Take the Giant Screen Down Now: UNANIMOUS! - City backs residents in billboard battle

Sunday, 22 January 2012

UNANIMOUS! - City backs residents in billboard battle

In this follow-up story by Matt Kieltyka, we learn how Vancouver City Council is standing up for residents complaining about the electronic billboards at B.C. Place, unanimously voting in favour of a game plan which councillors hope will pressure BC PavCo into complying with the city’s sign bylaw. PavCo’s reprehensible behaviour has harshly been criticised by several members of City Council, with Councillor Meggs saying “(Residents) are asking for some reasonable accommodations from PavCo and they should get it.”

The motion effectively puts the PavCo leadership on notice that they must comply with City processes and sign bylaws and demands an action plan from PavCo for full compliance. City manager Penny Ballem also confirms that the City is looking into possible legal options if PavCo does not respond swiftly.

(Please click the following link for full Metro Vancouver News story)
http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/local/article/1074173--city-backs-residents-in-billboard-battle

Taking inventory of complaints received

The following agencies, departments and organisations have been made known to our organisation as having received complaints about the giant video screen at Terry Fox Plaza:

- Premier Christy Clark’s office
- Minister Pat Bell's office (PavCo Minister)
- Deputy Minister Dana Hayden’s office
- MLA Mary McNeil's office (False Creek N)
- MLA Adrian Dix (Vancouver Kingsway)
- MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert (West-End)
- MLA Jenny Kwan (Mount Pleasant)
- MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East)
- MP Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre)
- BC Ombudsperson office

- BC Information and Privacy Commissioner
- BC PavCo’s Executive Management
- BC PavCo’s Chair and Board of Directors
- BC PavCo's marketing department
- BC PavCo's general inquiries office
- Pace Group Communications' office
- Mayor Gregor Robertson's office
- City Councillor Geoff Meggs' office
- City Councillor Andrea Reimer’s office
- Various other City Councillor's offices

- City Manager Penny Ballem

- City General Manager Brenda Prosken

- City Parks Commissioner Constance Barnes
- City Planning Department

- City Real Estate Services Department

- City Development Permit Board
- Enquiries Centre for Billboard Permitting
- City's Board of Variance office
- Chief Building Inspector's office
- Deputy Chief Building Official's office
- City Noise Complaints office
- City 311 Hotline

- City Legal Services Department

- Chief Medical Officer, Van Coastal Health
- Vancouver Police Department

- Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC)

- False Creek Residents Association
- Vancouver Public Space Network
- Budweiser (Labatt)
- PepsiCo
- Dr Pepper (Snapple Group)
- The Province News
- Telus Corporation

Quick summary of the situation

BC PavCo, a BC provincial agency, decided in September 2011 to contravene several sections of the Vancouver City Signage By-laws (meant to protect citizens from exactly this type of billboard harassment) by erecting the biggest baddest high-definition LED giant video screen in all of Vancouver at Terry Fox Plaza. This was done for the sole purpose of generating revenues by forcibly pumping Telus, Budweiser and Pepsi advertising at the local community, with no consideration paid to the fact that this daily flashing assault would also be pumped into the living rooms, across dinner tables and into the children's bedrooms of residents in the immediately adjacent glass residential community. PavCo's response to the outcry from this community demanding that the screen be moved elsewhere so that it is not directly facing hundreds of glass residential homes? – ‘Too Bad For You’

BC PavCo's Freedom of Information Act violation

...BC PavCo CEO Warren Buckley was legally required to provide documents proving the ownership of the giant video screen at Terry Fox Plaza. Under a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by citizen’s group 'TtGSDN', PavCo’s deadline to confirm the identity of the screen’s true owner/operator was January 23, 2012. Remarkably, in December 2011 Deputy Minister of JTI Dana Hayden told MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert that Telus Corporation is the true owner and operator of all three outdoor screens at BC Place Stadium. Interestingly, neither Telus nor PavCo have since asked the press for a retraction of media reports suggesting the same. Will Warren Buckley try to continue hiding these documents from the public despite repeated attempts by the media and the public to acquire them? The Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia is now investigating PavCo's non-compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.