Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Mayor Gregor Robertson said he is committed to putting into action all the recommendations made to city hall in the provincial government review of the Stanley Cup riot.
We will go through the report's findings and conclusions, recommendations, Robertson said. I expect we will have clear direction for our staff to use [John] Furlong and [Doug] Keefe's report for planning for the Grey Cup and for future events."
But first, the public and NPA mayoral candidate Coun. Suzanne Anton will get a chance to quiz him at a special Tuesday afternoon city council meeting.
Anton said the discussion was about time, especially after the rapid response to last months London, U.K. riots.
Look at Prime Minister Cameron, he called parliament back two days later and they had a full day's debate on it, Anton said. How much time have we spent on it in council? Nada.
A scathing technical review by the Ottawa Police Service in an appendix to the Furlong and Keefe report said there was no formal risk assessment and integrated planning was not sufficiently structured, consistent or inclusive. It also said there were gaps in site security and confusion among city-hired contractors Brand Live Group and Concord Security. Brand Live was hired two days before the series began on a no-bid contract.
The Ottawa Police report said city manager Penny Ballem, Chief Jim Chu and Deputy Fire Chief Wade Pierlot ought to have either been at the [emergency operations centre] or gone there as the situation began to deteriorate between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
"The mayor was able to be in constant contact with his officials by phone but we believe he ought to have gone to the EOC as soon as he could reasonably leave the arena," it said.
Robertson, who stayed through the entire game and did a 10 p.m. media scrum, conceded that the city had a sense of invincibility after the Olympics, but claimed there was a lot of planning.
That said, you cant anticipate making the finals, much less going to Game 7, he said. There was a very short window of time before the series began and before Game 7 was confirmed, to have that actually planned and implemented.
Canucks Sports and Entertainment, however, applied to the provincial Liquor Licensing and Control Branch on Feb. 28 to get a licence amendment so it could sell booze during viewing parties on away game nights during the final.
Robertson scoffed at Antons branding of the incident as Robertsons riot.
I think it's a politically motivated comment, he said. Coun. Anton would blame me for traffic jams on the Malahat.
