With Wednesday’s agreement between the City and Millenium to appoint Ernst and Young Inc as the receiver for the Olympic Village, the project now has more financial stability, said Mayor Gregor Robertson, which will help mitigate risk for city taxpayers.

“With Ernst and Young Inc in place, the months of uncertainty around the Village are gone and we can move forward with a new, robust marketing plan,” said the Mayor. “The receiver has already met with Bob Rennie and I know both are working hard to move ahead to the next round of sales. The Village is a great asset and an award-winning neighbourhood, and we need to stay focused on the long-term picture.

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City council today approved the selection of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC as the operator of the affordable housing at the Olympic Village. The selection means people will begin to move into the housing this winter, and is good news for the Village and the many families and seniors on BC Housing’s waiting list, says the Mayor.

“When the Province rejected the bids for the project, we made it clear that the City would move as swiftly as possible to select an operator to run the affordable housing,” said the Mayor. “After just six weeks of hard work by staff, we now have an operator in place.

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Mayor Gregor Robertson outlined again the challenges the City faces with the Olympic Village project today, as well as his expectations for the project moving forward.

“The combination of a soft housing market, the uncertainty with the HST, and a number of poor decisions from the previous council have created several challenges for the Olympic Village,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Since day one we have taken a methodical, business-like approach to bring stability to this project.

“We put a new oversight team in place. We brought in some of the best financial and legal advisers in the country to help us work through this.

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A new research and development centre for Canada’s green building technology will be opening in Tianjin, China, through an agreement involving Vancouver Global Green, EnVision Shanghai, and the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City.

The agreement was reached during the Vancouver Green Capital Business Mission in China, during which Mayor Gregor Robertson, Councillor Raymond Louie, and 22 Vancouver businesses are meeting with Chinese businesses and government officials to strengthen business ties between China and Vancouver.

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This weekend marks the halfway point since the 2008 civic election, and City Hall is focussed on building on the successes of the 2010 Winter Games, says Mayor Gregor Robertson.

“Our city hosted an incredible Olympics and Paralympics, and the result is a growing sense of pride and ambition in Vancouver,” said Mayor Robertson. “We’ve emerged as a player on the world stage following the huge success of the Games, and our citizens deserve full credit for being gracious and energetic hosts.

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In front of hundreds of people Saturday, Mayor Robertson joined Canadian Olympic gold medalist Ashleigh McIvor, VANOC CEO John Furlong, Rick Hansen, Millenium Development, and Bob Rennie to celebrate the return of the Olympic Village from VANOC to the City.

“When the world’s athletes were here in February and March, they said it was amazing and today, we get the chance to see this beautiful new Vancouver neighbourhood,” said the Mayor.

“You are standing in a LEED Platinum-certified development – the greenest in the world, by that standard. It’s a wonderful achievement and one that we can all be proud of.”

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