Four-and-a-half months until FIFA World Cup 26 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Will the seriously ill and injured in host city Vancouver get emergency treatment when they need it?
Guest Dave Deines, the vice-president of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C., says B.C. Ambulance Service is being coy about planning amid an impasse in labour talks.
Will Vancouver taxpayers be stuck with a bigger bill to pay when it’s over?
theBreaker.news obtained the city’s accommodation tax revenue figures that suggest a shortfall of tens of millions of dollars is likely. College of the Holy Cross Prof. Victor Matheson, a sports economist who analyzes the business of mega-events, weighs-in about the risks for Vancouver and ongoing Trump Administration turmoil.
The industry organization that regulates investment and mutual fund dealers says it will not release images of a man that it says ripped-off two senior citizens for more than $350,000.
Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) also would not confirm or deny to theBreaker.news whether it reported Marc-Antoine Ladeiro to the RCMP.
“CIRO informs and communicates with the appropriate law enforcement authorities when relevant but cannot comment on specific cases,” said corporate communications manager Joanna Nicholson by email.
Marc-Antoine Ladeiro in 2021, after winning the Okanagan Treasure Hunters Club metal detector contest in Penticton. (OTHC.info).
In November, a CIRO tribunal found that between July 2020 and February 2022, Ladeiro “willfully and deceptively misappropriated” $354,700 from two retired clients aged between 88 and 90. At the end of December 2021, one of the clients died.
Ladeiro resigned Valentine’s Day 2022 for personal reasons and advised his branch manager that he was leaving for Europe.
Ladeiro did not reply to CIRO or attend last fall’s hearing, so it was held in absentia.
Million-dollar fine for broken rules
The tribunal ruled that Ladeiro broke mutual fund dealer rules to deal honestly, fairly and in good faith with clients and to take reasonable steps to identify and avoid conflicts of interest.
It permanently banned him from securities-related business in any capacity and slapped him with a $1.06 million fine, representing three times the profit he obtained.
He must also pay almost $19,000 in investigation and prosecution costs.
Will CIRO ever collect the fines?
The tribunal’s decision said Ladeiro’s registration form and employment file says he is a French passport holder educated in France. He also worked there in financial services from 2010 to 2018, when he came to Canada.
“In March 2023, staff engaged a skip tracer who was unable to locate the respondent at his last known address or telephone number or through searches of public and proprietary records in British Columbia, federal and British Columbia corrections records, public databases in France and social media sites,” the CIRO decision said.
Metro Vancouver is still discovering deficiencies at the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant site, four years after firing Spanish construction company Acciona.
That according to a due diligence committee report to the regional district’s liquid waste committee meeting on Jan. 21.
North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant in November 2024. (Mackin)
In March 2024, Commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny announced the project would cost $3.86 billion and not be finished until 2030 — more than five times the original budget and 10 years later than promised. Dobrovolny blamed construction materials and labour inflation and the 2022 firing of original builder Acciona. The two sides are suing each other and scheduled for a B.C. Supreme Court trial in 2027.
Could costs rise again?
By the end of November, Metro Vancouver had spent $976 million. This year’s budget calls for $543 million of labour and materials.
The due diligence committee’s report said “new work appears to be of good quality and built in a safe manner.”
“Key issues being managed: addressing remaining construction deficiencies from previous contractor, transfer of major equipment contracts, interest and availability of subcontractors, impact of taxes/duties/tariffs.”
Committee members are Tim Stanley, Barry Nazar and Frank Margitan. The latter is a former Kiewit executive who had involvement in the Site C dam, Port Mann Highway 1 and Sea to Sky Highway projects.
“The project is in its early stages and to date the productivities for both the concrete and structural steel activities are achieving their targets,” said the report. “The greatest factor affecting productivity is rectifying prior work deficiencies. As the work progresses from today’s early stages we will better understand the cost versus budget and recognize any pluses or minuses.”
Who is to blame?
Premier David Eby has resisted calls for an independent investigation of Metro Vancouver in general and the NSWWTP project in specific. Metro Vancouver’s board hired consultants to review the project, but shelved that due to the court battle with Acciona.
The B.C. NDP government hired Acciona to build the new Riverview (stalewasem) Bridge to replace the Pattullo Bridge and the Broadway Subway. Both projects went over budget and off-schedule.
As of last July, Vancouver city hall had raised almost $89 million from accommodation taxes to help pay for hosting FIFA World Cup 26.
In early 2023, the B.C. NDP government authorized city to receive a 2.5% municipal and regional district tax (MRDT) on hotel rooms, bed and breakfasts and short-term residential rentals.
But, rising costs mean the tax measure could fall as much as $38 million short.
Monthly breakdown of accommodation tax revenue raised for FIFA World Cup 26 in Vancouver. (CoV/FOI)
Figures released to theBreaker.news under freedom of information on Jan. 19 show that monthly tax revenue averaged $2.87 million over the first 31 months.
During that period, monthly revenue ranged from a low of $1.33 million in February 2025 to a high of $4.73 million in July 2024.
February 2023 was the first full month of the temporary tax. It is scheduled to run through the end of January 2030. Based on revenue trends, it could raise another $155 million for a final tally of $244 million.
Changing forecasts
Last June’s B.C. government World Cup spending update showed civic costs alone were estimated at $261 million to $281 million. The city was forecasting $250 million to $260 million in revenue under the program.
In 2022, when Vancouver became one of the 16 host cities, the estimated cost of bringing the tournament to B.C. Place Stadium was $240 million to $260 million. It has since ballooned to as much as $624 million for seven matches between June 13-July 7.
When the MRDT was announced three years ago, a government news release said” “The temporary tax could generate approximately $230 million in revenue over seven years.”
Question of priorities
Sports economist Victor Matheson of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., said in an interview that tourism taxes have been popular in the U.S. to pay for hosting major events and building new stadiums. It is sold as a tax that locals don’t have to pay. However, in Vancouver’s case, most of the money will have to be raised after the World Cup.
“Money you get today is worth more than money you get in the future,” Matheson said. “Of course, bills you have to pay today are more expensive than bills you have to pay in the future.”
It is also a question of priorities, Matheson said.
“You could have passed a 2.5% tax and said, ‘hey, let’s finance affordable housing with this. Let’s finance transportation with this. Let’s finance parks and recreation with this,’ and instead this is being targeted towards basically a three or four-week party here when FIFA is in town,” Matheson said.
The Canadian Medical Association says there may not be enough doctors, nurses or space in Vancouver and Toronto hospitals to treat ill and injured FIFA World Cup visitors and local residents.
The vice-president of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. (APBC) agrees.
Toronto emergency physician Catherine Varner authored an editorial in the latest edition of the CMA Journal, called “Mass gathering events underscore serious vulnerabilities in health care capacity in Canada.”
Varner said a surge due to an infectious disease outbreak or mass-casualty event (like the deadly Lapu Lapu Day car ramming attack) could overwhelm the healthcare system.
“A coherent, feasible, actionable, and national plan is urgently needed to increase hospital beds and train the required personnel such that quality of care can be maintained,” Varner wrote.
Five-month countdown
Vancouver is hosting seven matches in June and July and Toronto six. Both cities will also stage tournament-long fan festivals. FIFA requires security closures around stadiums, training facilities and team hotels.
Toronto Public Health (TPH) officials told city council last October that they are planning for risks such as communicable diseases (including sexually transmitted infections), drunkenness, food poisoning, extreme heat and wildfire smoke. TPH is also expanding staffing and overtime capacity.
Dave Deines of the APBC said the union expressed concerns to B.C. Ambulance Service management in December. He said management told the union that there is a plan for 35 dedicated World Cup positions, but Deines wonders how many call-takers, dispatchers and logistics staff will be needed to support the frontline paramedics.
“We have not been provided with any level of detail or a plan. If there is one, we’re certainly not aware of it,” Deines said.
Neither the Ministry of Health nor the Office of the Premier provided a statement to theBreaker.news by deadline.
Deines said Toronto emergency plans there include putting the heavy urban search and rescue team on-standby to manage any potential mass casualty event.
“Not only do we not know what type of dedicated resources will happen for B.C. Place, but we’re unsure of any type of upstaffing for the regional fleet to address those demands,” Deines said.
Labour strife
Meanwhile, the union’s contract expired at the end of March 2025. Deines said the union proposed to the Health Employers Association of B.C. that B.C.’s top labour mediator, Vince Ready, be called-in to kickstart negotiations and avoid any disruption to service.
Paramedics are not an essential service, but essential service levels are to be decided via the Labour Relations Board.
“A withdrawal of service would be the last thing that that we would want to do,” Deines said. “That is certainly not on anybody’s radar.”
Deines also hopes history does not repeat. In November 2009, with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics looming, the BC Liberal government ordered paramedics to end work-to-rule. Back-to-work legislation imposed a 3% pay raise and one-year contract retroactive to April 1, 2009.
Kevin Falcon was the health minister back then and he blamed the H1N1 flu, rather than the Olympics.
Less than a year after Mark Carney deemed China to be Canada’s biggest security threat, Carney was in Beijing to declare China to be Canada’s “strategic partner.”
“It speaks to that lack of concern for our relationship with the United States, our own internal security,” said Dennis Molinaro, this week’s guest on thePodcast. “Thinking that we can partner with a country like China and forego all those security concerns in favour of business. As though somehow business and trade will solve all our issues — it won’t.”
Dennis Molinaro is the author of “Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China’s Secret War Against Canada” (Random House) and he explains to host Bob Mackin why Canadians should be alarmed by Carney’s pivot, which was timed for just before the anniversary of Donald Trump’s turbulent return to the White House.
The first regular edition of thePodcast of 2026 is anything but regular. It’s a two-for-one.
First, at 01:20, China expert Charles Burton explains why British Columbians should be concerned about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trade mission to Beijing, where he will meet the world’s most-powerful dictator, Xi Jinping.
Burton is the author of “The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security and Sovereignty.”
Then, at 23:35, New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine kicks-off theBreaker.news coverage of B.C.’s 2026 municipal elections. Fontaine is running for the mayoralty in the Royal City in the Oct. 17 election.
A candidate for the Vancouver mayoralty sat at a VIP table with a Chinese diplomat and supporters of China’s Communist government during a Burnaby fundraiser in December.
Videos circulating on Chinese social media and the pro-Beijing Phoenix TV service show Vancouver Liberals leader Kareem Allam introduced and posing for a group photo at a volunteer appreciation banquet for the Burnaby Hospital Foundation.
Vancouver Mayoral candidate Kareem Allam (right) with former Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations chair Wei Renmin (centre) and Canadian Community Service Association executive president Chi Fan. (Yangshulin Vancouver/WeChat/Red Book).
Who was there
Allam sat among senior members of two groups closely affiliated with the consulate: the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations and Canadian Community Service Association.
“I was invited to support the Burnaby Hospital Foundation, had no idea that it would be so well-attended,” Allam, a former Fraser Health board member, said in an interview.
Allam said he was invited to give remarks on volunteerism.
Also in attendance: Richmond Conservative MLAs Hon Chan, Steve Kooner and Teresa Wat, Burnaby Conservative candidate Michael Wu, NDP Parliamentary Secretary for Chinatown George Chow and NDP-affiliated Burnaby Coun. James Wang. One of the main sponsors was Respon Wealth Management, whose president was banned from holding an insurance licence in B.C.
Defends attendance
Allam said he would never shy away from accepting invitations to support organizations like the Burnaby Hospital Foundation. He said it is the responsibility of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Security Intelligence Service to guard Canadians from foreign interference and the country is waiting for updated legislation after the Hogue Commission final report last January.
“Municipal political parties, we just don’t have the tools to vet,” Allam said.
Additionally, Allam said China isn’t the only security risk. He pointed to efforts to destabilize Canada by Russia, Iran’s Islamic Guard Revolutionary Corps, Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.
“This is a problem with our entire national security apparatus and us being a clearinghouse for every country interested in causing chaos and havoc,” he said. “They’re here because of our weak money laundering rules, they’re here because of our weaker immigration rules, they’re here because of our proximity to the U.S.
China reset
Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with Xi Jinping in Beijing next week, the first such visit since Justin Trudeau in 2017. Since then, a global pandemic originated in China’s Wuhan, Beijing broke the one country/two systems promise in Hong Kong, mass-arrested Uyghur Muslims, held two Canadians hostage and secretly executed four others, forged a “no limits” alliance with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and rehearsed the invasion of Taiwan.
“I don’t have the tools, I don’t have the resources, I don’t have the intelligence apparatus nor the economic data available to me to take a position on what Mark Carney is doing,” Allam said. “I am running because I want to make our streets safer, I am running because there are some things on money laundering I believe I can do, to take dangerous drugs off streets. I’m running because I want to get our garbage picked up, I’m running to get rats out of my city.”
Foreign interference report
In January 2025, Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue deemed China “the most active perpetrator of foreign interference” in Canada. She warned that it uses the United Front Work Department arm of the Chinese Communist Party to target all levels of government in Canada. It favour candidates that it believes will help further its interests.
Recommendation 35 stated: “The federal government should continue and intensify its efforts to engage and collaborate with provincial, territorial, Indigenous and municipal governments to counter foreign interference.”
ABC + CCP?
Allam was the campaign manager for Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party in the 2022 election.
Almost three years ago, the Globe and Mail reported on a leaked CSIS document that indicated a Chinese diplomat in Vancouver helped get a Chinese-Canadian candidate elected mayor in 2022.
Sim and ABC won by a landslide over pro-Taiwan incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart.
“If there is proof of this, I’d be as mad as hell as everyone else,” Sim said after the Globe and Mail story in March 2023.
thePodcast host Bob Mackin welcomes back Mario Canseco, president of Research Co, and Andy Yan, director of the Simon Fraser University City Program.
On this special 2026 forecast edition, Mackin, Mario and Andy — the MMA Panel — offer political, economic, sports and cultural predictions for the coming 12 months.
