Shane Woodford, CKNW 980, January 9, 2012

Spencer Chandra-Herbert says only 20 city wide conventions are booked this year and 12 next when at least 32 are needed to break even.

He says "So 2012 and 2013 much fewer conventions booked than we had in 2011 and conventions take a long time to build so that doesn't spell good news in terms of the long term growth of our convention center business."

Chandra-Herbert adds he is worried about what it means for the taxpayer "Well there could be an impact to the taxpayer in that we subsidize the convention centre currently and so if there are fewer conventions being booked in BC and being booked in Vancouver that is less money coming in from outside of the province and indeed that hurts our budget."

He warns any downward trend in convention centre business could also delay paying off the complex which came in at almost $900 million well over the $400 million intitial building budget.

However Pavco spokesperson for the convention centre Jenny Woo says business is good with 47 conventions booked this year half of those being the bigger city wide conventions.

She says "Since the Olympics have closed we are really seeing an unprecedented amount of events at the convention center."

Woo says convention business would be turned away from the city if the convention centre hadn't been built.

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