ILA continues fighting port

The International Longshoreman's Association Local 273 held a press conference today. Two news stories with differing facts have come out of this. Some of my thoughts follow.

News 889 reports:

I-L-A calls land swap a bad deal for Canadians
December 02, 2008 -
4:21 pm By: News 88-9's Denise Barkhouse

SAINT JOHN, NB - The International Longshoremen's Association is making a last ditch effort to inform people about it's position on Irving's proposed Lantic Sugar - Long Wharf land swap with the Port Authority.

Irving plans to purchase the Lantic Sugar site for 1.2 million dollars and swap it for Long Wharf, then lease the property for 99 years at a cost of 10 million dollars.
The company wants Long Wharf to develop its world headquarters.
According to an independent company hired by the I-L-A to assess the property, the value of Long Wharf stands at 58 million dollars, five times the amount of the Irving offer.

Local 273 President Pat Riley said this deal is bad for everybody from the port , the city to all Canadians. "If this is an example of the public asset sale outlined in last week's economic update, then Canadians can expect to be fleeced for billions of
dollars." said Riley.

The I-L-A believes this deal will short change Canadian taxpayers and cede to the Irving empire the most valuable property in the city.

Riley also said if the swap goes ahead, the Port will lose out on an opportunity to make money that could be used to repair infrastructure problems.

The infrastructure problems, according to Riley total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Once the Port Authority files an application to the federal government, the I-L-A plans to counter it.

While 94.1 FM News reports:

[I.L.A. Continue to Fight Irving Oil's New Headquarters]
17:37:41
The
International Longshoreman's Association continue to fight to keep Irving Oil
from building it's new office tower at Long Wharf.Union spokesperson Pat Riley
says Irving is short changing tax payers, by offering $1.2 million dollars for a
property worth close to five times that.Riley says the deal also violates the
Canada Marine Act by exchanging properties not of comparable value, and by
removing port operations.The ILA plans to counter the Port Authority's
application for sale to the Federal Courts once it has been submitted.

From the 2 articles one can assume that the ILA believes the Long Wharf site to be worth either $58 million or $6 million (5 times $1.2 million).

Three appraisal companies were engaged to determine the value of the Lantic Sugar site - one paid by Irving Oil, one by the Port and one by the City of Saint John. Each of these three presented similar values, and the average was used to arrive at the offer made by Irving to the city.

If the ILA has an appraisal of the Long Wharf site saying it's worth a number, then the other parties (Port and Irving) will likely also get appraisals to determine the value. If this value turns out to be more than the value of the Lantic Sugar site, then Irving will have to pay the port more than only the Lantic Sugar site.

The ILA argues that the port shouldn't give up operating land. This argument seems weak - the port will continue using the wharf for its most valuable uses: cruise ship docking and supporting the operations of a large port user (Irving Oil).

I am anxious to see how this plays out.