PREMIER ‘INSISTED’ ON BRIDGE YOGA BASH

Michael Smyth

It really chokes my chakras to think Christy Clark is spending $150,000 of taxpayers’ money on a Burrard Bridge yoga party when the city faces so many other pressing problems.

There’s the proposed shutdown of 19 Vancouver public schools. The latest SkyTrain meltdown. The city’s housing crisis.

But what makes the Burrard Bridge stunt even more infuriating is that Clark could have endorsed a wonderful series of community yoga events for free.

Nirmala Raniga, founder of the Deepak Chopra Addiction and Wellness Centre, was asked by the government of India to organize free events on June 21 to mark International Yoga Day.

About a month ago, she approached B.C.-government-operated Robson Square about holding an event there.

“We were told, ‘Yes, the space is available’ and we were so excited,” said Raniga, whose renowned Squamish centre uses yoga to help people recover from addiction and trauma.

“But then we had trouble getting further information,” said Raniga, whose group was prepared to rent the square and hold the free event with no taxpayer subsidy.

“Finally we were told there was a conflict with another booking.”

What Raniga didn’t know was that the government was busy organizing a competing yoga extravaganza, this one using taxpayers’ money and backed by two corporations that bankrolled Clark’s Liberal Party.

Clark announced on June 5 that the busy Burrard Bridge will close for seven hours on June 21 for a yoga class sponsored by Lululemon and AltaGas.

The two companies are generous supporters of Clark’s Liberals, having donated a combined $36,785 over the last few years.

Now they will bask in tons of free publicity for a PR stunt that will not only burn taxpayers for 150 grand, but will also inconvenience drivers who cross the bridge 37,000 times every Sunday.

Lululemon just posted a quarterly profit of nearly $48 million, sending its stock soaring. AltaGas made $96 million in profit last year.

Surely these wealthy corporations could come up with the 150 grand instead of sticking poor old taxpayers with the bill?

But it seems Christy Clark was determined to throw a bridge bash with her buddies at taxpayers’ expense — and they don’t seem all that Zen about it over at city hall.

“Just so you know, the premier insisted on the event,” Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang told an angry constituent, who copied me on their email exchange.

Mayor Gregor Robertson was briefed on Clark’s yoga idea in May and the city approved the event on June 4.

But city officials were notably absent from Clark’s news conference, and staff told me Robertson will not attend the Burrard Bridge yoga class on June 21.

Why? Because Robertson will attend events marking International Aboriginal Day instead, avoiding Clark’s wastefully misplaced priority.

But at least some people are keeping their karmas in check.

Raniga, who’s holding her community event at the Plaza of Nations now after the Robson Square venue fell through, said there’s room for everyone’s yoga mat. (There are free community events in Victoria, Squamish and at UBC, too).

“Yoga is a journey of healing,” Raniga said.

For the mind and body, certainly. For taxpayers’ wallets, not so much.