Browsing Tag

Canada

The Olympics: A Great Excuse for Commemorative Coins

Here are some things that are almost always true of the modern Olympic Games:

  • They’re really expensive and end up costing the host city a fortune.
  • For two weeks, the Olympic Village turns into a scene from Caligula.
  • The host country will always issue commemorative coins.

As the 2020(1) Summer games wind down, I thought I’d show off some of my Olympic coins:

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Toronto Uh Oh…

One of my big features at The American Lawyer was a look at how Toronto was using public-private partnerships to prepare for the 2015 Pan Am Games. The biggest selling point was that P3s would ensure that projects came in on-budget and on-time.

With five months left before the start of the games, it looks like the on-budget part isn’t going to happen. Unless spending 80% of the budget with five months left and construction yet to be completed was part of the plan. When I initially reported the story, I was more concerned about whether or not P3s could really keep the Pan Am preparations under-budget and under-deadline (the article ended up becoming more about the lawyers and law firms doing the work). I guess now we know that massive sporting events (a notorious sink-hole of sunken costs) are their own forces of nature.

Oh Canada!

Canada has a lot to prove as it prepares for the 2015 Pan Am Games to be held in Toronto.

My Canadian feature for the November issue of “The American Lawyer” and the January edition of “Corporate Counsel”:

If You Build It, They Will Come. A look at how Ontario used public-private partnerships (P3) to build the necessary facilities and infrastructure for the 2015 Pan American Games, and the law firms advising the province and companies involved.

It Takes a Village. The Pan Am Athletes’ Village, which holds the key to the long-planned revitalization of the Toronto waterfront, wasn’t a typical P3 project.

Preparing for the Pan Am Games is Keeping Canadian Lawyers Busy. Q&A with Infrastructure Ontario’s Eric Tilley, one of the in-house attorneys involved in the Pan Am P3 process. (subscription required)