Lawsuit against The Niagara Parks Commission - Part 2

The big news in Niagara Falls is the huge controversy over the secret practices of The Niagara Parks Commission in awarding a lease to Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company Limited to offer the boat service at Niagara Falls.  It is estimated that the lease will generate at least half a billion dollars for Maid of the Mist.  The lease was granted without any competitive bidding.  One prospective bidder says he will pay as much as an additional $50 million for the lease. A lawsuit to declare the lease illegal is being filed.

Between 2003 and 2008, at least three companies informed The Niagara Parks Commission that they would like to bid on the lease to provide the boat service at Niagara Falls.  The lease is expiring in November 2009.  The Niagara Parks Commission met secretly a year and a half before the current lease is set to expire and entered into a new lease with Maid of the Mist for 20 more years.  It is estimated that Maid of the Mist will generate over $500 million over the next 20 years.  If the lease is not declared illegal, it means that Maid of the Mist will have held the monopoly rights to provide the boat service at Niagara Falls for 182 years -- never with any competition or competitive bidding.

William M. Windsor launched a major campaign with The Niagara Parks Commission and the Government of Ontario to try to get the lease tendered for bids.  The Procurement Policy of The Niagara Parks Commission states that purchases for goods and services in excess of $100,000 will be tendered for bid.  This lease will pay The NPC over $50 million.  Windsor says his bid will double the amount that The Niagara Parks Commission receives.  Ripley's Entertainment wants to bid, and they have said their bid will pay more to the Ontario government as well.

On November 7, 2008, William M. Windsor faxed additional information to each of the 12 commissioners of The Niagara Parks Commission individually with a copy of the three emails he had sent to The Niagara Parks Commission and the one reply from Kernahan.  Windsor provided basic details about his bid.   

Windsor faxed the same information to Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Executive Council of Ontario, the entity that must approve the lease.

On November 11, 2008, William M. Windsor faxed additional information to each of the 12 commissioners of The Niagara Parks Commission, Premier Dalton McGuinty, and the Executive Council of Ontario.  This included a letter of support for Windsor's bid from a private equity firm that manages $4 billion in equity. 

On November 12, 2008, William M. Windsor faxed details about his bid and additional support information to Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Executive Council of Ontario.  This fax included a recommendation to the government on a bidding process..

On November 13, 2008, William M. Windsor faxed additional information to each of the 12 commissioners of The Niagara Parks Commission, Premier Dalton McGuinty, and the Executive Council of Ontario.  This included a letter of support for Windsor's bid from a merchant bank. 

On November 21, 2008, William M. Windsor faxed additional information to each of the 30 members of the  Executive Council of Ontario. 

On November 23, 2008, William M. Windsor received a letter from Premier Dalton McGuinty:

Premier McGuinty instructed Windsor to take the matter to The Honourable Monique Thomas, Minister of Tourism.

Windsor received a letter from The Honourable Monique Thomas.  Minister Thomas instructed Windsor to take the matter to the Chairman of The Niagara Parks Commission.  Windsor reports he has sent numerous letters and faxes to the Chairman of The Niagara Parks Commission, and neither the chairman nor The Niagara Parks Commission have ever responded -- not once.

Since no one with the Canadian government would speak with Windsor (despite many attempts), and since the only responses were passing the buck to others who passed him to the people he has the problem with - The Niagara Parks Commission, Windsor decided that his only recourse was to file a lawsuit against The Niagara Parks Commission and Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company Limited.

Graydon Sheppard sent this letter to The Honourable Monique Smith, Minister of Tourism:

"I have been retained by William Windsor and Alcatraz Media, Inc., to commence an application for judicial review of the decision of The Niagara Parks Commission to renew the existing lease between the Commission and Maid of the Mist.

"I understand that the Commission voted to renew the lease in April 2008, approximately 1½ years before the end of the term of the existing lease.

"It has also been brought to my attention that the renewal of the lease was conducted in circumstances of secrecy and in violation of the procurement policy of the Commission which requires procurement decisions to be preceded by a full call for tenders, and that no such call for tenders was made by the Commission

"Finally, I understand that the renewal of the lease is subject to the approval of the Executive Council.  In light of the application which I am about to commence in the Divisional Court, I respectfully request that the decision of the Executive Council with respect to the renewal of the lease be deferred pending determination of the application and, in particular, the issue of the propriety of the process leading to the renewal of the lease."

The Procurement Policy of The Niagara Parks Commission is available online for anyone to review.  Windsor obtained this from an anonymous source who indicated there have been many violations of the policy.

The next step is that the lawsuit will be filed.  Windsor says: “I am filing this lawsuit because I cannot trust that the government will do the right thing.  The Niagara Parks Commission has completely ignored the efforts of many people to get the lease put up for bids.  The Integrity Commissioner has not acted on ethics complaints filed over this issue.  No one will call us back.  So, the only way to protect our interests is to file this lawsuit.  The lawsuit will seek to have the lease declared illegal.  When the lease is declared illegal, we and all other interested parties will have an opportunity to bid.”

Windsor's bid to The Niagara Parks Commission to operate the boat service at Niagara Falls includes the following:

• William M. Windsor will pay the Province of Ontario more than Maid of the Mist pays. 
• William M. Windsor will improve the service offered at Niagara Falls. 
• William M. Windsor will bring environmentally-friendly boats to Niagara Falls. 
• William M. Windsor will computerize and streamline the ticketing and customer service operation. 
• William M. Windsor will market more creatively.

Additional details about the bid of William M. Windsor will be provided to the Premier of Ontario, the Executive Council of Ontario, and Mr. Bob Gale of The Niagara Parks Commission following execution of a non-disclosure agreement.  Due to ethics concerns with The Niagara Parks Commission, Mr. Windsor is hesitant to provide more details to The Niagara Parks Commission.  Additional details are also being withheld from newspaper writers and web pages due to competitive bid considerations.

It does not seem fair or proper to allow anyone to have long-term leases with the government that provide a monopoly for the lessee with no concern whatsoever about competition. 

Windsor said: “While I would LOVE to have an exclusive, no-worries-about-competition monopoly deal that Maid of the Mist has apparently enjoyed for 162 years, I do not believe that I should be the only party allowed to bid just because I expressed interest in bidding in 2005.” 

Windsor’s recommendation to the Premier, the Executive Council of Ontario, and The Niagara Parks Commission is this:

• Be fair, and avoid further charges of ethics violations or charges of corruption by conducting a fair and open bidding process for the lease for the boat service at Niagara Falls.
• Enter into a six month extension of Maid of the Mist’s lease while you open the bidding to all interested parties. 
• Provide all interested parties with a copy of the lease and a document specifying all issues that you want addressed in the bids. 
• Set a deadline for submission of the bids.  Choose finalists, and schedule a meeting and presentation by each of the finalists. 
• Then have the Executive Council of Ontario fairly choose the winner.
• This plan has no downside for Niagara Parks Commission or the citizens of the Province of Ontario.  Boat service will be continued at Niagara Falls while bidding takes place.  I believe the Province of Ontario will receive an improved service and more money for the lease, and if all bids are fairly and properly considered, the public should feel that there is no impropriety.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed the week of February 23, 2009.  It should be interesting as the court should compel the Niagara Parks commissioners to testify about everything they know.  The Confidentiality Agreements that each commissioner was required to sign will not apply to a court of law.

Windsor says: “With all the negative publicity, I am amazed that individual commissioners have not called to bring the lease back for bidding.  Bob Gale is the only one.  If I were a commissioner, I would want to remove my name from a cloud of suspicion.  And with our economy in such terrible shape, and with The Niagara Parks Commission experiencing serious financial problems, how can these commissioners and the government ignore an opportunity that will increase revenue by $50 million or more over the next 20 years?  There is no expense to the NPC; the additional funds are pure profit to the citizens of Ontario.”

Much more information about this story as well as links to many news reports about this controversy are available at www.Niagara FallsBid.com.  There have been many stories written in Niagara Falls newspapers about this controversy as well as other issues related to the James Glynn family, owners of Maid of the Mist.

(Part 1 of this story was published previously.)