Trapped in Suburbia…

The whole eHealth thing has been in the news for a while, so much so that it’s getting a little old. Luckily, Dalton and crew are loathe to disappoint.

Today, just when I was thinking the latest scandal was getting a little old, someone sent me a link to an article on the Ontario Ministry of Transport website regarding a plan to upgrade 20 or so existing service centers on the 400 and 401 series highways.

The press release says:

Ontario has selected Host Kilmer Service Centres Inc. as the preferred proponent to modernize and upgrade its highway service centres at 20 locations on Highways 400 and 401.

Infrastructure Ontario continues to finalize contract details, and expects to conclude negotiations with Host Kilmer this fall.

The new service centres will include modern fuel and restaurant services, enhanced tourism information, and clean and upgraded rest and comfort facilities. Since the majority of current service centres were originally built in the 1960s, they are no longer in good condition and do not meet modern energy efficiency standards.

These construction projects will create about 2,500 jobs. Details on construction start and re-opening dates for each service area will be available in the fall.

The news release fails to mention the price tag of the modernization project – but I’m willing to bet it will be significant.

If you google “Host Kilmer Service Centres Inc” the only results returned are news stories about Host Kilmer winning the contract from the Ontario government.

Wouldn’t you expect to find something else about a company that has been awarded a contract to modernize more than twenty different facilities across Ontario? A news article? A press release? Something?

You might, but you’d be sadly disappointed.

If, however, you spent time going through all the articles you might find an old article posted at TodaysTrucking.com from 2007 which lists the short list of four candidates for the contract. In the article TodaysTrucking.com lists the companies coming together to form the “Host Kilmer Service Centres” bid:

Host Kilmer Services Centres Inc., which includes Host International of Canada Ltd., Kilmer Van Nostrand Co., Clough, Harbour & Associates LLP, Cubellis Inc, and Forum Leasehold Partners.

Now here’s where things start to get interesting.

The Chairman and CEO of Kilmer Van Nostrand is none other than Lawrence Tanenbaum – of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment fame – and, you guessed it, well connected Liberal.

I thought the name was familiar. A bit of googling turned up an old article that confirmed what I suspected, Larry was the chair of the Liberal’s fundraising machine during the Paul Martin minority government:

Yesterday, Mr. Harper released an invitation from the Liberal party’s National Revenue Chairman, Lawrence Tanenbaum, offering a private audience with the Prime Minister for donations of $5,100 per person, the most that political parties can collect from individuals under election financing laws.

“If Paul Martin is serious about reforming the Liberal party, let alone government, he would not sell access like this,” Mr. Harper said.

Then I found a tidbit in an old Toronto Star article, in reference to the Grant Scandal that forced Ontario Immigration and Citizenship Minister Mike Colle to resign:

For example, he said that the United Jewish Appeal Federation, which received a 2006-7 grant of $15 million – the largest year-end grant in either of the two years – provided “a submission detailing the project and noting that over 90 per cent of the project’s cost would be funded by donations and that over half had already been raised.”

Now I’ll give you one guess who sits on the Executive Committee of the UJA Federation… If you were following along I’m sure you guessed Lawrence Tanenbaum, and you’re right.

So, the company that won the bidding to upgrade Ontario’s rest stations, with a hitherto undisclosed dollar value, is made up of 2 US companies that actually build things, and 2 Canadian investment companies – one of which is run by a businessman with obvious ties to both the Federal and Provincial Liberal parties.

I’m disappointed. Mainly in that I’m not a well connected Liberal.

Until I am I guess I’ll have to work for my money.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.