Buzz over Premier Photo Op’s snub by Telus

VICTORIA

For a government that needs good news on the job- creation front, the announcement out of Telus Friday was among the most impressive to date.

The company is spending $ 3 billion over the next three years in multiple locations, including construction of a $ 750- million state- of- the- art headquarters and residential tower in downtown Vancouver and a $ 100- million facility in Kamloops billed as “the world’s greenest data centre.”

Plus there’s hundreds of millions of dollars to bring “the world’s fastest wireless service to four million British Columbians,” and “bridge the digital divide” for dozens of remote, rural and aboriginal communities, by linking them to government services and the world outside.

B. C.’ s largest private company. A dollar figure that tops the $ 2.7- billion upgrading of the aluminum smelter in Kitimat. Some 1,300 jobs. And a project whose high- tech bona fides were top rank.

“We are building the communications technology and infrastructure that will help B. C. companies compete on the world stage, create local employment opportunities, and advance health care and education across the province,” as the company press release quoted president and CEO Darren Entwistle.

But the cheery tone of the release contrasted with the hardball being played in the corporate backrooms against the government of Premier Christy Clark.

The latter was obvious to reporters who attended Friday’s announcement in person, because in the midst of all the good news about jobs, investment and wiring the province, the premier herself was nowhere to be seen. Nor were any senior ministers on hand as substitutes. Backbench MLA Colin Hansen was the only B. C. Liberal representative who turned out to celebrate the big news.

But Opposition leader Adrian Dix was there. Ditto New Democratic Party MLA and finance critic Bruce Ralston and two other MLAS, Mable Elmore and Spencer Chandra Herbert. The contrasting turnout was highlighted by Entwistle himself, when he invited Dix, Hansen and the other MLAS to join him on the platform for the obligatory photo opportunity.

“We invited people from both parties to the event today, which is the typical practice of Telus,” CKNW radio reporter Charmaine da Silva quoted Entwistle as saying. “We’re pleased Adrian could join us, and see what was, I think, a seminal development in terms of B. C.”

For Premier Photo Op to miss a photo op was big enough news. But when her rival was invited to take her place on the platform, so to speak, it provoked a major buzz in political circles.

I’d assumed the no- show was the result of a world- class screwup at the government end. But when I speculated along those lines on the airwaves Monday morning, I got a note from a government staffer saying that Telus had chosen not to invite the premier, “due to some sensitive negotiations.”

Really? Yes, really. When I put the question to the company, the answer came back straightaway. “It’s true that Telus did not invite the premier to our March 2 press conference,” said the confirming note from Nick Culo, vicepresident for corporate communications. “We have an open file with the government that made it such that it would not be politically expedient to invite her.”

He added: “We did invite the minister of labour, citizens’ services and open government and the minister of children and families, who is the local MLA, as well as Colin Hansen. Both the [ ministers] declined our invitation. We were appreciative that MLA Hansen could attend.”

The government version is that the invite was not sent to either Labour Minister Margaret MacDiarmid or Children’s Minister Mary Mcneil as ministers. Rather it went to their constituency offices at the beginning of the week and absent any detail about the significance of the event. On short notice, neither was able to attend.

Not surprisingly, the B. C. Liberals are seething at the deliberate snub to the premier and the cavalier way the company handled the invitations to the other members of government.

Especially galling is the fact that a big part of Friday’s news — extending Internet service to 97 per cent of the province, installation of fibre- optic cable to 450 schools, wireless coverage along 1,700 kilometres of remote highways — was a direct result of a $ 1- billion, 10- year contract with the province, approved by the Clark government and announced last summer.

So what provoked the fallingout? Neither side would say anything on the record. But I gather that on the government side, Telus is thought to be engaging in payback for the company’s disappointment over negotiations on the naming of BC Place. The company thought it had the rights in the bag. Turned out it didn’t.

Still, hard to imagine a major corporate player would have chosen to embarrass Clark’s predecessor, Gordon Campbell, in such an obvious fashion. And in that sense, Friday’s event might be taken as a portent of a changing of the guard.

As Dix could not help observing, one of the things that made him happiest at the Telus announcement was Entwistle saying that the development would go ahead, irrespective of the outcome of the next provincial election. Hint, hint.