RIM-Park related legal bills reach $5-million

The City of Waterloo has spent almost $5-million in its efforts to recover monies lost in the RIM Park financing scandal.

The updated figures were released today and show that the city has spent about $2-million dollars since May of 2008. Earlier this year, Waterloo released figures for its legal bills up to that time, which you can access if you click here. It shows it had spent almost $3-million.

Despite the increasing costs, Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran insists the city remains committed to the case.

“We’re fighting to recover millions upon millions of dollars that have been taken out of this community and lost by the citizens over the RIM Park financing,” Halloran states adamantly.

In the fall of 2000, Waterloo council unanimously approved a lease-style loan with Mississauga’s MFP Financial Services. That loan, in the amount of $48.3-million, was to be paid back over 30 years at an interest rate of 4.73%. Instead, under what was later described by a judge as a bait and switch scheme, the real interest rate turned out to be 9.2% and the total cost of the deal for the city almost doubled.

After an out-of-court settlement, the city still faced a tab nearly $33-million more than it thought it had agreed to and it subsequently launched a series of lawsuits to recover $47-million in losses, damages and fees stemming from the scandal.

Those lawsuits were launched in 2004 and Halloran offered no indication as to how much longer they might continue or how large a settlement the city ultimately hoped to get. But she believes the city has remained open and transparent throughout the process.

“But we also maintain our principles of when you’re in litigation, you keep that information close. You keep litigation information confidential, which is what we have done,” Halloran notes. “But we respect the decision of the IPC (Information and Privacy Commission of Ontario) and that’s why we have released these figures.”

The Waterloo Region Record had made several inquiries for legal costs under freedom of information requests.

Halloran admits that she still hears occasionally from residents frustrated by what has happened around RIM Park but she notes that the scandal now dates back almost 12 years. Today, Halloran is excited by what RIM Park has become with the recent opening of its Millenium Fields and the facility’s ability to attract international competitions.

Halloran says the park now welcomes about one million visitors every year.