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Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

The last phase of the B.C. NDP government’s lobbying reforms happened May 4 when a new website launched for monthly returns and disclosures of gifts and political donations from those who are paid to influence government decisions.

But, when it passed the new laws in 2018, the NDP left a loophole the size of a BC Ferry.

Premier John Horgan (left) and Danielle Dalzell, ex-government staffer turned lobbyist, at a 2019 Hallowe’en party. (Dalzell/LinkedIn)

Public office holders are banned for two years from lobbying after they leave government, but what is a public office holder?

The answer is not so simple.

A former public office holder includes:

  • former member of cabinet;
  • former parliamentary secretary;
  • former deputy minister or assistant deputy minister;
  • former officer, director or employee of a Crown corporation;
  • and anyone, other than administrative support staff, formerly employed in a current or former cabinet member’s office.

As theBreaker.news found out, the law does not include an NDP insider who worked hand-in-hand with the Office of the Premier on a daily basis to help John Horgan and his cabinet communicate to more than 5 million British Columbians.

“The law is still a sad joke and no one should be fooled,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, in an interview. “They are clearly in favour of secret, unethical lobbying.”

In April, Danielle Dalzell joined the Earnscliffe Strategy Group and registered to lobby the B.C. NDP government on behalf of B.C. Fruit Growers Association and the B.C. SPCA. On May 4, she registered on behalf of a third client, Armstrong Fluid Technology.

Dalzell started at the lobbying firm just four months after leaving her post at Government Communications and Public Engagement (GCPE), where she was paid $100,859 a year to be the director of strategic communications and leader of a team of writers producing daily content for Horgan — including his speeches.

Dalzell’s partner is Rick Devereux, another NDP loyalist who works in GCPE as executive director of events and planning.

Dalzell boasts on her bio that she was responsible for the communications rollout of major government announcements. While she was clearly a public employee, on the taxpayer payroll, she was not a public office holder, as defined by the NDP’s new lobbying law.

“A director at the GCPE does not meet the test to be considered a ‘former public office holder’,” Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists spokeswoman Michelle Mitchell told theBreaker.news.

Dalzell had previously spent seven years as senior writer for the NDP caucus in Ottawa after three years as public events coordinator for Carole James when today’s finance minister was the opposition leader from 2007 to 2010. Dalzell also worked on the B.C. NDP’s 2017 campaign communications team before scoring her government job.

Dalzell did not respond to requests for comment.

Conacher said the NDP continues to deliberately allow party insiders to travel with ease between government jobs and lobbying, after criticizing the BC Liberals for doing so while they were in government.

Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher

“I’ve never bought the argument that you won’t get good staff if you have these cooling-off periods, because what you want are people who are dedicated to the public interest, not someone who is in there just to get some inside access and contacts and go out and sell it to the highest bidder,” Conacher said. “That’s not the kind of person you want in government, that’s not a good staff person.”

The NDP reforms were supposed to close the lucrative revolving door that profited two aides close to former Premier Christy Clark.

In October 2013, Gabe Garfinkel left his position in Clark’s office to join FleishmanHillard. In February 2016, press secretary Samuel Oliphant quit to join Kirk and Co. Oliphant made a brief comeback in June 2017 with Clark’s office when he was paid more than $7,400 to write the ill-fated throne speech.

Dana Hayden was the BC Liberal-appointed chair of PartnershipsBC when she registered in early 2016 for developer Westbank Projects to lobby B.C. Pavilion Corporation, where she had formerly been CEO. Hayden was fined $800 by the ORL for not disclosing her past as a deputy minister in government.

“Despite all their complaining about the BC Liberals in the past, the B.C. NDP are quite content with — and even encourage — secret, unethical lobbying, because they’ve left open secret lobbying loopholes and they’ve left open unethical lobbying loopholes,” Conacher said.

A request for comment from the office of Attorney General David Eby was not answered.

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Bob Mackin The last phase of the B.C.

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

In the rush to build a homegrown medical masks and gloves industry, the Trudeau Liberals gave a 10-year, no-bid contract to AMD Medicom.

The deal calls for 20 million N95 and 24 million surgical masks a year for a decade, from a 60,000-square foot facility in the Montreal area. The dollar value of the contract has not been released and the building of the factory will be partly subsidized. Dun and Bradstreet lists 7593759 Canada Inc. as the ultimate owner of Medicom. The numbered company’s sole director is Medicom president Ronald Reuben. 

SNC-Lavalin’s Vancouver office (Mackin)

The Trudeau Liberals have been blamed for shortages at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic after donating 16 tonnes of gear from the dwindling federal stockpile to China in early February.

Medicom, in turn, hired Montreal-headquartered SNC-Lavalin to design and engineer the factory, which is targeted for a July opening.

Last December, SNC-Lavalin pleaded guilty to fraud related to projects in Libya. Had it been convicted in a criminal trial in Quebec, it would have been temporarily banned from federal contracts.

The SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal that dominated Canadian headlines throughout 2019 was a factor in the Liberal government losing majority status in last October’s federal election, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke the conflict of interest law in an effort to end the criminal prosecution.

SNC-Lavalin is also involved with U.S.-based PAE in the design of up to 10, 100-bed mobile health units for the Canadian government.

SNC-Lavalin chair Kevin Lynch announced his resignation at the May 7 annual general meeting, where shareholders decided to keep the door open to moving out of Quebec after the scheduled 2024 repayment of a $1.5 billion loan to the province’s pension fund.

In the latest PPE folly, the federal government has rejected eight million N95 masks from an 11 million unit shipment from China. Neither the Chinese manufacturer nor the Montreal supplier has been named.

On May 9, Trudeau told reporters that the government is in talks with the supplier.

“We will not be paying for masks that do not hit the standards that we expect to give to our frontline workers,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau said there had been 23 personal protective equipment import flights from China. He was not clear whether he counted the two that came back to Canada empty over logistical issues at the Shanghai airport.

Chinese government officials donating medical supplies to B.C. on May 5 (PRC consulate)

Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats held another photo op at the Shaughnessy consular compound in Vancouver to donate medical supplies to the British Columbia government.

A photograph from the May 5 event is on the Chinese language version of the consulate’s website, but not on the English site.

A translated consular statement said Deputy Consul-Gen. Kong Weiwei handed over 20 boxes of 50,000 medical masks to Melinda Mui, interim vice-president of the Provincial Health Services Authority. Mui is the bureaucrat in charge of B.C.’s $2 billion-a-year medical supplies buying program. The May 5 ceremony included a banner saying that the donation was on behalf of Jiangsu Province.

Mui also attended an April 24 ceremony with George Chow, the NDP junior minister of international trade, and accepted 56 boxes from Guangdong province containing masks, gloves and coveralls worth almost $117,000.

The events are part of Chinese government propaganda campaign after groups allied with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, such as the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Canadians, drained Canadian shelves of PPE in January and February and exported millions of dollars worth of medical supplies to coronavirus epicentre Wuhan and other Chinese cities.

theBreaker.news has confirmed that staff in the office of Premier John Horgan knew on Feb. 19, at least, that PPE supplies were running low in Canada.

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Bob Mackin In the rush to build a

Miscellany, News, Opinion, Sports

The Canadian Football League could be the veritable canary in the coalmine.

As professional sports seeks a way out of the coronavirus pandemic, some financially suffering leagues will be looking to be rescued by taxpayers. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said the nine-team, three-down Vancouver-to-Montreal circuit may have to cancel the 2020 season, which would put the Canadian institution’s future in doubt.

Canadian Football League commissioner Randy Ambrosie on the May 7 virtual meeting of the House of Commons finance committee (HoC)

Unlike the National Football League, the CFL cannot afford to play without ticket buyers in the stands. Hence the request for a bailout of up to $15o million, if the 2020 season is cancelled. 

Listen to highlights of Ambrosie’s appearance before the House of Commons finance committee, including his answers to tough questions from the NDP’s Peter Julian and the Conservative Party’s Kevin Waugh.

Julian asked Ambrosie why players were not involved in Ambrosie’s committee presentation. Waugh pointed at the recent financial success of community-owned teams on the prairies and the wealth of owners, including Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Calgary Sports and Entertainment. 

Plus commentary, Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and clips from songs by B.C. politicians who are aiming to lift spirits during the pandemic.

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

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The Canadian Football League could be the

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

The first British Columbia food processing plant closed by a coronavirus outbreak failed a health and safety inspection just over a year earlier, theBreaker.news has learned.

Clifford Pollon’s United Poultry, closed by a coronavirus outbreak (Mackin)

On April 21, Provincial Health Office Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 28 people from United Poultry on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside had tested positive. There are now 35 cases of COVID-19 from the chicken plant, near Oppenheimer Park. It remains shut-down until further notice, by order of Vancouver Coastal Health.

According to documents obtained under freedom of information laws, two prevention officers from WorkSafeBC toured United Poultry on Feb. 28, 2019 and found that workers were at risk of spreading hepatitis B, the joint health and safety committee existed in name only and a supervisor had not been provided health and safety training.

“When providing first aid treatment, a first aid attendant is at risk of occupational exposure to the hepatitis B virus which may be present in the blood and/or bodily fluids of an injured worker,” the WorkSafeBC report said. “The employer stated an offer of vaccination against the hepatitis B virus has not been made to all first aid attendants in this workplace.”

The prevention officers spoke to a supervisor who did not have training to ensure the health and safety of subordinates.

“This employer has not provided the workers with adequate information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure the health and safety of those workers in carrying out their work and to ensure the health and safety of other workers at the workplace,” the report said.

As for the legally required joint employer/staff committee, the prevention officers learned that one had been struck. However, the date of its last meeting could not be confirmed, no records of meetings had been posted in the workplace, the names and work locations of the committee members had not been posted, worker representatives had not been selected for the committee and no rules for the meetings had been set.

“This employer has not established and maintained a joint health and safety committee in this workplace,” the report concluded.

Poultry tycoons Clifford (left) and Ron Pollon

The report said United employed 70 people on a production shift from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, with maintenance and cleaning 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Production continued Saturdays and maintenance on Sundays.

WorkSafeBC’s followup report said United began to deal with the problems identified. The supervisor was provided training, the joint health and safety committee’s first meeting was scheduled with two managers and four workers, and a first aid attendant was offered the hepatitis B shot.

United also contracted Acciona to develop a written procedure for cleaning the de-feathering drum, crane deficiencies were addressed after a report by Cinco Cranes and Equipment, and an unsafe ladder was removed from service.

Prevention officer Shannon MacDonald made a followup inspection on April 3, 2019. While the company’s annual training session took place Feb. 14, 2019, United management did not include the required anti-bullying and anti-harassment training.

“The most recent [bullying and harassment] training took place in 2018 but the exact date could not be confirmed,” the report said. “Workers hired after the annual training date in 2018 have not received the B&H training.

“An employer must provide to the employer’s workers the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to ensure the health and safety of those workers in carrying out their work and to ensure the health and safety of other workers at the workplace.”

A session was eventually held April 19, 2019, when the company brought an external trainer who spoke both English and Chinese. An additional session was scheduled for workers unable to attend the first.

United Poultry GM George Johnsen (Facebook)

United’s website boasts the company is “fully committed to the health and safety of our clients, their customers and our team.” It also states that “to ensure that every process is followed diligently, meticulously and correctly, we have doctors and inspectors on our staff who are on site at all times.”

The WorkSafeBC inspection reports call into question those claims. Vancouver Coastal Health spokesman Matt Kieltyka said he was unable to comment, but he said the health authority believes the reference to doctors actually means veterinarians.

United Poultry general manager George Johnsen did not respond for comment before deadline.

Last month, theBreaker.news reported exclusively that United’s sister plant in Coquitlam, Superior Poultry, failed a health and safety inspection in April 2019. As of May 8, 61 people attached to Superior had tested positive for coronavirus.

The April 2019 inspection resulted in a total 15 violation orders at the plant, where 280 workers were on-site.

Superior had ignored the statutory annual fit test for workers required to wear a respirator mask and a worker was found wearing gloves that would not protect against punctures or cuts. Superior was also unable to show records about orientation and training for new or young workers and did not have any policies, procedures or training to prevent or mitigate bullying and harassment.

Superior Poultry in Coquitlam (Google Streetview)

Regular safety inspections of the workplace were not conducted at Superior and the joint management-staff health and safety committee had not held its required monthly meeting since February 2019.

Both plants are owned by Clifford Murdie Pollon, whose companies are major players in poultry processing, farming and hatching in B.C. Pollon also owns Hallmark Farms, J.D. Sweid and Heritage Farms, and Church’s Chicken franchises across B.C.

Elections BC records show $84,710 in donations from Clifford Pollon or his companies to the BC Liberals from 2007 to 2017.

In 2017, Pollon donated $5,000 to the winning leadership campaign of Andrew Wilkinson.

Pollon has not responded for comment.

VCH spokeswoman Carrie Stefanson said the health authority is working closely with United Poultry management on the requirements needed to reopen. She said VCH has also attended Hallmark “to review the engineering, administrative controls and PPE measures, re-COVID.”

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Bob Mackin The first British Columbia food processing

Miscellany, News, Opinion

We are a group of concerned Canadian citizens of Chinese descent. Our concerns have arisen from this COVID-19 pandemic that is devastating our fellow Canadians and countless millions all over the world, and the related but misdirected anger against people of Chinese or Asian descent.

Justin Trudeau, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and Xi Jinping (PMO)

As citizens of Canada, we share the same frustrations, fears, worries and grief arising from COVID-19. We are concerned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has covered up information about the new coronavirus at the initial stage, understated its contagiousness which contributed to its spread from its epicentre of Wuhan, China. The resulting global lockdown, sickness and even death, have gravely affected everyone including ourselves, and dangerously undermine the physical, mental, social, as well as financial well beings of many nations.

Sadly, we have recently noticed a rise of hate crimes against people of Chinese or Asian descent, in the forms of vandalism, verbal or even physical attack. The perpetrators seem to be irrationally venting their anger against people of Chinese or Asian descent whom they apparently assume to be the cause or carriers of this disastrous pandemic. We condemn such behaviour, but we believe that these perpetrators are few in number, and that their anger is misdirected and scapegoating the wrong party.

We are angry too, and have questions about how COVID-19 started, got out of control, spread and grew into this pandemic. We want to have forthright answers to our questions, without evasion and propagandist spin.

We denounce the CCP government’s suppression of whistle-blowers’ communications in December 2019 among health professionals about an apparent outbreak of a SARS-like pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Was it not the CCP government’s cover-up of such “bad news” that resulted in the failure to contain the spread of the virus at the crucial initial stage?

Infamous WHO Tweet parroting Chinese government propaganda (Twitter)

We stand with and support the call for an independent investigation of the origin of COVID-19 and the responsibility of the CCP government to the people of the world for their damages sustained as a result of this pandemic. And we do not want this global health investigation to be evaded and to be side-tracked by a racial discrimination issue. However, we also shall remain vigilant against anyone trying to hijack this pandemic health issue to promote racism and generate racist attacks.

As Canadian citizens, our allegiance is to Canada. As Canadians of Chinese descent, we, or our parents or grandparents have at one time or another chosen to leave China, and ended up in Canada, either directly or after staying in various parts of the world. So we could have come from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, South Africa, Trinidad, Mainland China, etc. We are a diaspora with very diverse backgrounds, native dialects, and opinions about and attitudes toward the 70-year-old Communist Chinese regime. What is common for a lot of us is that our exodus within the last 70 years is for good reasons –including seeking inner peace and freedom from fear. So it would certainly be wrong for anyone to presume that the Chinese diaspora would generally support or bow to the dictates of the CCP government.

Therefore

1. We urge our Canadian government to join the increasing global demand for an independent investigation into the origin of COVID-19 and the responsibility of the CCP government in suppressing the timely and full disclosure of information about the new coronavirus and its initial outbreak.

2. We call on all Canadians to stand together to condemn any incitement or perpetration of hate crimes directed at people of Chinese or Asian descent using COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse. Let’s support each other in fighting COVID-19 as fellow citizens of Canada and of the world.

3. We also call on the general public to contact their respective MPs, urging them to denounce the hate crimes against Canadians of Asian/Chinese descent and to support the global demand for the COVIC-19 independent investigation.

By a group of concerned Canadians of Chinese descent (in alphabetical order, organizational titles are for identification purpose only and do not represent the opinion of the respective named organization): Bill Chu, Founder of Canadians for Reconciliation Society; Victor Ho, Co-founder of Vancouver-based Media Analytical Inc.; Ivy Li, Retired design professor; Mabel Li, Chair of Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement; Thekla Lit, Founder and President of B.C. Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA); Thomas Lou, retired journalist; Stanley Ng, President of Institute for Christian Action & Contemplation; Fenella Sung, Convenor, Canadian Friends of Hong Kong; Norman Sung, Canadian economist and Global news commentator’Tommy Tao, retired lawyer; Ken Tung, Past Chairperson of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.; Eleanor Yuen, former head of Asian Library, University of B.C.; Rev. Howard Yeung, Spiritual Director of Institute for Christian Action & Contemplation

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We are a group of concerned Canadian

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin (updated July 12)

Two days after a man that appeared to be Doug McCallum “Zoom bombed” a city councillor at her naturopathic clinic, the Mayor of Surrey’s Buick was photographed in a parking spot outside Mountainview Wellness Centre.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum (top) and Mountain View Wellness Centre’s Zoom bomb man (bottom)

Coun. Allison Patton was on the May 1 COVID-19 virtual town hall hosted by the South Surrey and White Rock Chamber of Commerce when a door opened behind her and a man identical to McCallum popped his head in the room. Naturopath Patton was wearing a medical face shield, the man was not. WATCH the video below.

On May 3, a reader of theBreaker.news snapped a photo of McCallum’s vehicle parked directly outside the clinic, which is located in an office and commercial complex beside Semiahmoo Shopping Centre.

A source told theBreaker.news that, four days earlier, RCMP officers were called to Mountainview on April 30 around 6:45 p.m.

Surrey RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Elenore Sturko would not comment on the address or name the business because of privacy laws. Sturko said police did attend a location in the 1600-block of Martin Drive at that time “in response to a breach of peace.”

“The incident was determined to be a civil issue and not a criminal matter and, as such, the RCMP is not investigating and our file is closed,” Sturko told theBreaker.news.

Neither McCallum nor Patton responded to theBreaker.news on May 6.

A person who answered the phone at Mountainview confirmed that the other two naturopaths and business partners, Caleb Ng and Galina Bogatch, were no longer working at the clinic.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum’s Buick outside Coun. Allison Patton’s clinic on May 3.

Ng is Patton’s husband. Neither Ng nor Bogatch were available for comment on May 6. The MVWC website has been offline since the weekend.

Patton, Ng and Bogatch were featured frequently in Metanoia, a Mountainview-published, glossy lifestyle and politics magazine loosely inspired by “O, The Oprah Magazine.” Metanoia was a vehicle to promote Patton’s political ambitions and achievements. She had previously been aligned with the BC Liberals and B.C. Conservatives.

Sources told theBreaker.news they have witnessed McCallum and Patton arriving and departing from a Rosemary Heights condo building where Patton bought last December.

The title application for Patton’s condominium, with a declared value of $535,000, was received by the Land Title and Survey Authority on Dec. 18. That was four days after the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. housewarming and ribbon-cutting on Dec. 14 at Mountainview that appears in McCallum’s calendar, but not Patton’s. theBreaker.news obtained the calendars under the freedom of information law.

The pair has also been spotted at a Crescent Beach house where McCallum has lived. 

Oliver Lum, the spokesman for McCallum’s office, would neither confirm nor deny McCallum and Patton are in a relationship. Lum said on Jan. 21 and April 16: “The personal affairs of the Mayor is outside the scope of this office.”

Cover of the post-2018 election of Metanoia, the magazine published by Mountain View Wellness Centre in Surrey. (MVWC)

Former Surrey Mayor Bob Bose told theBreaker.news Podcast on May 3 that McCallum and Patton owe citizens of Surrey an explanation, especially since the April 20 passage of a new code of conduct for council members.

“Are they acting independently in terms of discharge of their public responsibilities or are their decisions compromised by relationship?” Bose asked. “As [Pierre] Trudeau said, the state has no business in the bedrooms of the community, but transparency is also imperative here.”

Bose said “conflict of interest is at the core of this,” and questioned McCallum’s controversial September 2019 removal of Coun. Steven Pettigrew as a Surrey representative on the Metro Vancouver regional government board.

Surrey Coun. Allison Patton, Caleb Ng and Galina Bogatch in happier times (Metanoia)

McCallum installed Patton instead.

“There was no justification that I’m aware of for removing Steven Pettigrew and the appointment of Allison Patton to replace him carries with it monetary considerations,” Bose said.

Metro Vancouver pays each appointed politician $397 per meeting up to four hours and $794 for a meeting that goes beyond the four-hour mark.

Pettigrew was elected with Patton on the McCallum-led Safe Surrey Coalition ticket in October 2018. Pettigrew defected last year with Coun. Jack Hundial and Coun. Brenda Locke over McCallum’s leadership style and his crusade to replace the RCMP with a municipal police department.

Safe Surrey Coalition holds a slim one-vote majority on Surrey city council.

Pettigrew declined an interview request this week.

theBreaker.news wanted to know whether McCallum and Patton enjoy the confidence of the remaining Safe Surrey Coalition councillors. But Mandeep Nagra, Laurie Guerra and Doug Elford did not respond.

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Bob Mackin (updated July 12) Two days after

Miscellany, News, Opinion

On this week’s edition, former Surrey Mayor Bob Bose tells theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin why he is concerned about Mayor Doug McCallum and Coun. Allison Patton, who have avoided questions about the status of their relationship.

Former Surrey Mayor Bob Bose (SCC/YouTube)

The Canadian Football League wants a bailout of as much as $150 million because of the pandemic economic crash. Hear what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier John Horgan said.

British Columbia’s courts are finding challenges and opportunities through technology, as operations were adversely impacted by the pandemic. Hear Melissa Gillespie, the Chief Judge of the Provincial Court, explain.

And clips from the Planet of the Humans, the green sheen-exposing documentary that everyone is talking about.

Plus commentary and Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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

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theBreaker.news Podcast: Ex-Surrey mayor speaks out on the McCallum mystery
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On this week’s edition, former Surrey Mayor

Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

On April 30, under the headline “When the personal intersects with the political, the public has the right to know,” theBreaker.news challenged Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum and Coun. Allison Patton to confirm or deny they are in a personal relationship.

Neither politician has replied. 

It is in the public interest, because a personal relationship could influence the way a politician votes on policy and legislation. Ex-BC Liberal leader Gordon Wilson, ex-Richmond Mayor Greg Halsey-Brandt and ex-Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson all faced this dilemma while in office. 

On May 1, Patton appeared on the South Surrey and White Rock Chamber of Commerce’s COVID-19 update webcast. Patton, a naturopath, was wearing a medical face shield supplied by a Surrey company and was sitting in a room inside her Mountain View Wellness Centre practice.

While another participant spoke, a man opened the door to the room where Patton was on camera. The man appeared surprised that a camera was pointed in that direction. Patton’s microphone was muted, so we do not know what was said.

Was that man McCallum? You be the judge. Watch and share the video.

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Bob Mackin On April 30, under the headline

Business, Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin

Elections BC is allowed to keep the report on its investigation of BC Liberal MLA Ben Stewart secret, according to the April 20 ruling from British Columbia’s information and privacy commission.

Kelowna West’s Stewart wrote a letter to chief electoral officer Anton Boegman on Aug. 1 last year, about a donation to the party that was reimbursed to a contributor. Stewart left the BC Liberal opposition caucus the same day, but returned Oct. 1 when Elections BC announced that it found no evidence that the contribution or the reimbursement violated the Election Act.

During his post in China, Ben Stewart posed in PPE with a panda. (BC Gov)

Elections BC refused to release the report to theBreaker.news.

Last month, it successfully convinced Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner adjudicator Layli Antinuk that the document was exempt from the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act because Elections BC is an office of the Legislature and its operational records are considered private. Antinuk rejected the public interest argument from theBreaker.news to proceed to a written inquiry.

B.C.’s 1993 public disclosure law covers 2,900 provincial and municipal entities, but the Legislature is not one of them. Premier John Horgan’s NDP government promised in early 2019 to change that, in the wake of the Legislature corruption scandal uncovered by Speaker Darryl Plecas.

More than a year later, Horgan has done nothing to reform the law.

Adjudicator Antinuk is also a lawyer with a tax law firm in Victoria and previously worked in the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and Ministry of Agriculture during the later years of the BC Liberal government.

While we do not know what is in the report on Stewart, Elections BC submitted a March 9 affidavit to the OIPC from director of investigations Adam Barnes.

The former Victoria Police Department constable has also worked for the OIPC and the Office of the Ombudsperson. Barnes, who joined Elections BC in 2018, swore that he interviewed individuals and collected evidence before determining that there was no violation of the sections of the Election Act that govern making and accepting political contributions.

Elections BC director of investigations Adam Barnes (LinkedIn)

“My investigative file contains a letter from the MLA that initiated the investigation, nine emails to or from the MLA named in the request and my report on the investigation,” according to Barnes’s sworn statement. “The report of my investigation is four pages long, consisting of a one-page summary and a three-page detailed narrative. The report outlines the steps I took in conducting the investigation, details the information and evidence that I obtained and includes an analysis of that information and evidence. It then sets out my conclusion about the complaint, as investigator responsible.”

Independent watchdog Dermod Travis of IntegrityBC said the public deserves to see the Barnes report, in order to know what was investigated and whether the investigation was thorough.

“Maybe [Stewart] shouldn’t pay a price, maybe he should, but the public doesn’t have the right to know because Elections BC is serving the old boys club,” Travis said.

Stewart’s riding is one of the safest seats for the BC Liberals and Stewart could release the initiating letter and report on his own, Travis said.

“Potentially embarrassing yes, potentially not. He may also have tripped over a loophole in the law and British Columbians have a right to know whether or not he, in fact, has or hasn’t.”

Stewart has always refused to make public his letter to Elections BC. He said this week that he does not recall receiving a copy of the Barnes report, only a phone call from Elections BC informing him of the outcome.

Elections BC has an $11.1 million annual budget funded by taxpayers and Travis said it should decide whether it is in the business of serving British Columbians or “the old boys club.”

IntegrityBC’s Dermod Travis (Voice of B.C./Shaw)

“If you look at the track record of Elections BC, it’s similar to the track record of the former late conflict of interest commissioner [Paul Fraser],” Travis said. “Hasn’t found a violation of significance in decades. Well, it’s time to start finding those violations, it’s time to start laying charges where appropriate, fining where appropriate. Look at the Commissioner of Elections Canada, the work they did on SNC Lavalin.”

BC Liberal filings for the second quarter of 2019 with Elections BC show that Stewart exceeded his contribution limit and the party returned $1,200 to him on June 25, 2019. He was the only MLA listed in the prohibited contributions list for that period. Under new campaign finance rules enacted by the NDP government in 2017, individual donations were capped at $1,200 per year to each registered political party, including its candidates, nomination contestants and registered riding associations. The limit was increased to $1,225.17 for 2019.

Sources said the Stewart matter involved a donation from a constituency assistant, but Stewart would not say whether it specifically involved riding aide Cheryl Doll or Erica Macnab, who worked on his 2018 by-election campaign. In the last two months of 2018, Doll made three donations totalling $1,450, which was $250 above the annual limit.

Quail’s Gate winery co-founder Stewart won re-election in 2013 but stepped aside so that then-Premier Christy Clark could return to the Legislature after losing her Vancouver-Point Grey seat to the NDP’s David Eby. Clark later appointed Stewart as B.C.’s $150,000-a-year Asia trade envoy based in Beijing. He made a political comeback in 2018 after Clark’s 2017 resignation.

Meanwhile, on April 22, OIPC Commissioner Michael McEvoy extended the FOI holiday for government offices and agencies across B.C. to May 15.

On March 18, McEvoy cited the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on government operations and allowed public bodies to add an extra 30 business days to the processing time for freedom of information requests filed between March 1 and April 30. That meant disclosure delays to June and July.

Public bodies are mandated by law to release information immediately if the subject is related to the risk to public health and safety or otherwise in the public interest. However, McEvoy’s office said it would not accept complaints about alleged violations of the so-called public interest override section of the law.

Elections B.C. head Anton Boegman (left) and Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy

“[McEvoy] has to decide whether he’s in charge of the office of freedom of information or the office of secrecy,” Travis said. “His recent decisions have demonstrated that he is leaning towards closing up the public’s window into government in favour of, again, that old boys club.”

McEvoy’s pandemic-related decision in favour of the NDP government in the year before the next scheduled election is in stark contrast to the chief ombudsman of New Zealand, Peter Boshier.

In a March 24 statement to New Zealanders, Boshier called on the public and government to find balance and resolve disputes on a case-by-case basis while the pandemic hit his country, which has a similar population to B.C.

“I do ask requesters to be very mindful of the present circumstances and the pressures agencies are under when making information requests,” Boshier wrote. “Agencies must also be aware that access to information is still vital even under present circumstances.”

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Bob Mackin Elections BC is allowed to keep

Business, Miscellany, Opinion

Malcolm Johnston

The COVID-19 pandemic has made absolutely clear, we cannot go back to normal, as it has forever changed how people behave. COVID-19 is a prelude for great change in B.C.

Metro Vancouver’s regional transit system has been greatly affected by the pandemic as thousands of people stay home, with many either working or studying from home. This has put a massive financial strain on TransLink, which now claims a deficit of at least $75 million a month.

Selina Robinson and Premier John Horgan at a  TransLink funding announcement. (BC Gov)

From the onset of “social distancing” TransLink seemed OK operating empty buses, without any hint of a “plan B” for operation during times of emergency. TransLink is now asking the provincial and federal governments for more money to keep empty buses operating and to keep huge executive salaries being paid.

TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit are still proceeding with their pet $4.6 billion, 12.8 km extensions to the Expo and Millennium Lines, despite clear evidence that both projects are nothing more than “gold-plated” prestige projects, designed to further the profits of land speculators and land developers who support many of the mayors at election time. Both projects will only improve transit on paper and nothing more.

The proposed Broadway Subway is being built on a route without enough ridership to justify its construction and the flip-flop from LRT to light-metro in Surrey, will be again be built on a route where the ridership will not justify construction costs. TransLink has not offered an estimate of the increased operating costs or increased annual subsidies for both projects.

Questionable ridership projections are based on future condo tower development, based on foreign, basically Chinese, investment and this is not guaranteed!

The already huge cost does not include the proprietary Movia Automatic Light Metro (erroneously called SkyTrain) cars, nor the inflationary cost increases for cement and specialty steel, needed for subway and viaduct construction.

It is no secret that the often renamed and now called Movia Automatic Light Metro (MALM), as used on the Expo and Millennium Lines is obsolete, as it has been obsolete since the late 1980’s, being more expensive to build, maintain and operate than its chief competitor, light rail. Only seven such systems have been built in the past 40 years and only three are seriously used for urban transit!

Today, modern light-metro systems such as Ottawa and Seattle use light rail vehicles, because of their cost effectiveness and their ability to operate on lesser rights-of-ways, yet because MALM uses Linear Induction Motors, it is impossible to use LRV’s on the proprietary MALM system.

MALM cannot be built cheaply, nor can it be operated and maintained cheaply. The taxpayer pays a first class cost for a second class system and this cannot continue, post COVID-19.

The recent sale of Bombardier to Alstom puts into question the future availability of MALM cars and spare parts! With COVID-19 and a major economic downturn, production of niche transit systems like the proprietary MALM light metro, maybe discontinued. Alstom has already shown that it has little use for proprietary transit systems by discontinuing production of the TVR guided bus used in several European cities, leaving operators scrambling for spare parts.

Vancouver is now the only customer for MALM, as the systems built in South Korea and Malaysia have mired Bombardier and SNC Lavalin (the patent holders of the proprietary railway) in legal misadventure, due in part, to healthy “success fees” paid to lobbyists and politicians, to ensure MALM was to be built!

The Broadway Subway and the Fleetwood extensions to the SkyTrain light-metro system are grossly overpriced for what they will do as light ridership on both extensions will greatly increase operating costs. The Broadway Subway, current peak hour transit customer flows are under 5,000 persons per hour per direction (pphpd). The North American standard for building a subway is a transit route with customer flows of at least 15,000 pphpd and operational subsidies increase dramatically with smaller customer flows.

Despite deliberate and misleading statements by TransLink and the City of Vancouver, Broadway is not the busiest transit corridor in Canada, as a representative of TransLink stated in a letter, Broadway was “our region’s most over-crowded bus route“.

This sounds like a management issue and not one of needing to be solved by a $3 billion subway.

TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit have never been honest with the long term costs of the project, which over a fifty year period, will have grave implications for the metro Vancouver and BC taxpayers.

According to the Toronto Transit Commission, who have a long experience operating subways, the Broadway subway to Arbutus, alone, will add $40 million annually to TransLink’s operating costs.

The 50-year costs for subways and grade separated transit are staggering, estimated more than $1 billion per km for the subway portion and just under $600 million per km for the elevated sections of the light metro system. Already the original Expo Line desperately needs a minimum $2 billion to rehab (full rehab about $3 billion) the system and increase capacity beyond Transport Canada’s Operating Certificate maximum of 15,000 pphpd.

TransLink has not been up front with these costs, for fear of pointed questions about the massive future costs for the rest of the light-metro system.

Nanaimo SkyTrain Station (Google)

Spending $4.6 billion for 12.8 km of light-metro pales, when one could instead invest $1 billion on both, the proposed Fraser Valley Rail project reinstating an hourly Vancouver to Chilliwack passenger service and the E&N, reinstating a Victoria to Courtney/Port Alberni passenger service and still have $2.6 billion left over to invest in regional transit projects in Metro Vancouver.

COVID-19 and the current ‘stay at home orders’ means long term financial hardships for taxpayers, not just TransLink. Even though there are generous government support, each month of lock down generates more and more fiscal instability for the taxpayer as future tax increases to pay for the emergency are certain.

The taxpayer will very soon, be in no mood, to fund Vancouver’s and Surrey’s $4.6 billion gold-plated, prestige transit projects, nor will the taxpayer and the transit user be willing to pay higher fares and other taxes for transit that about 85% of the population will not use.

As Premier, you must step in and say “enough” as TransLink and the Mayor’s Council on Transit have isolated themselves from public oversight and ignore public debate.

In 2015, 62% percent of the people voted against TransLink’s demands for money, yet they have done nothing but play the taxpayer and voter for fools by offering virtually the same plan with no real public input. TransLink’s public oversight is nothing but a charade; a smokescreen to carry on with their hugely expensive rapid transit agenda.

In the post-COVID-19 world, TransLink must plan for affordable transit projects; build user friendly transit projects and refrain from doing the same expensive thing over and over again hoping for different results.

The year 2021 and beyond will be an age of higher taxes, to pay for today’s emergency funding; more people will work at home, thus fewer people will use public transit; social spacing will see different travel routines, again reducing the need for gold-plated transit options. Then the reality of unintended consequences of today’s reality will come into play and those could prove very expensive.

TransLink needs to rethink its planning; the Mayor’s Council on Transit needs to rethink how transit is provided and funded; and the provincial government must rethink its rubber stamping Metro Vancouver’s questionable transit planning.

The taxpayer and the transit customer deserve far better than the current sham planning and complete lack of oversight and failure to correct the current mess maybe felt at the polls in the next election.

Who is not afraid to bell the TransLink and the Mayor’s Council’s “cat”?

Malcolm Johnston is a longtime TransLink and SkyTrain critic with Rail for the Valley. More information on RailfortheValley.com

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Malcolm Johnston The COVID-19 pandemic has made

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