Recent Posts
Connect with:
Thursday / June 26.
  • No products in the cart.
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 17)

Briefly: Park board staff recommend Canadian Turner Construction Co. Ltd. for early works at Killarney and Memorial South parks.

Bob Mackin

The cost to taxpayers for transforming two Vancouver community parks into temporary training sites for FIFA World Cup 26 is more than $25 million.

Large portions of Killarney and Memorial South parks are scheduled to close from January 2025 until fall 2026 and host World Cup teams drawn to play at B.C. Place Stadium in June and July 2026.

A staff report to the Dec. 9 meeting of Vancouver Park Board commissioners recommends approval of two contracts with Canadian Turner Construction Co. Ltd. for early works.

The Memorial South Park cricket oval, running track, playground and field house are scheduled to be closed to the public and transformed into a temporary FIFA World Cup 26 training site. (Mackin)

Early works include excavation of peat at Killarney and hauling off-site for disposal, grading for the natural grass pitches, parking lot and temporary facilities, ordering items like high mast field lights, service connections and upgrades, and operations compound preparations. The work is scheduled to be finished next December.

The Nov. 29 staff report said the cost for Killarney is $16.25 million and $8.75 million at Memorial South Park, based on estimates of $12.7 million for Killarney and $6.9 million for Memorial South, plus a “price volatility premium and 15% contingency.”

“The cost estimate is a placeholder amount recommended to ensure that adequate funding is in place to award these contracts at council and Park Board in December in light of industry pricing volatility,” said the report.

Friends of Memorial South Park has more than 1,760 supporters for its “Our park, not FIFA’s field” petition on Change.org. The group’s Cindy Heinrichs said she was blown away by the staff report.

“I find it interesting that this report is dated November 29, the day before the information session [at John Oliver secondary] — the first and only opportunity for the community to learn about what’s planned for the park — but not one word was said about the cost,” Heinrichs said. “And this is a week before the Park Board will vote on whether to allocate this money with a start date in January. Why was this not done months ago?”

The report said the Park Board received eight requests for expressions of interest to a March 12 tender call, but only two respondents were shortlisted for the June 7 request for proposals. The unsuccessful bidder is not named. The next step will be procurement for site works in the first quarter of 2025. The report does not include that cost estimate.

Without any public consultation, the city announced July 16 that the two sites were promised to FIFA.

“The site selection process, decision, and agreements for the locations have confidentiality requirements,” the Park Board staff report said.

Also at the Dec. 9 meeting, Comm. Tom Digby (Green Party) is hoping to table a motion for staff to explore alternate sites in purpose-built soccer facilities in Burnaby and at the University of B.C.

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.

Briefly: Park board staff recommend Canadian Turner

Briefly: After almost 74 years, Surrey RCMP ceded command to the new municipal force on Nov. 29. The watch commander summarizes his last night in the position.
Bob Mackin
On Nov. 29 at midnight, Surrey Police Service (SPS) took over command from the Surrey RCMP.

It is an expensive and controversial work in progress.

On Nov. 29, theBreaker.news readers exclusively heard a clip from the first dispatch by SPS Chief Norm Lipinski.

A source has provided theBreaker.news with an end-of-shift executive summary by RCMP S. Sgt. Tyner Gillies, the last watch commander in the 73-and-a-half year history of the Surrey RCMP (and a published author).

We had a very manageable night, with 164 dispatched files for 47 roadable constable cars. We had no scenes to take over and no files of any particular exigence throughout the night.

Surrey Police Service Chief Norm Lipinski and members of his senior leadership team attended the [operational communications centre] just before midnight to make a [police of jurisdiction] announcement over the air as the bell tolled and the calendar turned to the 29th.

I spoke with my SPS counterpart, Inspector Aman Nasser, as he was in the detachment for the POJ announcement. He had no issues to discuss.

As this shift winds down, and the sun sets on the Surrey RCMP municipal detachment, I am filled with deep wells of emotion.

In the 21 years I’ve worked in Surrey detachment, I’ve seen some dynamic changes. We changed from a district system to a watch system. We built the annex and centralized frontline in the main detachment, and then took over west main. The detachment compliment went from 505 regular members to almost 800. The good days have been good, and the bad days sometimes got really bad. But, throughout my service, one emotion has overridden all the others.

Pride.

I am proud of my time here and the things I have accomplished, the lessons I have learned. I am proud of the members I have worked with and the friendships I have made. We have fought and bled together, we have stood fast in the face of violence and hate. We never relented or let anyone get the best of us. Our mettle has been measured, weighed and found to be plenty. I am proud of the senior leadership team, especially Asst. Comm. Edwards, who, at all times, operated with dignity and integrity, even in the face of maligning comments and half-truths designed to undermine us.

We survived COVID, the defund the police movement, and the peaks and valleys of the policing transition. We are Mounties. We are Red Serge Strong. We are the last of the Queen’s cowboys. No police agency on the planet does it better than us, and we will continue to serve, to strive, to fight and to win.

“There are things that go bump in the night. We are the ones who bump back.”

It has been one of my life’s greatest honours to serve here, and I am very proud to be the last watch commander to ever stand vigil over this detachment.

On behalf of myself, and Insp. Sub Wong, we love you.

10-35

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.

Briefly: After almost 74 years, Surrey RCMP

For the week of Dec. 1, 2024:

North Vancouver dad Vince Verlaan is back from Peru, where he went to seek justice for his late son, Camden Verlaan.

Vince (left) and Camden Verlaan.

The 20-year-old from Roberts Creek, B.C. was volunteering at a dog rescue kennel and learning to surf in a coastal town, but was electrocuted in a freak accident on a waterfront sidewalk in March 2023. 

Vince Verlaan is on a quest to hold two power companies criminally and civilly accountable for negligence. He is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast. 

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

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

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

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.

theBreaker.news Podcast
theBreaker.news Podcast
thePodcast: North Vancouver dad seeks justice in Peru for late son
Loading
/

For the week of Dec. 1, 2024:

Briefly: Neighbours finally have their say about Memorial South Park closure for a 2026 World Cup training site at Nov. 30 John Oliver gym drop-in session. 

Bob Mackin 

Memorial South Park neighbours got their first chance to tell civic officials what they think about the surprise July announcement to close the heart of the South Vancouver park for nearly two years.

Feedback from attendees of the Nov. 30 FIFA 26 information session at John Oliver secondary (Mackin)

Rather than a town hall about the temporary training facility for FIFA World Cup 26, they got an information walk-through in the John Oliver secondary gymnasium on Nov. 30 with managers, posters and pamphlets.

Attendees were invited to leave their thoughts on sticky notes and attach them to a poster near the exit.

Just before the scheduled 2 p.m. end of the three-hour opening, theBreaker.news counted 115 messages. The prevailing mood was on the skeptical-to-opposed end of the spectrum. Such as:

  • We need the track not a new soccer field. Event will be for rich people only.
  • How/who chose South Memorial? Does this comply with Vancouver Charter?
  • Too little info too late.
  • It should stop ASAP.
  • Force this through?Ask for forgiveness after?
  • Tickets from FIFA to close residents to buy good will.
  • This info session is late in the process. There should have been more consultation prior.
  • Such waste of space, energy, water, money. I do not agree!
  • Where are we going to go? #Followthemoney
  • Community compensation for running clubs.

Outside the gym, Friends of Memorial South Park had their own display, to collect messages for the World Cup-boosting Mayor Ken Sim.

The Park Board plan includes transplanting four trees and chopping down 11 others (seven younger trees that an arborist says are dead and four older trees that are in the way of the temporary training facility).

Vancouver Park Board Comm. Tom Digby hopes his fellow commissioners will consider a motion at the Dec. 9 meeting to postpone tree removal until staff report back on what, if any, efforts have been made to secure an alternative, soccer-specific site for World Cup team training in June and July 2026.

Digby’s motion suggests Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium, Christine Sinclair Community Centre and Simon Fraser University or the University of B.C. are viable alternatives to Memorial South Park and Killarney Park.

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.

 

Briefly: Neighbours finally have their say about

Briefly: RCMP help needed for two more years as new force hires recruits. Chief Lipinski signs-on at midnight. 

Bob Mackin

After 73 and-a-half years, Surrey is under local police command again.

At midnight Nov. 29, the Surrey RCMP ceased to be the police of jurisdiction in British Columbia’s second most-populous city. The Surrey Police Service (SPS) era began.

theBreaker.news has obtained an audio clip of Chief Norm Lipinski signing-on. A source said that Lipinski’s comments extended to nearly seven minutes and took precedence over all other radio communication.

For the time being, SPS will patrol Whalley and Newton while it continues to recruit officers. The RCMP, under its provincial contract, will police the rest of Surrey. The transition, which began under 2018-elected mayor Doug McCallum, could take until 2026 or 2027 to be complete.

Mayor Brenda Locke defeated McCallum in 2022 on a promise to keep the RCMP. Surrey lost a court challenge and the NDP government agreed to pay $250 million to enable the transition. theBreaker.news revealed secret elements of the pre-election deal, including the silencing of Locke.

The RCMP began policing Surrey on May 1, 1951, after voters decided to phase out the 1887-founded Surrey Police Force. Voters were not given a say this time around.

CLICK AND LISTEN TO THE SURREY POLICE CHIEF’S FIRST DISPATCH

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.

Briefly: RCMP help needed for two more

Briefly: Chak Au exits meeting after disclosing gig with Remedios and Company. The former B.C. NDP candidate is seeking a Conservative nomination. 

Bob Mackin

A longtime Richmond city councillor, who is seeking the Conservative nomination in the Richmond Centre-Marpole federal riding, revealed that he is working for a Vancouver law firm.

At the start of a Nov. 25 special meeting, which was called to decided the fate of a cosmetic store’s business licence, Coun. Chak Au told Mayor Malcolm Brodie he had to leave.

Lawyer Anthony Remedios (left) and Richmond Coun. Chak Au at a September 2022 BC Liberal Party event (Remedios.Lawyer)

“I could have a perceived conflict of interest because I’m a consultant of Remedios and Company,” Au said. “I don’t want to be seen as having a conflict, so I will excuse myself from the meeting.”

Remedios and Company represents the owners of Tokyo Beauty and Healthcare in Aberdeen Centre, Nagoya Trading Ltd. Health Canada has issued five warnings about Tokyo Beauty. One of which was for selling Pabron Gold A Granules Cold Medication, a product containing an opioid.

Neither Au nor Remedios and Company principal Anthony Remedios have responded for comment.

In 2023, Au received $99,735 in salary and benefits from Richmond taxpayers. He also racked up $11,856 in expenses.

On Aug. 25, 2017, Remedios was among 22 guests invited to an Au-arranged lunchwith Premier John Horgan. Earlier in 2017, Au ran unsuccessfully for the NDP in the provincial election riding of Richmond-South Centre. Elections BC’s database shows two $500 donations to the NDP from Remedios and Company in September 2017.

Remedios and Company’s website says it specializes in Trans-Pacific investment and immigration: “We act for multinationals, banks, mining companies, solar companies, pharmaceutical companies, financial firms, private investors from Asia, real estate developers, etc.”

The Remedios and Company website also includes a photo of Remedios and Au at a September 2022 BC Liberal event in Richmond and at a July 2023 meeting in Richmond city hall with Vietnam’s Consul General Nguyen Quang Truong.

During the Nov. 25 council meeting, Remedios and Company articled student Matthew Remedios said that Tokyo Beauty has made “extraordinary efforts to ensure full compliance with all applicable regulations.”

“These efforts underscore a sincere commitment to maintaining the highest regulatory standards and ensuring the safety and well-being of its customers,” Matthew Remedios said.

Council members voted unanimously to cancel the Aberdeen Centre store’s licence. Tokyo Beauty operates two other locations in Richmond.

WATCH: Richmond Coun. Chak Au reveals he works for a law firm.

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.

Briefly: Chak Au exits meeting after disclosing

Briefly: Ken Sim holds shares in crypto companies and wants to make Vancouver a “Bitcoin friendly” city.

Bob Mackin

Vancouver’s mayor wants to make the city “Bitcoin friendly.”

Near the end of the Nov. 26 city council meeting, when members gave notice of motions they will table at the Dec. 11 committee meeting, Mayor Ken Sim was last to speak:

“For a motion titled: Preserving of the City’s Purchasing Power Through Diversification of Financial Resources, Becoming a Bitcoin Friendly City.”

Details will come when the agenda for Dec. 11 is published.

But, can Sim table the motion?

His 2024 Statement of Disclosure, required under the Financial Information Act, lists three cryptocurrency corporations among his assets.

Under the Vancouver Charter (Section 145.2), a member must not participate in a discussion or vote on a matter if one has a direct or pecuniary interest in the matter or another interest in the matter that constitutes a conflict of interest.

Earlier on Nov. 26, Bitcoin investors were disappointed when it fell shy of the US$100,000 mark and slipped below US$92,000. It appeared to be the end of a rally that began with Donald Trump’s Nov. 5 election as the 47th U.S. president.

In Canadian dollars, the price was $130,000 on Nov. 26.

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.

Briefly: Ken Sim holds shares in crypto

Briefly: Vancouver taxpayers (and, ultimately, B.C. taxpayers) are responsible for “all costs and expenses” incurred to fulfil obligations to FIFA and “shall indemnify and hold free and harmless” FIFA and subsidiaries from municipal taxes. When the World Cup starts in June 2026, Vancouverites will not be allowed to enjoy a potential Stanley Cup run from the Vancouver Canucks, other major sports events, concerts or festivals.

Bob Mackin 

theBreaker.news has obtained, via an adjudicated appeal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, a copy of the contract between the City of Vancouver, FIFA, and the Canadian Soccer Association. The contract was signed during the original bid phase, in March 2018, by then-city manager Sadhu Johnston and city solicitor Francie Connell.

West Vancouver’s Victor Montagliani announces Vancouver will host 2026 World Cup matches (FIFA/YouTube)

The contents of the contract are similar to the ones reported by theBreaker.news from Seattle last year and Toronto earlier this year.

In August 2023, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim told Bob Mackin that “we are bound by confidentiality agreements.” While the host city agreement does contain a blanket confidentiality clause, there is an exception for when “disclosure is required by relevant laws or court orders.” One of those laws is B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The contract regulates almost every aspect of the tournament, from police escorts for FIFA executives and heads of state and road closures to backup power supply and protecting FIFA sponsors from competitors. The host city agreement is separate from the B.C. Place Stadium agreement, which theBreaker.news exclusively obtained under a separate freedom of information request.

The contract details:

Who pays what?

The NDP government revealed last April that it could cost taxpayers up to $581 million to host seven matches in June and July 2026.

Controlled area

The host city and senior governments are responsible for safety, security, fire protection and medical services. Beyond B.C. Place’s outer perimeter, the city must create a FIFA-determined “controlled area” where certain commercial activities are banned on each match day and the day prior.

Vancouver must ensure that airspace above and around the stadium and FIFA Fan Festival (at Hastings Park) be “free and clear of all commercial signage and/or advertising.” That is because FIFA will showcase its own sponsors.

Vancouver must also temporarily cover and decorate construction sites “at important locations” around the stadium, fan fest, hotels and transportation stations.

Title page of the FIFA 26 contract with the City of Vancouver (FOI/CoV)

Getting around (or the runaround)

The city must arrange free match day transit for ticketholders and accredited passholders. Elsewhere, FIFA gets temporary roadblocks, special traffic access lanes and police escorts for teams, FIFA and member association executives, VIP guests and competition officials. FIFA set a May 31, 2024 deadline for Vancouver to provide a traffic management plan.

Front of the line

City hall will be entitled to buy “a certain number” of tickets for matches at B.C. Place, “in an amount to be determined by FIFA at a later stage” before they go on sale to the general public. But those tickets must not be used for commercial purposes or given away in contests.

The only game in town

Starting seven days prior to the opening match to seven days after the last one, the city cannot allow any other major sporting event. “No other substantial cultural events (such as music concerts)” shall be allowed the day before, the day of or the day after a match, except FIFA-approved concerts or events.

Movable goalposts

FIFA was scheduled to issue the final version of hosting requirements by June 30, 2023. However, it may “from time to time” provide Vancouver with further detailed specifications.

Host cities must follow all directions in a timely manner to prevent FIFA and its partners from suffering “substantial and irreparable losses and damages.” Otherwise, FIFA could appoint a third-party to finish the job or even end the contract and give another city hosting rights.

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here

Briefly: Vancouver taxpayers (and, ultimately, B.C. taxpayers)

Briefly: Supreme Court of Canada decided cabinet mandate letters are protected from disclosure, after B.C. government lawyers intervened in Ontario’s Supreme Court challenge.

Bob Mackin

British Columbia has a new cabinet, but the Nov. 18-sworn NDP ministers do not have their mandate letters.

Premier David Eby said they are delayed while his single-seat majority NDP forges an alliance with the two Green MLAs.

B.C. Premier David Eby (left) and Ontario Premier Doug Ford at the 2024 Premiers’ meeting in Halifax (Canada’s Premiers/Flickr)

Eby said after the Government House ceremony that the post-Oct. 19 election priorities are housing affordability, healthcare, community safety and economic growth.

“That is the consistent set of priorities for every single minister for the detailed mandate letters,” Eby told reporters, without setting a date for publishing the letters.

Will it be a case of one set of mandate letters for cabinet eyes only and another version for public consumption?

Under the freedom of information law, a CBC reporter unsuccessfully sought Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s marching orders for his ministers after the 2018 election. The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario intervened and ordered their release. But Ford’s government appealed.

Last February, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Ontario’s cabinet mandate letters would stay secret because releasing them would reveal the substance of deliberations of cabinet, which relies on confidentiality.

The judge who wrote the majority decision, Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, was the cabinet secretary under Ontario Premier Mike Harris from 2000 to 2002. Vincent Gogolek, the former executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, called it a win for government secrecy.

Three B.C. government lawyers intervened in the case. They filed their statement with the Supreme Court the week after Eby became premier in November 2022.

B.C. officially took no position specific to Ford’s mandate letters, but agreed with Ontario, “that statutory protections for cabinet information and documents should be widely construed.”

“The [Ford cabinet] mandate letters were not publicly disclosed or prepared for the public’s consumption as a public relations document, and there is evidence that they were handed out at a cabinet meeting and appeared on the cabinet meeting agenda,” said the B.C. government submission.

In 2001, Gordon Campbell was the first B.C. premier to issue mandate letters. Campbell also briefly held open meetings of the BC Liberal cabinet.

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here

Briefly: Supreme Court of Canada decided cabinet

Briefly: Foreign interference led to Conservative MP’s 2021 defeat

Bob Mackin

Conservative Kenny Chiu wants to return to Ottawa as the Steveston-Richmond East MP in 2025.

The 2019-elected Chiu was upset in the 2021 election by Liberal rookie Parm Bains, whose campaign benefitted from supporters of the Chinese Communist Party.

An invitation to a Nov. 23 lunch in Steveston said Chiu is recruiting new party members, volunteers and donors to his nomination campaign. Chiu supported Pierre Poilievre’s winning leadership campaign in 2022.

Kenny Chiu at David Lam Park during the June 4, 2024 Tiananmen Square Massacre memorial (Mackin)

Before the 2021 election, Chiu proposed a registry of foreign agents, supported the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and voted to declare China was committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims. China retaliated by adding him to its sanctions list.

Documents tabled in September at the Hogue Commission on foreign interference from the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections said the People’s Republic of China government gave “the impetus and direction” for the successful campaign to defeat Chiu and his party in the 2021 election. Investigators, however, said they did not have enough evidence to file Canada Elections Act charges for undue foreign influence, intimidation, unregistered third party or use of foreign funds.

Also named on the invitation for the Ember Kitchen event is Richmond Coun. Chak Au, who is seeking the Conservative nomination for the new Richmond Centre-Marpole riding. Trudeau Liberal rookie Wilson Miao upset incumbent Conservative Alice Wong in the Richmond Centre riding in 2021.

Au, first elected to Richmond city council in 2011, was courted by the BC Liberals before the 2017 provincial election, but ran for the B.C. NDP and lost to Linda Reid in Richmond-South Centre. He donated $700 to the B.C. NDP and $1,288 to the federal Conservatives in 2023.

In Richmond’s 2022 civic election, Au topped the polls for the eight city councillor seats with 16,515 votes.

Au has gained attention for attending many events over the years involving Chinese consular officials and their supporters. One of them was an October 2021 ceremony at Jack Poole Plaza to promote the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

NEW: Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here

Briefly: Foreign interference led to Conservative MP’s