Take the Giant Screen Down Now: Minister Bell, your response unacceptable!

Chosen as a 'Top letter' from amongst hundreds of complaint letters and emails received about the giant digital billboards at BC Place Stadium:

Subject: 'Minister Bell, your response unacceptable'

Dear Minister Bell,

Thank you for responding. That said, I (and so many others who have received your email) find your response completely unacceptable for the following reasons:

The BC Place management team has not been listening at all to Vancouver residents, but has instead been defensively protecting the installation of the screens from the beginning.
If the Ministry is receiving less complaints at this time, it's because people are tired of being ignored and have now taken their continued complaints to other agencies, departments and offices at the Province and at the City.
By fiddling with brightness and operating hours, PavCo and the Ministry are clearly demonstrating that they are not at all listening to city residents. -> It is the application of due process, City and community consultation as well as the application of urban planning best practices that this community is demanding, nothing less.
The video screens are not at all an integral part of the BC Place experience. They detract significantly from the remarkable work done at BC Place stadium.
Defraying stadium costs by tormenting people within their glass homes is pure absurdity -> This would have been made clear at the start had PavCo consulted with the City before erecting the screens.
The plaza is dedicated to Budweiser, Telus and Pepsi, and is not at all dedicated to our hero Terry Fox, who PavCo has chosen to dishonour.
Economic activity for the City is not at all diminished by the adherence to general principles of lawfulness and respect for Civic authority -> Everyone knows that revenues gained by any other means are simply called rackets and illegitimate enterprises.
City Bylaws which govern other so-called 'entertainment districts' have been very successful at achieving the proper balance concerning appropriate signage. The Vancouver City Sign Bylaw No. 6510 and the Zoning and Development Bylaw No. 3575 were carefully crafted to address precisely this type of situation. Deviating from the standard civic process and from local bylaws is very irresponsible and will not be tolerated by the public.
If PavCo had intended to be the best neighbour possible, they would have consulted the City, consulted the community, and performed an impact assessment before erecting the screens.
PavCo's literature states that complying with City Bylaws is part of PavCo's policy -> Therefore PavCo must turn off the screens and immediately submit themselves to the standard City evaluation process.
PavCo also specifically said they would comply with City Bylaws when entering into agreements with the City in the period leading up to the stadium renovations -> Therefore PavCo must turn off the screens and immediately submit themselves to the standard City evaluation process.
The Vancouver City Mayor himself has asked that Minister Pat Bell instruct PavCo to comply with City Bylaws -> Therefore PavCo must turn off the screens and immediately submit themselves to the standard City evaluation process.
A unanimous motion was passed by all ten City Councillors as well as the City Mayor on January 17th, 2012 to seek PavCo's compliance with City processes and Bylaws regarding outdoor signage at BC Place Stadium -> Therefore PavCo must turn off the screens and immediately submit themselves to the standard City evaluation process.
All Crown agencies, as a matter of standard practice and respect for civic authority, always consult with they City over urban infrastructure and planning issues such as this. The Federal government which is a level of government far more powerful than PavCo, in 2008 submitted a standard sign permit application under the City's regular application process for a screen they wished to erect at CBC Studios on 700 Hamilton Street. The ambushing of City Hall concerning the erection of the BC Place screens is highly irregular to say the least.
Anyone who considers the giant screens at BC Place Stadium 'world class' frankly needs to travel more.
It would be appropriate for the Minister to reconsider his position on this quickly escalating issue.

Regards,
Your constituent

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.