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The district of Maple Ridge, B.C., has borrowed a staggering $49 million to buy back a failed P3 project in the downtown core. The provinces Municipal Finance Authority is loaning the money, helping Maple Ridge cut its losses after becoming entangled in a scandalous and illegal P3 downtown core development project.

The district cancelled the P3 agreements and decided to buy the entire town centre project after a court ruled the deal was illegal. CUPE B.C.s investigative research played a key role in the analysis and public pressure that forced the deals cancellation.

In 2002, the B.C. Court of Appeal found that the agreement between the city, P3 International Trade and Investments Inc. and Voth Bros. Developments Ltd. was invalid because residents were not given a chance to vote on it.

Not only are Maple Ridge district taxpayers on the hook for years to come, but in the end, this expensive effort to recover from a P3 will be carried by the borrowing agency shared by all municipalities in the province, said CUPE B.C. president Barry ONeill.

Maple Ridges borrowing makes up a third of the latest loans issued by the provincial finance authority. Visit www.cupe.bc.ca for more background on the Maple Ridge P3, including CUPEs in-depth analysis of the deal, Secret and Illegal.