Donor who gave Liberal's $50,000 got casino contract two months later

JONATHAN FOWLIE, Vancouver Sun April 8, 2010

VICTORIA — T. Richard Turner, the Liberal insider who pushed for a retractable roof on BC Place, donated $50,000 to the B.C. Liberal Party two months before his company was named as the preferred bidder for a mega hotel and casino project next to the stadium. The donation, which Turner said was made through his family company on April 30, 2009, is by far the largest on record given by Turner or his immediate companies to the Liberals. Turner is the government-appointed chair of the Insurance Corp. of B.C. and a former chair of the B.C. Lottery Corp. Prior to last April, Turner and the companies he directly controls had given a total of $20,000 to the B.C. Liberal Party over four years.

"I just think it stinks," New Democratic Party tourism critic Spencer Chandra Herbert said Wednesday of the $50,000 donation, which came during last year's provincial election campaign. "Whether or not that was a direct influence [on the BC Place negotiations], for the average taxpayer, they look at that kind of thing and it smells," he added. He noted the donation was made while PavCo — the Crown corporation that operates BC Place — was collecting bids for the development of lands next to the stadium.

Turner is a director of Paragon Canada Holdings ULC — a Canadian entity of Paragon Development Ltd., the company selected to build a $450-million casino and hotel project next to BC Place — and a director of Edgewater Casino ULC. On Wednesday, Turner said the donation was meant to support the Liberal party in the election, and had no connection to the PavCo bid process. "There's absolutely no connection between the donation we chose to give to the B.C. Liberal Party and any business opportunity or any business interest I have, period.""That just does not happen," he said, adding he was not directly involved in negotiations and so was not aware of when PavCo had issued its call for proposals.