The B.C. Place renaming debacle just keeps getting worse for taxpayers. First, inexplicably, the B.C. Government pulled out of a 20-year, $40-million naming deal with Telus. Then we discovered it cost taxpayers $263,000 in negotiations before the government chickened out.

Now investigative reporter Bob Mackin has learned that a secret settlement has been put together between Telus and the government, where Telus was given a special supply deal. One suspects the deal cost taxpayers $15 to $20 million for technology we would have gotten for free as part of the renaming deal!

From Bob’s piece in Business in Vancouver:

Mystery shrouds the cost to taxpayers for compensating Telus after its naming sponsorship of BC Place stadium was cancelled.

Business in Vancouver confirmed November 15 that Telus had quietly reached an agreement on a supply deal with the B.C. government in August. Neither party announced the agreement and Telus is not listed as a sponsor on the BC Place website.

Telus was originally going to rename the stadium Telus Park as part of a $40 million, 20-year partnership. That deal, which was scuttled in February, was heavy on the supply of telecommunications goods and services, including free, stadium-wide wifi. Telus even commissioned Telus Park signs that were going to be hung on the exterior of the 1983-opened, 2011-renovated stadium.

In a March 2 interview, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle said that Telus installed between $10 million and $15 million of equipment in anticipation of the naming rights deal.

Telus spokesman Shawn Hall confirmed the supply agreement, but would not disclose the financial terms. Neither will the B.C. government.

Your tax dollars at work, folks. Of course, we don’t know how many.