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Bob Mackin

The Clerk of the B.C. Legislative Assembly introduced the new executive financial officer to the all-party oversight committee on June 29, but did not say a word about the previous one.

B.C. Legislature beancounter Hillary Woodward (BC Leg)

Kate Ryan-Lloyd suddenly met with Hilary Woodward on June 22, before Woodward was escorted from the Parliament Buildings. Ryan-Lloyd refused to comment to a reporter, calling Woodward’s departure a private personnel matter. 

The chartered accountant had more than 25 years experience in the B.C. public sector, including work as chief financial officer for the Ministry of Health. Her $209,748 pay in the 2020-2021 fiscal year was second only to Ryan-Lloyd’s $281,112. Woodward was the last witness at the fraud and breach of trust trial of Ryan-Lloyd’s mentor Craig James. Ex-clerk James faces a July 4 sentencing hearing after he was found guilty of spending almost $1,900 of taxpayers’ money on a custom suit and shirts for personal use.

At the Legislative Assembly Management Committee’s first meeting since March 30, Ryan-Lloyd said interim financial officer Randall Smith began June 23. Smith is the retired former chief financial officer of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission. Ryan-Lloyd said his job includes implementing the assembly’s new, three-year strategic plan passed June 29.

Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd (Association of Former MLAs of B.C./John Yanyshyn)

“As members will know, the assembly administration has had challenges with organizational underspending of our approved operating and capital budget in recent years, and Randy will be conducting a current state assessment of our forecasting practices mid cycle allocations, budget development process and ongoing financial reporting,” Ryan-Lloyd said.

The meeting heard the Legislative Assembly finished the last fiscal year $3.7 million below its $86 million budget due to reduced travel during the pandemic, staff vacancies and savings on operational expenses. 

Ryan-Lloyd said the strategic plan through 2024-2025 also contemplates what she called a “renewal” of the Legislative Assembly Protective Services (LAPS), the police department for the Parliament Buildings. 

“We’ve already embarked on some initial work to establish [an MLA] safety and security program,” she said. “But we also recognize that much more can be done to strengthen the security environment for members, considering the types of challenges that have arisen over the course of the last year, including the need for additional advice and support to constituency offices.” 

The move comes two-and-a-half years after Alan Mullen, who was chief of staff to then-Speaker Darryl Plecas, submitted a report to LAMC that recommended saving $1 million by transforming LAPS into a security department and downgrading the sergeant-at-arms to a ceremonial role, with security and facilities maintenance overseen by others. LAMC commissioned former Vancouver Police Deputy Chief Doug LePard to study Mullen’s recommendations, but that report has not been made public.

Portrait of Craig James outside the Clerk’s Office at the Parliament Buildings (Mackin)

The Legislative Assembly is not covered by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A recent report by an all-party committee struck to review the law once every six years recommended that the law be extended to include the Legislature’s operations. 

Just before the meeting went behind closed doors, Ryan-Lloyd said there had been three instances of policy non-compliance during the last quarter of the fiscal year. Two breaches were related to capital project review and approvals and the other related to procurement and contract management. Ryan-Lloyd did not disclose any details of the when, what or who of the violations. 

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Bob Mackin The Clerk of the B.C. Legislative

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Staff of the NDP cabinet minister who is the subject of a BC Liberal conflict of interest complaint say she did not participate in the decision to grant $15 million to the purchaser of her husband’s investment property.

NDP Minister Josie Osborne (BC Gov/Flickr)

In one of her first acts as Minister of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship, Josie Osborne announced the sum on April 21 for Watersheds BC through the MakeWay Foundation for indigenous-led or co-led watershed restoration projects. 

On Sept. 17 of last year, Osborne’s husband George Patterson sold the Tofino Botanical Gardens for $2.3 million to MakeWay. The 12.128 acre waterfront property on Pacific Rim Highway, built in 2006, includes a dormitory and cafe, and had been listed for sale at $3.75 million in August 2020. Osborne’s public disclosure statement said Patterson receives consulting/contracting income from MakeWay.

Neither Osborne nor MakeWay CEO Joanna Kerr responded for comment. But a statement from the Ministry said the grant decision was made when the program fell under the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. After becoming Minister for Land Water and Resource Stewardship, it said, “Osborne set up a screen with the Deputy Minister for Land, Water and Resource Stewardship to recuse herself from any decision-making involving MakeWay.”

Tofino Botanical Gardens (Clayoquot Campus)

“This is in line with public service processes for preventing and managing any potential or perceived conflicts of interest.”

The ministry called the BC Liberal complaint inaccurate and said Osborne has contacted the Conflict of Interest Commissioner, Victoria Gray, “to ensure that she has all the information necessary to resolve this matter quickly.”

The gardens’ company, Coastwise Holdings Corp., is registered to the address of Vancouver law firm Miller Titerle and Co. and the two directors are MakeWay director of finance Danae MacLean and MakeWay shared platform director Elizabeth Howells. The gardens have been rebranded as the Clayoquot Campus. 

MakeWay is formerly known as Tides Canada, the environmental charity that has supported causes opposing the oil and gas industry.

According to Osborne’s public disclosure summary, Patterson may have used some of the proceeds of the land sale to buy shares in pipeline companies Fortis and TC Energy, parent of Coastal GasLink. On Sept. 27, 2021, he also bought shares in Loblaw, BCE and Algonquin Power. The form is a summary of what is provided to the conflict of interest commissioner, but does not list quantities or dollar amounts.

Josie Osborne (left) and George Patterson in 2011 (Ofelia Svart/Ecotrust)

Marine biologist Osborne is the former Tofino mayor who was elected the Mid-Island Pacific Rim MLA in 2020. She became the Minister of Municipal Affairs and, earlier this year, was shuffled to the ministry sometimes referred to as “Land WARS.” 

The complaint about Osborne would be the first B.C. conflict of interest case involving gardens in more than 30 years. Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm was forced to resign after Conflict of Interest Commissioner Ted Hughes found Vander Zalm used his office in an attempt to sell Richmond’s Fantasy Gardens to Taiwanese billionaire Tan Yu. 

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Bob Mackin Staff of the NDP cabinet minister

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Richmond Provincial Court heard that a Yukon Territory government employee was plied with seafood, clothing and trips to a casino as part of an immigration fraud scheme.

Federal prosecutor Gerry Sair (LinkedIn)

Richmond residents Tzu Chun Joyce Chang, Qiong Joan Gu, Shouzhi Stanley Guo and Aillison Shaunt Liu went on trial June 29 for multiple charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Criminal Code related to a five-year investigation code named Project Husky, after the famed Yukon sled dog breed. 

Canada Border Services Agency announced the charges in November 2020. The four are accused of running a scam, which involved 67 permanent residency applicants and fake government documents, from July 2013 to September 2016.

In his opening statements, federal prosecutor Gerry Sair said evidence will include Gmail messages between Gu, Liu and Ian David Young of Whitehorse that show Young received seafood deliveries, a size 44 blazer and vacations at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.

Ex-Great Canadian Gaming VP Walter Soo with Mike Tyson

“There’s also interchanges between Ms. Liu and [River Rock casino VIP manager Walter] Soo about facilitating Mr. Young’s visit, which the Crown says expect the evidence to show he didn’t pay for,” Sair said.

Sair said the court will hear Young, who died in November 2020, was the person responsible for the Yukon Business Nominee Program up to April 1, 2014. The program required foreign investors to pump $150,000 into a new or existing business, have a net worth of $400,000 and meet English or French proficiency standards. 

“When that was done, the Yukon government would nominate these individuals and their family members, if they had a family, for Canadian permanent residency, and the proof of that would be the certificate of nomination,” Sair said. 

With that certificate, one could apply to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Case Processing Centre in Sydney, N.S. for permanent residency.

Sair said he will introduce email that shows Young offered Gu the opportunity to buy certificates for $7,500 each.

Yukon Territory flag (Yukon.ca)

Sair said the court will hear evidence that Chang controlled several companies involved in the scheme and was the only signing authority for the bank accounts. Banking records, he said, will show the defendants received more than $7.7 million in transfers, plus another $4.7 million was recorded on scoresheets. 

“So whether it’s almost $8 million or over $12 million, these clients invested a large amount of that money, either within a year of July of 2015, which I haven’t talked about, or just a few months in advance.”

The trial is scheduled through July 15.

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Bob Mackin  Richmond Provincial Court heard that a

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A look at John Horgan’s rise to power, tumultuous time as B.C.’s 36th premier and beginning of the end for his political career.

2013

Sept. 18

Adrian Dix resigns as NDP leader, five months after losing the provincial election he was expected to win.

NDP Health Minister Adrian Dix and Telus CEO Darren Entwistle in 2012 (Mackin)

2014

March 17 

Thrice-elected Langford-Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan announces campaign for NDP leadership. 

April 8

Mike Farnworth, Horgan’s only opponent, withdraws. Horgan becomes leader by default.

2017

May 9

For the first time since 1952, a minority government in B.C. Christy Clark’s BC Liberals stay in power with 43 seats. Horgan’s NDP wins 41 seats, including a majority of Surrey ridings on a promise to end Port Mann Bridge tolls. Andrew Weaver’s Greens hold the three-seat balance of power. 

May 28

Horgan and Weaver spotted at the Canada Sevens women’s rugby sevens in Langford. A day later, they confirm speculation that the Greens will support the NDP’s bid to form a new government under a confidence and supply agreement. 

June 29 

NDP and Greens defeat the BC Liberals 44-42 in a confidence vote, 44-42. Horgan visits Government House where Lt. Gov. Judith Guichon asks him to form a new government. 

July 18

Horgan, the lacrosse-loving Langfordian with an Irish temper, is sworn in, returning B.C. to NDP rule after 16 years under the BC Liberals.

July 28

Clark resigns BC Liberal leadership after Abbotsford South MLA Darryl Plecas challenges her to quit. 

Sept. 8 

Plecas becomes speaker. NDP and Greens have a two-seat cushion. 

Sept. 28

NDP introduces bill to ban corporate and union political donations and cap personal donations at $1,200. It also leads to subsidies for parties. 

John Horgan at the B.C. NDP’s April 23 Better BC rally. (NDP)

Oct. 4 

NDP tables bill to move the fixed 2021 election date from May to October. 

Dec. 11

In opposition, Horgan promised to stop the Site C dam. As premier, he orders the megaproject to proceed. Costs rise from $8.8 billion to $10.7 billion.

2018

May 16

BC Liberals say they caught several members of Horgan’s office mass-deleting email.

Nov. 20

BC Liberal-appointed Clerk Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz suspended after Plecas calls in the RCMP to investigate corruption. 

2019

May 15

Horgan announces the Cullen Commission public inquiry into money laundering. 

Oct. 24

Bill 41, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act tabled. B.C. is the first province to adopt the United Nations declaration. 

2020

Feb. 11

Amid nationwide protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline, protesters surround the Parliament Buildings on Throne Speech Day. A week later, police arrest three protesters for trespassing at Horgan’s house. 

Feb. 17

NDP tables third balanced budget in a row, projecting $59 billion spending. 

March 5

Finance Minister and Deputy Premier Carole James announces she won’t run again, due to Parkinson’s disease. 

March 6

With COVID-19 spreading around the world, Horgan announces B.C.’s pandemic response plan in Vancouver, upstairs from a dental conference that would become a superspreader.

March 17

COVID-19 public health emergency declared in B.C. Horgan says it’ll be the worst St. Patrick’s Day for restaurants and bars. A state of emergency is called the next day.

David Eby (left), John Horgan and Carole James, in Victoria (Mackin)

March 23

Horgan is among 12 MLAs at an extraordinary sitting to approve a $5 billion emergency spending package. He rises and offers condolences to families of 13 British Columbians dead so far from COVID-19. “At this unique time, partisanship has left the building. People are here to work together with one singular focus. That’s the health and well-being of all British Columbians.”

June-July

NDP runs a campaign training seminar, hires campaign workers, holds telephone town halls in swing ridings. Fall election talk accelerates.

Sept. 21

Ending weeks of speculation, Horgan visits Lt. Gov. Janet Austin before standing in a Langford cul-de-sac to announce an election for Oct. 24. It’s a year before the scheduled October 2021 election and marks the end of the confidence and supply agreement with the Greens. That agreement said Horgan would not call an early election. 

Oct. 24

Horgan wins a 57-seat majority, a record for the B.C. NDP and the only NDP premier in B.C. to win re-election. 

2021

Feb. 26

After pondering again whether to cancel Site C, Horgan carries on. But the cost is now $16 billion. 

April 20

Finance Minister Selina Robinson’s budget forecasts a record $9.7 billion deficit and $102.8 billion debt. It includes a $3.3 million-a-year increase to Horgan’s office budget. 

June 9

Amid protests in Horgan’s riding, NDP agrees with three First Nations to defer logging old growth trees in Fairy Creek for two years. 

June 25-July 1

Heat dome brings record temperatures to B.C., kills hundreds of people and a wildfire destroys Lytton. On June 29, Horgan admits his government was preoccupied with ending pandemic restrictions, but is criticized for saying “fatalities are part of life.”

Premier John Horgan (BC Legislature)

July 21

Horgan finally calls a B.C.-wide state of emergency for wildfires, after being criticized for taking a vacation to Nova Scotia.

Oct. 18

After becoming premier on a promise to improve the province’s freedom of information laws, Horgan’s 2021 NDP tables Bill 22 to weaken the 1993 NDP-introduced law. It includes imposition of application fees. 

Oct. 28

Horgan announces he will undergo surgery for throat cancer, Farnworth becomes deputy premier. 

Nov. 17

State of emergency declared after record rains and floods cause billions of dollars of damage to highways and farmland. NDP imposes temporary gas rations.

2022

Feb. 1

Horgan back to the Legislature after cancer treatments. 

Feb. 5

BC Liberals choose Kevin Falcon as leader. He wins Vancouver-Quilchena by-election on April 29. 

March 25

The month after Russia’s Ukraine invasion, Horgan announces ICBC policyholders will receive $110 payments to cushion the blow from high gas prices.

April 4

Premier’s office announces Horgan tests positive for COVID-19

April 25 

During a Question Period debate over the shortage of family doctors, Horgan ends his testy response to the BC Liberals by exclaiming: “Ah, fuck.” 

May 12

Horgan tours Site C for the first time.

May 13

Horgan announces the $789 million Royal B.C. Museum replacement project. He later admits it “landed with a thud.”

June 21

A B.C. Supreme Court judge says Horgan didn’t break the law with the 2020 election. Despite the fixed election date clause, the lieutenant governor has the power to dissolve the legislature when he or she “sees fit.”

June 22

On the same day Statistics Canada says B.C.’s 8.1% inflation rate leads the country, Horgan stops the Royal B.C. Museum project. “I made the wrong call, I made a call when British Columbians were thinking about other concerns.”

June 28

During a caucus retreat at the same Vancouver hotel where he celebrated the 2020 election win, Horgan announces he will retire when the NDP chooses a new leader.

“Thank-you so much for giving me this opportunity British Columbia, It has truly been the thrill of my life, I have done my best to not let you down,” Horgan says.

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Bob Mackin A look at John Horgan’s rise

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Almost two weeks after being named a host province for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, officials are warning that organized amateur soccer in British Columbia could grind to a halt.

Jason Elligott (left) and Gayle Statton of BC Soccer (BC Soccer/YouTube)

B.C. Soccer Association is preparing for a Canadian Soccer Association suspension after members turned down voting reform at a June 1 special general meeting. 

In a June 27 video statement to the soccer community, B.C. Soccer executive director Jason Elligott and president Gayle Statton delivered the doomsday scenario in the wake of rejection of the CSA’s voting equity directive. They are preparing for suspension, but do not know when or how it will happen.

“If it’s a sanction against all soccer related activity, that’s everything under the sanctioning umbrella of B.C. Soccer and Canada Soccer,” Elligott said.

That would mean cancellation of training, leagues, tournaments, team travel and education for players, coaches and referees across B.C.’s 15 youth districts and 11 adult leagues. 

“It could take immediate effect,” Elligott said. “They could also give us notice for weeks or months in order to wrap-up activity. As far as the length of suspension, it would be indefinite, I would imagine, until we address the directive that they’re asking us to do.”

Last September, CSA directed B.C. Soccer to update its membership voting system. The national governing body repeated that stance in an April 28 letter from president Nick Bontis, to “maximize the fairness of their voting systems, and that, in the case of B.C. Soccer, the votes between the Youth District Associations and the Adult Leagues will reflect and respect the principles of balanced stakeholder inclusion and fair and democratic representation.”

B.C. is the only outlier province or territory and Statton said it is not an ask, but a mandate.

“On the adult side, when we talk about registered players, which are the only stakeholder group in B.C., we have 15,000 approximately, registered adult players, and 95,000 youth players,” Statton said. “So the voting representation is 50/50. But the stakeholder representation is more like an 85/15. Canada Soccer has directed us to make this change.”

Statton said another meeting would have to be called and a two-thirds majority is needed to pass the amendment. 

CSA has not responded for comment. 

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Bob Mackin Almost two weeks after being named

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The International Olympic Committee sent two employees and a consultant to Vancouver in May to tour sites proposed for the 2030 Winter Olympics. 

The IOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee both refused to release their names and titles.

IOC 2030 bid inspectors Mattias Kaestner (left), Pierre Dorsaz and Stefan Klos.

Email obtained from B.C. Place Stadium under freedom of information said the technical advisory experts were Mattias Kaestner, the head of candidature services for future Olympic hosts, Pierre Dorsaz, senior project manager, and Stefan Klos, a venue specialist advisor from Frankfurt-based consultancy Proprojekt. 

Proprojekt’s credits include work on the successful Qatar 2022 World Cup and Germany 2024 Euro bids and Almaty, Kazakhstan’s 2022 Winter Olympics bid that lost to Beijing.

Kaestner, Dorsaz and Klos visited Vancouver, Richmond, Whistler and Sun Peaks from May 2-4 after touring sites proposed by the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. Sapporo, Japan, the 1972 host, is the other bidder. Barcelona and the Pyrenees withdrew last week. 

The IOC plans to announce negotiations with bidders in December and choose the 2030 host when it meets at the end of May 2023 in Mumbai. 

The Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics could pose a sponsorship challenge for 2002 host Salt Lake City. U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee chair Susanne Lyons told the Associated Press her organization prefers hosting 2034 in Utah, but would be ready for 2030 if called upon. 

Vancouver, however, does not have the necessary financial backing of the B.C. NDP government. The COC plans to make formal proposals to the B.C. and federal treasury boards in the fall, but the first hurdle is July when municipal politicians in Vancouver and Whistler are expected to decide whether to carry on with the bid. The COC officially discouraged them from calling a referendum in 2022. 

Vancouver 2030 proposed venues map (COC)

The COC released its 26-page feasibility study on June 14 in conjunction with the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Lil’wat first nations. It did not include a cost estimate for the Feb. 8-24, 2030 Olympics or March 8-17, 2030 Paralympics. 

“It’s quite a complex calculation, and so we’ll just provide a briefing on that in July,” said COC contractor Mary Conibear, who was managing director of Games operations when Vancouver held the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Kaestner, Dorsaz and Klos’s May 3 itinerary called for visits to: Vancouver Convention Centre; B.C. Place; Rogers Arena; the Trimble Street side of the Jericho Lands, which is proposed for the Vancouver Athletes Village; UBC Thunderbird Arena; Richmond Olympic Oval; and Hastings Park. 

On the agenda, Hastings Park was also called the “Olympic/Paralympic Park” because the COC proposes the it use the Pacific Coliseum (figure skating/short-track speed skating), Agrodome (curling), Hastings Racecourse (big air skiing/snowboarding) and PNE Amphitheatre (medals ceremonies/concerts). 

The site visits were scheduled for 30 to 60 minutes each, but the Hastings Park stop was scheduled for 90 minutes.

While at B.C. Place, management arranged for a “welcome to B.C. Place” message on the centre-hung video board and ribbon board and provided a catered, 15-minute presentation in the B.C. Place Suite. Security director Brad Parker showed off the 2020-installed metal detectors and explained spectator flow methods before the entourage went next door to Rogers Arena. 

COC vice-president Andrew Baker led the feasibility team that accompanied the IOC trio. Joining him were: Vancouver 2030 master planner Tim Gayda; Vancouver 2010 Paralympics director Dena Coward; Niina Haaslahti of It’s Happening Productions; former BC Housing vice-president Craig Crawford; Squamish Nation New Relationship Trust’s Jessie Williams; Alpine Canada coach Pete Bosinger; and Tia Lore, the COC 2030 project coordinator. 

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Bob Mackin The International Olympic Committee sent two

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The campaign manager for Surrey mayoral hopeful Jinny Sims says one of the Surrey Forward candidates for city council has quit.

Jim Bennett (LinkedIn)

On June 8, NDP Surrey-Panorama MLA Sims announced her new party’s four council candidates would be Jim Bennett, June Liu, Ramon Bandong and Theresa Pidcock. 

However, Bennett’s photo and biography is not on the website. 

Calgary-based campaign manager Stephen Carter said Surrey Forward received Bennett’s resignation on June 23.

“He didn’t provide a reason, but we are told it’s personal,” Carter said.

When contacted, Bennett denied he had quit.

“There was somebody else who backed out early on and, and that person has gotten mixed up with myself before too,” Bennett said. “So somebody pulled out, that’s for sure. But it certainly wasn’t me.”

Bennett was told that Carter said he is no longer a Surrey Forward candidate, to which Bennett said: “I don’t know if he knows what’s going on on the ground here. Or if he knows what candidates are doing what right now, but I certainly haven’t pulled out.”

Sims, who is running to unseat Mayor Doug McCallum, was not available for comment.

Surrey Forward is expected to seek endorsement of the New Westminster District Labour Council, but Bennett said he had not met with anybody from the organization nor had he filled-out any paperwork.

Stephen Carter (Twitter)

“Not everybody on our slate is a member of the NDP,” he said. “I can tell you that for sure, because I’m certainly not.”

Fleetwood-resident Bennett was named Surrey’s 2020 Good Citizen of the Year Award winner. He founded South Fraser Community Services and now runs the Jim Bennett Trust Fund.

In a story about winning the award, Bennett told the Surrey Now-Leader that he sometimes rubs people the wrong way, “but I’m always trying to do the best thing I can.”

McCallum is facing a Provincial Court trial beginning Oct. 31 on a public mischief charge for allegedly misleading RCMP about an altercation in a Save-on-Foods parking lot last September. His Safe Surrey Coalition holds a slim majority on city council. Surrey Connect Coun. Brenda Locke announced her bid for the mayoralty last July. 

Surrey-Newton Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal and Gordie Hogg, the former Liberal MP, BC Liberal MLA and White Rock mayor, are also pondering a run for the mayoralty. 

Elector organizations have until Aug. 2 to register for the Oct. 15 election. The official nomination period for candidates is Aug. 30-Sept. 9.

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Bob Mackin The campaign manager for Surrey mayoral

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For the week of June 26, 2022:

The first half of 2022 is almost over. 

The most-controversial Winter Olympics in history in Beijing gave way to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. 

Back home in Canada, the nation’s top bobsled and skeleton athletes, gymnasts and soccer players have spoken out against abuse and bad governance of their sports. Now Hockey Canada is facing serious questions about why it kept a gang rape secret. 

On theBreaker.news Podcast with host Bob Mackin, Global Athlete director general Rob Koehler says Canadian sport since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics has placed too much emphasis on winning at all costs at the expense of athlete safety and administrative transparency.

He says the problems in Canada’s sport system demand a public inquiry. 

“We have thousands of athletes coming forward with issues of sexual, physical, emotional abuse and, basically, the Government of Canada has stuck their head in the sand,” Koehler said. “And what that’s done is sent a message to every single athlete that’s come forward, every whistleblower that’s come forward, it’s actually silenced them even further.

Also on this edition, hear Port Coquitlam amateur radio operator Peter Vogel’s out of this world experience. 

Also, a commentary and headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Now on Google Podcasts!

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of June 26, 2022:

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A B.C. Supreme Court judge has dismissed a petition aimed at finding Premier John Horgan and Lt. Gov. Janet Austin broke the law by scheduling an election a year early in 2020.

Democracy Watch and IntegrityBC founder Wayne Crookes did not contest the result of the snap election, but their lawsuit took issue with Horgan calling the vote a year early and without testing the confidence of the Legislative Assembly.

John Horgan at the Oct. 6, 2020 platform release (NDP/YouTube)

British Columbia had four consecutive elections every four years in May after the BC Liberals amended the Constitution Act when they came to power in 2001. Fixed election date laws were adopted in 11 other Canadian jurisdictions, including the federal government. 

“The idea was that elections should take place on a fixed four-year schedule, rather than at the politically motivated whim of the Premier of the day,” wrote Justice Geoffrey Gomery in his June 21 verdict, the product of a two-day May hearing.

The NDP came to power as a bare minority government in 2017 with support of the three-member Green Party caucus and signed an agreement to not call an early election. Horgan’s party also amended the law to move the next election from May 2021 to October 2021. 

“The province was labouring under a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Nevertheless, the Premier wished to call an election,” Gomery wrote.

Horgan took advantage of a lull between waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and favourable polling to break the contract with the Greens on Sept. 21, 2020 and seek a majority mandate. It worked, with the NDP winning 57 seats on Oct. 24, 2020.

The petitioners wanted a declaration that Horgan broke the law by advising Austin to dissolve the Legislature, that she improperly exercised her discretion under the Act to dissolve and that she also improperly exercised her power under the Election Act to call the election. They claimed Horgan and Austin were not authorized to use statutory powers to trigger an early election “for no better reason than to secure a partisan political advantage for the Premier and his party. This, they say, was the very evil that the institution of a fixed election cycle in 2001 was intended to avoid.”

Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher

However, Gomery ruled that section 23(1) of the B.C. Constitution Act is “unambiguous,” because it gives the Lieutenant Governor power to dissolve the Legislature “when the Lieutenant Governor sees fit”.

“The Lieutenant Governor’s power to dissolve the Legislature under s. 23(1) of the [Act] is unaffected by the establishment of the fixed election cycle under s. 23(2),” Gomery wrote. “The Premier’s power to recommend a dissolution is equally unconstrained. It follows that the petitioners’ claim in this proceeding lacks legal merit, and the proceeding must be dismissed.”

DemocracyWatch co-founder Duff Conacher said an appeal is under consideration, because one Member of the Legislative Assembly should not be allowed to override the will of all others. 

“Unfortunately, the B.C. Supreme Court has ignored the will of the B.C. Legislature, and the rights of voters to fair elections, by letting Premier Horgan off the hook for violating the fixed election date law,” Conacher said.. “The U.K. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in 2019 that it was illegal for the British Prime Minister to shut down Parliament for no good reason when a majority of MPs wanted Parliament to stay open and operating.”  

In the case, lawyers for the Attorney General argued that the provincial Legislature did not impose any legal limit on the Premier’s discretion to recommend dissolution or on the Lieutenant Governor to effect it. 

“It contends that the only check on the calling of an unscheduled election is not legal; it is political,” Gomery wrote.

The petitioners did not contest the validity of the results of the election itself. Nor did the judge comment on whether Horgan and Austin acted reasonably. 

The 2020 election was the most-expensive administered by Elections BC at $51.6 million, yet the 53.9% turnout rate was a record low. 

Will Horgan, who said he is now cancer-free, be the NDP leader for the next scheduled election in October 2024 or call another snap election? 

Horgan was noncommittal about his future as Premier during a June 24 interview with host Gregor Craigie on CBC Radio Victoria. He said he is meeting this weekend with caucus in Vernon and next week with cabinet in Vancouver. 

“We’re plotting and planning and preparing for the next two years, and so I’ll have more to say about that as we come out of those meetings,” Horgan said. 

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Bob Mackin  A B.C. Supreme Court judge has

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Bob Mackin

The chief financial executive at the B.C. Legislative Assembly is gone.

Sources say that Hilary Woodward was escorted from the Parliament Buildings on the morning of June 22 after a sudden meeting with Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd and replaced on a temporary basis by Randall Smith, the retired former chief financial officer of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.

B.C. Legislature beancounter Hillary Woodward (BC Leg)

In 2020-2021, the most-recent year available, Woodward was paid $209,748 in salary. The only higher-paid employee was Ryan-Lloyd at $281,112.

Chartered accountant Woodward had more than 25 years experience in the B.C. public sector. Prior to working at the Legislature, she was chief financial officer for the Ministry of Health from 2011 to 2013.

Woodward also worked at the Office of the Comptroller General, Treasury Board, Capital Planning Secretariat, Cabinet Operations, Shared Services B.C. and the Ministry of Citizens’ Services. In 2019, the NDP government appointed her to the Teachers’ Pension Board of Trustees.

Ryan-Lloyd refused to comment on the reason Woodward is no longer employed or the amount of severance. 

“Due to privacy, the Legislative Assembly Administration is unable to comment on personnel matters,” Ryan-Lloyd said by email.  

Woodward could not be immediately reached for comment. 

Kate Ryan-Lloyd (left) and Darryl Plecas (Twitter)

Woodward was, coincidentally, the final witness at the B.C. Supreme Court fraud and breach of public trust trial of disgraced ex-clerk Craig James. Ryan-Lloyd, who was James’s protege and successor, was the first substantial witness in the trial that ended with James found guilty on two counts. 

James spent almost $1,900 on a custom suit and dress shirts from luxury boutiques in London and Vancouver for personal use. He faces a July 4 sentencing hearing.

Woodward testified that she was “put in an untenable situation” to be asked to sign-off James’s expenses.

“I would say that was the most challenging portion of my job was dealing with the travel claims and expenses that came through,” Woodward told the court.

Woodward led special prosecutors to boxes of more evidence at the Legislature before last Christmas. She arrived in Vancouver to testify in mid-February with a suitcase of more documents. 

The $92-million-a-year Legislature is not covered by the freedom of information law, but an all-party committee that reviews the law once every six years recently recommended the NDP government extend the law to cover the Legislature’s operations. 

The all-party Legislative Assembly Management Committee last met March 30. Its next meeting is June 29. 

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Bob Mackin The chief financial executive at the

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