presentation to Halifax Regional Council
On November 9, 2010, Mr. Scott Ferguson, president of Trade Centre Limited (TCL), made a slide presentation to Halifax Regional Council about the proposed convention centre.1 At an in camera meeting later that day, Council decided to enter into negotiations with the Province to share in the costs of the proposed convention centre. We have been reviewing the statements made by TCL during the November 9 presentation as well as at earlier presentations on October 6 and 19, 2010.2,3 We find that some statements cannot be substantiated and others are simply incorrect. It is also clear that TCL had additional well-documented information that contradicted the assertions made by TCL, but this information was not disclosed in the presentations. 1. In the public presentations,1-3 TCL stated that Canadian convention revenues grew rapidly from 2005 to 2008. This statement cannot be substantiated. The reference given for this was Convention Centres of Canada Survey Response. We telephoned Rod Cameron of Convention Centres of Canada, an industry association. Mr. Cameron said participation by convention centres in the survey is voluntary and incomplete. He also refused to release the information, saying it is private and proprietary.4 Since the data is private, the two slides in the presentation are impossible to verify. It was inappropriate for TCL to base a request for public funding on data that is incomplete and private and, therefore, impossible to verify. 2. Slide 2 of the November presentation cited a study of the Canadian meetings and conventions industry by the Conference Board of Canada, a research organization. We have obtained a copy of this study from Meeting Professionals International.5 This study is public, and is based on official tourism statistics. It reports trends. The study showed that many measures of Canadian convention activity declined from 2006 to 2008. Since HRM Council was being asked to contribute $162 million in taxpayers funds to the convention centre over 25 years, it was the responsibility of TCL to fully disclose these declining trends to Council. TCL did not do so. The following Canadian trends for 2006-2008 were reported by the Conference Board in the Canadian Economic Impact Study Update:5 a. Number of conferences, conventions and congresses declined by 1.4%. b. Employment generated by meetings activity declined by 5.4%. c. Gross domestic product generated by meeting activity grew by only 0.44%, well below the inflation rate. d. Number of conferences, conventions and congresses in purpose-built convention centres declined by 2.6%. e. Number of all meetings in purpose-built convention centres declined by 0.4%. f. Number of delegates attending conferences, conventions and congresses in purpose-built convention centres declined by 1.8%.

g. Number of delegates attending all meetings in purpose-built convention centres declined by 0.85%. h. Number of international delegates attending conferences, conventions and congresses in Canada declined by 10.6%. i. Number of delegates crossing provincial boundaries to attend conferences, conventions and congresses declined by 2.7%. j. Total expenditures for hiring venues declined by 3.0%. All of these trends were either in decline, or were increasing at less than the rate of inflation. Taking an average of these trends, the Canadian Economic Impact Study Update says business declined by 2.8 + 3.2% in two years. This information, which was kept from HRM Council and the public, is in stark contrast to the claims of TCL. 3. Mr. Scott Ferguson told HRM Council on October 19, When we look at the convention centre revenue growth in Canada, to reinforce what Conference Board of Canada says, well see between this, or among these four years we have achieved over 24% increase in revenue over a period of time, over that four year period.6 The Conference Board of Canada said nothing of the kind.5 4. TCL criticized a report by one of their own consultants in slide 5 of the November presentation. HLT Advisory Inc. prepared a report in May, 2009, which estimated attendance, costs and revenues at a larger convention centre in Halifax.7 This report was ultimately shunted to one side by TCL and replaced by estimates of much larger attendance prepared by the staff of TCL.8 The TCL presentation criticized the HLT Advisory estimates on two grounds: a. TCL said the HLT Advisory report was only a preliminary study. However, we have searched the HLT Advisory report, and the word preliminary does not appear. The HLT report, at 53 pages, is twice as long as the 26-page TCL Internal Staff Report. b. TCL stated that the HLT Advisory report only counted & projected industry classified major events and was not reflective of entire WTCC business mix. However, the HLT report on page 16 clearly counted events with average attendance as few as 261 persons. The projections on page 42 clearly included events with attendance similar to those hosted in the current facility. 5. The November TCL presentation stated the number of international events, as defined by ICCA, the International Congress and Convention Association, held in three larger Canadian cities in Slide 8. This could suggest that a larger Halifax convention centre would attract a similar number of international events. However, the TCL presentation did not note that most international events are held in hotels and universities, not convention centres. For example, the presentation says Quebec City hosted nineteen international events in 2009, but the Annual Report of the Centre des congres de Quebec says only four international events were hosted in the convention centre there in 2009/10.9 Quebec City has more residents than Halifax and attracts five times as much tourism business as Halifax. It was improper for TCL to publicly present the projection that a Halifax convention centre would attract 29 international events in

2024, seven times the number hosted by the Quebec City centre. 6. The October 19 presentation2 said 75% of national association customers would consider Halifax with a new convention facility, citing a survey by Thinkwell Research.10 The original survey10 actually attributes this response to the national/international segment, not the national association customers. TCL did not tell Council that the same survey found that a slightly larger fraction, 77%, of the national/international segment said they would consider hosting future events in the present Halifax World Trade and Convention Centre (WTCC). It was the responsibility of TCL to reveal this fact to Council. 7. This presentation2 also said 88% of national corporate event planners, representing a total of 189 clients, would consider Halifax with a new convention facility, again citing Thinkwell Research. However, the Thinkwell study says only eight corporate event planners were questioned.10 It was misleading to use the numbers 88% and 189 when only eight persons were questioned. Thinkwell did not say how many of these persons would consider the present WTCC. 8. The TCL presentations on October 6 and 192,3 repeated an incorrect statement about Canadas share of international conventions from the TCL Internal Staff Report.8 This issue was discussed in a separate document, Misinformation in the Internal Staff Report of Trade Centre Limited.11 As a provincial crown corporation, it was the responsibility of TCL to fully and accurately inform HRM Council. However, the presentation included unverifiable and incorrect information, and excluded data that did not support TCLs request. References:
1. Proposed Convention Centre, Trade Centre Limited, November, 2010, http://www.halifax.ca/council/agendasc/documents/101109cow3tcl.pdf, slides 2-5, 8. 2. http://www.halifax.ca/council/agendasc/documents/101019cow3pres.pdf, slides 47, 48, 52. 3. https://conventioncentreinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/WTCC-II-Bid-Summary.pdf, slides 24-26, 31. 4. Rod Cameron, Convention Centres of Canada, Vancouver, telephone conversation, January 18, 2011. 5. Canadian Economic Impact Study Update 2007-2008, Maritz Research Canada and Conference Board of Canada, Meetings Professionals International Foundation Canada, 2009. th 6. Halifax Regional Council Meeting October 19 , 2010, EastLink TV, DVD. 7. https://conventioncentreinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/HLT-Advisory-Report-1.pdf 8. https://conventioncentreinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Market-Projections-For-a- Proposed-New-Convention-Centre.pdf 9. Rapport Annuel de Gestion 2009-2010, Societe du Centre des congres de Quebec, http://www.convention.qc.ca/tiki-index.php?page=societe_doc, page 18. 10. Market Validation Report for Proposed New Convention Centre, Thinkwell Research, June 2010. 11. Misinformation in the Internal Staff Report of Trade Centre Limited, P.D. Pacey, Halifax, January, 2011, http://www.savetheview.ca/rebuttal.shtml.