The plan to privatize Canada Place in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Canada Place, Vancouver. Wikipedia photo.

House of Commons Debates Ottawa, October 26, 1990 
Mr. David Barrett, New Democratic Party (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.)

     "Madam Speaker, my content will not be noted for its length but for its wisdom. I want to focus on one particular aspect of this bill that relates to my home province of British Columbia and the city of my birth, Vancouver."
     This bill gives the government the authority to dispose of Canada Place, that wonderful focus of Vancouver that is still in public hands...Our experience with this kind of asset disposal in the province of British Columbia has been one of scandalous giveaway. One need just look at what our provincial government did with B.C. Place as a consequence of the end of Expo 86, and the disposal of those properties for a pittance of their value to a private sector buyer. That was a provincial government."
 (Expo 86 was built on the 173 acre False Creek, which was CPR/Marathon Realty land. 
Notable landmarks are:
Canada Place
BC Place
Expo Centre, now the Telus World of Science
The Skytrain.)

Mr. David Barrett:
     "Let us understand where the land came from in the first place. It was part of a Crown grant to the CPR and was held in trust by Marathon Realty. Marathon Realty as an arm of the CPR, became the legal owner of that property as part of the price of keeping a national railway open for passenger service across this country."
     "The government got rid of that idea in a hurry, but it did not take back the property....CPR walked away with $250 million worth of timber property in exchange for the property that it got for nothing from the Canadian taxpayers. It was then sold to the private sector. Is the government intending to do the same with Canada Place through an order-in-council?"
(The bill that Mr. Barrett is referring to is "The Crown Corporations Dissolution or Transfer Authorization Act".---AC.)
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The Marathon real estate portfolio included:
Coal Harbour and Yaletown in Vancouver.
 CPR hotels that were eventually sold to Fairmont.
Southtown lands in Toronto.
Land beneath the Calgary Tower, also known as the Husky Tower.