Recent Posts
Business, News
Business, News
Connect with:
Tuesday / April 16.
  • No products in the cart.
SECTION
logo
mobile-logo
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 21)
Business, News, Opinion

For the week of Sept. 17, 2023: 

Bill Vigars was right there with Terry Fox during the summer of 1980. The “summer of hope,” as the White Rock, B.C.-resident calls it.

(Sutherland House)

Vigars was working for the Canadian Cancer Society in Ontario when he was sent to join Terry’s team in New Brunswick. He has written about the highs and lows of what became the most-important Canadian road trip in a new memoir called “Terry and Me: The Inside Story of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope.” 

Forty-three years later, the foundation named for the late Fox has raised $850 million from the annual community and school walks, runs and rolls across Canada. 

Hear the second part of a two-part interview on this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast with Bob Mackin.

Plus, headlines from the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Northwest. 

Plus, commentary on the long-awaited foreign interference public inquiry and headlines from the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Northwest.

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

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: More from "Terry and Me" author Bill Vigars, Terry Fox's wingman from the Marathon of Hope
Loading
/
0 Comments

For the week of Sept. 17, 2023:  Bill

Business, News, Sports

Bob Mackin

West Vancouver senior Barb Burton was looking forward to joining the crowd on Centennial Seawalk on Sept. 17 for the annual Terry Fox Run.

It was supposed to be the second year of a return to normal, after the nationwide cancer research fundraiser went virtual in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. 

But Burton was surprised to learn that there will not be an in-person walk, run or roll between Dundarave and Ambleside this year.

Terry Fox during the Marathon of Hope (Terry Fox Foundation)

“I really admire him and everything that he did,” said Burton, who remembers jogging in the first Terry Fox Run in 1981 in Stanley Park. “It is a great disappointment, because he had such a fine character and he was selfless, not selfish. He only thought of others and not himself.”

West Vancouver is not alone. 

North Vancouver, Port Moody, Squamish, Surrey’s Cloverdale and Newton, and UBC Vancouver are also among 18 B.C. locations listed on TerryFox.org as virtual for Sept. 17.

The reason is simple: A shortage of volunteers. 

“Volunteers, they are like gold for us,” said Martha McClew, the Terry Fox Foundation’s vice-president of community and school programs. “So it’s hard to come by, people have really busy lives. More and more charities are finding a bit of a volunteer drain.”

McClew encourages runners, walkers and rollers to search online for their municipality. If they do not have a set time and place in their community, then they can choose their own route and still donate in memory of the late Marathon of Hope hero. 

By advertising virtual runs, the cancer-fighting charity can still raise money, but it also sends a message to potential volunteers for next year. 

“If you can, list those communities, and say that the Terry Fox Foundation would love the run to come back, and we’ll support volunteers in any way,” McClew asked a reporter. 

B.C.’s other virtual locations in 2023 are: Abbotsford, Anmore, Central Saanich, Chase, Golden, Kamloops, Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows, Nelson, Salmo, Trail and Vernon. 

In its 43rd year, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised $850 million. McClew said there are about 550 runs registered across the country this year, down from 2019’s 600. 

Port Coquitlam is where Fox grew up and its annual “hometown run” is backed by city hall. 

Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West (left) and Hometown Run organizer Dave Teixeira (Twitter)

“I can’t think of anything that brings a community together like a Terry Fox Run,” said Mayor Brad West, who says non-PoCo residents are also welcome. 

“In the absence of anything else, yeah, it’s great to do it virtually. But there’s something to be said for doing it as an event with a bunch of other people who are going through the same range of emotions that you are, and that’s how we build community connection,” West said. “That’s how we build the fabric of our society.”

West declared this Terry Fox Week in his city. Registration begins at 8 a.m. on Sept. 17 before the 10 a.m. start for the 2 km, 6 km and 8 km routes. 

When online registration opened nationally on April 12, the anniversary of Fox beginning the Marathon of Hope in 1980 in Newfoundland, so did shipping for the “Dear Terry” T-shirts co-designed by Vancouver-born actor Ryan Reynolds. More than $1.7 million worth of the shirts have been sold so far and McClew expects the fundraiser to hit $2 million by year-end. 

“That has been a great part of the story,” McClew said. “[Reynolds is] a really lovely gentleman. I’ve never met him, but he seems very kind of fun and low key and I always feel like that’s very representative of who Terry was.”

Burton has one of those shirts and plans to wear it for her Sunday walk in Fox’s memory and hopes to see others of like mind out in the late summer sunshine.

You are guaranteed to see plenty of those shirts in Port Coquitlam and other in-person events around the Lower Mainland, including Ceperley Park in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, Garry Point Park in Steveston, and River Market in New Westminster. Start time is also 10 a.m.

The Terry Fox Foundation’s impact report for 2021-22, the most-recent year available, said 119 community runs and 1,385 school runs in B.C. raised $2.7 million. Only Ontario, which held 224 community runs and 13,877 at schools, raised more money ($11.7 million). 

Go to Run.TerryFox.ca to find your nearest in-person or virtual event or to make a donation.

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

0 Comments

Bob Mackin West Vancouver senior Barb Burton was

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The sign at Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix’s Sept. 12 sod-turning ceremony for the second Surrey hospital in Cloverdale said “under construction.”

However, three days later, on the morning of Sep. 15, an excavator used as a prop for the event, which featured NDP government and Fraser Health Authority officials, was hauled away from the site beside the campus of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Tech Campus.

Excavator hauled away Sept. 15 from site of future hospital (submitted)

“Why hasn’t construction already started?” asked Anita Huberman, the Surrey Board of Trade’s CEO. “Why were construction equipment being taken away from the facility when it should be beginning immediately? Every single day construction costs escalate.”

Huberman said healthcare needs to be depoliticized because it is a life and death matter for residents in Surrey who are being forced to wait longer for improvements. 

Eby, Dix and six of the NDP’s seven MLAs from Surrey had posed for photos with the orange heavy duty vehicle in the lot, which is surrounded by blue fencing and a banner for construction contractor EllisDon. They wore hardhats amid signs emblazoned “under construction” in white letters on a red diagonal bar across a “Surrey H” sign.

When they were in opposition, the NDP criticized then-Premier Christy Clark and Environment Minister Mary Polak for holding a climate leadership plan news conference in August 2016 inside a warehouse, amid artificial greenery and a nature scene on a screen behind them.

Mike Starchuk, the NDP’s Cloverdale MLA, has not responded for comment. Likewise for the communications departments at the Ministry of Health and Fraser Health. 

“I’ve said repeatedly that this is an NDP government of flashy announcements, press releases, staged photos and endless re-announcements. Everything but actual results,” BC United leader Kevin Falcon tweeted. “British Columbians are taking notice of David Eby’s political theatre. They want action, not photo-ops.”

In July of last year, when the NDP government shortlisted PCL Construction Ltd. and EllisDon Design Build Inc., construction was scheduled to begin in summer 2023 and the facility was scheduled to be “ready for patients in 2027” with an estimated capital cost of $1.72 billion. 

Sept. 12 B.C. government photo of the site of the future hospital, where politicians gathered for a photo op. (BC Gov)

However, at the Tuesday photo op, Eby and Dix revealed the hospital is now expected to cost $2.88 billion and not open until 2030. 

That is $1.16 billion more expensive and three years later.

Surrey Board of Trade has campaigned for better services at Surrey Memorial Hospital, which doesn’t have emergency facilities to treat heart attack, stroke or trauma patients. They are transferred elsewhere, mainly to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. 

Doctors held a protest on Saturday outside Surrey city hall about delays and conditions at Surrey Memorial. Dix tried to get ahead of the story with a pre-emptive news conference at the hospital a day earlier, but said that demand for hospital treatment in B.C.’s second-biggest city is outstripping supply and that may be the “new normal.” 

In May, Dix announced B.C. would send as many as 50 cancer patients weekly across the border to clinics in Bellingham, Wash. for radiation treatment under a temporary program. 

On Wednesday, Eby and Starchuk held a “cash for access” party fundraiser in Firehall 1271, the Surrey Firefighters’ union hall, where tickets were being sold for $150. Attendees included former party president Craig Keating, who is now registered to lobby the government for the Cement Association of Canada, B.C. Federation of Labour president Sussanne Skidmore and Nicola Hill, a partner at lobbying firm Earnscliffe Strategies. Hill’s clients include the B.C. General Employees’ Union, MakeWay Charitable Society (formerly Tides Canada), United Way B.C. and North Island-Coast Development Initiative Trust. 

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

0 Comments

Bob Mackin The sign at Premier David Eby

Business, News

Bob Mackin

The People’s Republic of China government has conducted operations to target people in at least 36 foreign countries, according to a University of B.C.-educated researcher who testified Sept. 12 to senators and congressmen in Washington, D.C.

Yana Gorokhovskaia IUBC)

Yana Gorokhovskaia of Freedom House, who earned a doctorate in political science at UBC in 2016, told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China that China accounts for almost a third of the 854 cases in the pro-democracy organization’s database from 2014 to 2022. Victims of foreign interference, also known as transnational repression, include pro-democracy activists, journalists, students, human rights defenders, artists, former insiders, civil society organizations, as well as ethnic and religious groups. 

“Beijing’s transnational repression toolkit is diverse,” Gorokhovskaia said during the same session in which Conservative MP Michael Chong testified about being targeted by the Chinese government.  

“It continues to rely on well-practiced tactics of intimidation such as forcing family members to call their relatives abroad in order to urge them to stop engaging in activities, like protest or human rights activism, objectionable to the PRC. Members of the diaspora are sometimes recruited or coerced into informing on each other.”

Gorokhovskaia called China one of the “least free countries in the world,” which consistently ranks at the bottom of the 195 countries Freedom House assesses annually. Any freedoms that did exist deteriorated rapidly over the last decade, especially since 2017, under Xi Jinping, China’s most-powerful leader since Mao Zedong. 

China’s effort to abuse Internet freedom includes mass-trolling, smear campaigns, threats and intimidation, spoofing accounts and doxing of personal information. Such tactics “are meant to intimidate critics and journalists, drown out reports of human rights abuses, and apply psychological pressure on the targets,” she said. “These tactics are also often gendered; women face not only violent but sexualized digital threats in response to work that shines a critical light on the PRC.”

China also contracts retired police officers who have become private investigators. Their specific skills and networks of contacts make them valuable to “harass, coerce, stalk, and surveil people living in the U.S. and Canada”

Former New York Police Department sergeant Michael McMahon was convicted in June of acting as a Chinese agent after stalking a New Jersey man wanted by the Chinese government. 

In July, former RCMP undercover cop Bill Majcher was charged under the Security of Information Act. The Globe and Mail reported in August that Majcher is accused of targeting real estate investor Kevin Sun and using former law enforcement contacts to help gain the release of Huawei’s Meng Wenzhou.

“This is an extremely dangerous practice, and probably speaks to the need for more regulation of private investigators and transparency about where that work is coming from on behalf of whom they’re collecting this information.”

She said the influence of Confucius Institutes to promote Chinese language and culture has waned, but not disappeared. 

“This sometimes gets wrapped into a language of anti-Asian hate, that this is sort of harassment or racial profiling, and that is that’s also to the PRC’s advantage because it pits people against each other and it delegitimizes the voices of people who are speaking out for freedom,” Gorokhovskaia said. 

To combat foreign interference, she suggested bipartisan support for better training for government officials and law enforcement officers, cultural sensitivity outreach to communities at risk, and deploying sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for foreign interference. 

Gorokhovskaia’s UBC dissertation in 2016 was titled “Elections, Political Participation, and Authoritarian Responsiveness in Russia,” and based on interviews and fieldwork in Russia in 2013.

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

0 Comments

Bob Mackin The People’s Republic of China government

Business, News

Bob Mackin

For the third time in just over 11 years, Abbotsford South’s MLA has caused a B.C. political earthquake. 

Bruce Banman announced Sept. 14 that he had left the Kevin Falcon-led BC United opposition to sit as a member of the Conservative Party of B.C. under leader John Rustad. Most-recently, Banman was the Falcon-appointed shadow minister for emergency management, climate readiness and citizen services.

Bruce Banman (far left) and Kevin Falcon (far right) from Twitter.

A Conservative-issued statement from Banman said that he made the decision in order to keep his promise to represent his constituents’ best interests. He gave a ringing endorsement to Rustad and his party, saying nobody else in Victoria “stands for what’s right in the legislature, rather than rather than what’s politically convenient or politically correct.”

“As a Conservative MLA, I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to speak honestly and openly on behalf of my constituents,” Banman said. 

Banman’s defection means the Conservatives are tied with the BC Greens at two seats apiece and the former BC Liberals are down to 25. The NDP, under Premier David Eby, maintains a comfortable majority with 57 seats. 

In reaction, a BC United statement from Falcon said that Banman’s departure was “not entirely unexpected due to ongoing internal management challenges with Banman.”

“His decision betrays the Abbotsford constituents who elected him as a member of our team,” Falcon said.

Banman, a chiropractor, was Abbotsford’s mayor from 2011 to 2014 and returned as a city councillor in 2018. He won the riding for the BC Liberals in 2020, succeeding the twice-elected criminology professor Darryl Plecas.

Falcon ejected Rustad from his caucus more than a year ago after Rustad promoted someone else’s Twitter and Facebook post skeptical of carbon impacts on climate change. Although, former BC Liberal forests and Indigenous relations minister Rustad emphatically said he believes in climate change. He joined the Conservatives and became leader by acclamation last March. 

In 2012, former BC Liberal cabinet minister John van Dongen defected to the Conservatives under then-leader John Cummins. Van Dongen accused Premier Christy Clark of conflict of interest related to the BC Rail privatization and intervened in the auditor general’s lawsuit seeking the deal to pay $6 million to the lawyers of former BC Liberal aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk, the only two convicted in the BC Rail corruption case.  

The BC Liberals recruited Plecas, who went on to beat van Dongen in the 2013 election. Four years later, after the BC Liberals lost power to the Green-supported NDP minority, Plecas triggered Clark’s resignation when he threatened to quit the party and sit as an independent. 

Later that summer, Plecas became an independent MLA and was elected Speaker of the Legislature. A year later, he blew the whistle on corruption in the offices of BC Liberal-appointed Clerk Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz, who both resigned in disgrace. James was found guilty last year of breach of trust and fraud, and sentenced to house arrest. 

Banman’s statement said the Conservatives “don’t support Trudeau-backed policies like the punishing carbon tax that hurts everyday people; we refuse to condone the ideological NDP education agenda that teaches students what to think instead of how to think; and, we will never support the myth of safe supply that kills British Columbians and poisons our communities with hard drugs.”

The Legislature reconvenes Oct. 3 for a fall sitting that ends Nov. 30. The next election is scheduled for Oct. 19, 2024. Eby has repeatedly denied plans to go to the polls sooner. 

The BC Liberals rebranded as BC United in April and its candidates in two June by-elections in safe NDP ridings failed to achieve 9% of the popular vote. 

Mike Harris, the Conservative runner-up to the NDP’s Ravi Parmar in Langford-Juan de Fuca, had nearly 20% of the popular vote. 

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

0 Comments

Bob Mackin For the third time in just

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

After the torrential rains and floods that devastated Interior and Fraser Valley communities in November 2021, a researcher with the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA-BC) tested the regulatory regime.

(City of Abbotsford)

Local authorities are responsible for maintaining dikes, but must file annual inspection reports to Victoria, which has the power to investigate and order repairs under the Dike Maintenance Act. 

Ben Parfitt applied under the freedom of information law to five municipalities with extensive dikes, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Merritt, Princeton and Richmond, seeking their statutory inspection reports from 2017 to 2021. He also asked an office inside the Ministry of Forests for its responses to those reports, including any orders written by the provincial Inspector of Dikes to improve flood protection. It was a classic tale of deluge and drought.  

“In those 5,300 pages, there is but one single page from the provincial government, which is a single email running to less than a page,” Parfitt said in an interview. “And that’s it for the provincial record.”

Three professional engineers occupied the Inspector of Dikes position since changes to the law introduced by the BC Liberal government in 2003, Neil Peters, Mitchell Hahn and Yannic Brugman. Parfitt could find no evidence that they had issued any orders to the local governments and he said the province told him that no such order had been written in recent years.

Parfitt’s research for the left-leaning think tank found that, beginning in 2018, Merritt’s reports from a professional engineer with Interior Dams showed its dikes were a failure waiting to happen. No major repairs occurred. The 2021 disaster caused at least $150 million in damage.

Parfitt also found Abbotsford and Princeton did not properly report to the province. Princeton even used its own staff, rather than hiring a professional engineer. While it is allowed by law, it is not a best practice.

Parfitt said the root cause appears to be the amendments in 2003 by the BC Liberals, to shift reporting responsibilities to local authorities. Premier Gordon Campbell’s government was fond of cutting red tape and offloading.

Ben Parfitt (CCPA/Twitter)

“So while it is true, that there may have been more and more reliance placed on outside professionals to make certain calls, oversight was to remain with the province and this is where I think we’re seeing problems,” he said. 

The CCPA-BC wants the province to assume authority for all dikes, something Union of B.C. Municipalities members endorsed at their September 2022 convention, and provide more funding to upgrade dikes. The Auditor General should also be called upon to review provincial dike regulation.

While Parfitt said he was not troubled by significant delays or costs — “it was not as painful an FOI process as others have been for me” — he was taken aback by an answer to one of his followup questions to the Ministry of Forests about who is actually in charge. The government’s online directory showed only one person with the word “dike” in the job title. 

“I was told I would have to file a Freedom of Information request just to find out the names of these individuals,” he said. “It was at that point that I wrote the ministry back and I said, ‘look, this is ludicrous, you and I can do a Google search under B.C. government directory, and when you get to the B.C. government directory, it spits out any one of a number of names of public servants.’ So I pointed this out to the ministry and I said, ‘all I’m asking for here are the names, and I hope you’re not going to make me report that I have to FOI this. At which point, the next day, suddenly I had a list of names.”

Ultimately, Parfitt said, copies of the annual dike inspections should not be subject to FOI requests. They should simply be published proactively by each municipality or the province itself.

“Especially when we’re talking about matters concerning public health and safety,” he said.

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

 

0 Comments

Bob Mackin  After the torrential rains and floods

Business, News

Bob Mackin

BC Hydro says it is meeting business objectives under the pandemic-triggered hybrid workplace, but acknowledges there are some challenges. 

A briefing note to a Feb. 21 meeting of senior executives about potential changes to what the Crown corporation calls the “flexible work model” says a one-size fits all approach to working from home may not be ideal in every department.

BC Hydro headquarters (BC Hydro)

“For the past three years most of our office employees have primarily worked from home,” said the document, obtained under freedom of information. “During this period we’ve demonstrated that we can operate our business and deliver on our projects and strategic priorities.”

The briefing note said that while the model is generally working well, though managers reported that it is more difficult to hire and train new employees remotely. 

An Aug. 24 job posting for a Burnaby-based procurement services manager position said how much an employee can work from home depends on the manager for each position and the specific operational requirements. At one end of the scale, some can spend four or more days per week at home. On the other end, field workers have no work from home option. 

“Employees also have the right to work full-time from the office if they prefer. All of our roles require at least some in-person time,” the job posting said. 

Employees want the option to spend most, if not all, their time working from home. Nearly three-quarters polled were satisfied or very satisfied. All other large B.C. Crown corporations, the Public Service and more than 90% of Canadian electric utilities and engineering consultancies offer some variation of flexible work. 

“A common suggestion in the written feedback is for more flexibility and reduced time in office,” the briefing note said about the internal survey. 

Key to the trend is the evolution of technology, including web conferencing and enhanced hardware to connect virtually. BC Hydro pledged to “continue to invest in technology,” such as refreshing laptops and creating additional rooms and auditoriums for hybrid meetings, with enhancements to Microsoft Teams and cameras that digitize whiteboards. “Improve network connectivity at remote sites, including the implementation of satellite connectivity.”

A March 28 briefing note to the human resources and flexible work project team said opinions on the flexible work model have improved, based on the poll of 4,400 employees. “Overall, 78% of employees who responded to the pulse check are feeling happy or very happy with the flexible work model; this is a 4% improvement over the October pulse check, and 8% increase since June.”

Employees were split on the number of in-office days — 49% said the amount was just right, 46% said it could be less — and opinions were mixed on desk-sharing — 51% for and 35% against. 

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they would not consider a role that requires more days in office while three-quarters said they do not think working from home has limited their career or development opportunities. 

More than 90% of respondents felt supported and included, regardless of where they work. 

As for managers, 80% were happy with the flexible work model, 6% better than October 2022’s survey, and 87% agreed that BC Hydro can meet its operational and strategic goals. A significant improvement since the 63% from the June 2022 survey. 

An appendix showed BC Hydro is monitoring the program based on corporate, departmental and individual performance, impacts on employees, workspace and technology usage, costs and savings, greenhouse gas reduction, and by comparing notes about hybrid work trends with other companies. Another appendix about feedback from senior leaders was censored under the exception to B.C.’s public records law that allows a public body to keep policy advice and recommendations secret. 

In the October 2022 survey, employees who work from home cited the “positive impacts on wellbeing, and time and cost savings by not commuting.”

BC Hydro’s August 2021 agreement with the MoveUp union stated that employees who work at home must designate an adequate workspace and keep it safe and free from hazards. Any BC Hydro property and documents must be kept safe, secure and confidential. The agreement also allowed BC Hydro to send a representative for a home workplace audit with a minimum 24-hour notification. BC Hydro provides necessary IT hardware and software, including virtual private network access, but will not pay utilities or meal expenses.

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

0 Comments

Bob Mackin BC Hydro says it is meeting

Business, News

Jericho Pier (Bob Mackin)

Bob Mackin

The ABC Vancouver majority Park Board voted 5-1 Sept. 11 to jettison the staff recommendation to demolish the Jericho Beach Park Pier and keep it on “life support” with repairs. 

The badly damaged, 1977-built pier has been closed since a double whammy of November 2021 and January 2022 windstorms, the latter coupled with a king tide. Staff recommended spending as much as $3.6 million on demolition rather than up to $25 million on replacement. 

Comm. Angela Haer successfully proposed a compromise, to direct staff to proceed with a like-for-like repair. The price tag is estimated at $1.7 million, mostly funded from an insurance payout.

“I think everybody would love to have a renewed pier at higher elevation, but that price tag is just too high to happen right now,” said chair Laura Christensen. “As staff noted, the current pier is on life support, and I think this motion is to keep it on life support, and to continue with being on life support, because we’ve heard from the public that this is important to them.”

Mike Cotter, the general manager of the Jericho Sailing Centre, earlier spoke in favour of the staff recommendation, urging the board to explore a long-term plan to replace the pier. He said it is not only vital to mariners, but also important for the Canadian Coast Guard, Vancouver Police and B.C. Ambulance Service. 

Cotter said that Vancouver’s primary marine access park will be under immense pressure due to environmental factors and increased population due to development of the Jericho Lands. A SkyTrain station is proposed on the high density development at the MST Development project, which would bring more people to the area.

“We hope that when the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation embarks on a joint comprehensive planning study for the Jericho Beach Park with local First Nations, a new pier is included in the new park plan,” Cotter said.

Green Party Comm. Tom Digby called it a “catastrophically bad amendment” for ignoring environmental concerns and First Nations history and referenced the staff report, which called the pier a symbol of colonization. 

“You’re sending just a huge bill going forward and you’re not acknowledging that the sea level is changing, and that the climate is changing, and that this is a relic of a time when the temperature was 1.5 degrees colder than it is now,” Digby said. 

In 2017, the then-NPA majority approved a $16 million replacement plan. Commissioners from left-of-centre parties took control of Park Board in the 2018 election, fundraising fell flat and then the pandemic came in 2020.

By comparison, the White Rock community rallied after a December 2018 windstorm cut its pier in half, raised $4 million for repairs and reopened it less than a year later. 

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

0 Comments

[caption id="attachment_13550" align="alignright" width="1024"] Jericho Pier (Bob

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

What happened since Vancouver Park Board commissioners voted in November 2017 to rebuild the aging Jericho Beach Park Pier? 

In no particular order: two elections, two damaging windstorms, a pandemic and an acceleration of First Nations reconciliation policies.

Rendering of the 2017-approved concept for a rebuild of the Jericho Pier (Park Board)

A staff report to the Sept. 11 meeting of the ABC supermajority board is an about-face from the concept that the NPA simple majority approved, a $16 million replacement of the 1977-built pier, also known as Discovery Pier. 

In November 2021 and January 2022, the pier was battered and bruised by a double-whammy of storms, the latter during a king tide. It has not reopened. Park Board staff estimate the cost of replacement at $21 million to $25 million, due to inflation, cost escalations, contingencies and ancillary costs. 

So they want to spend up to $3.6 million to get rid of the existing pier and maintain the timber breakwater to protect the Jericho Sailing Centre’s harbour.

Had the six-year-old recommendation been activated on schedule, Vancouver boaters, kayakers, swimmers, fishers, crabbers and selfie-takers could’ve already enjoyed one, if not two, summers on a new pier. 

“The aspirational goal is to begin construction by 2020, starting with demolition of the existing pier and completing the work by 2022,” said the staff report in 2017. 

That report said there had been a pier on the site since at least 1942. There was a wharf nearby, at a former air force base transformed into the United Nations Habitat Forum venue in 1976. That wharf, the last major vestige of the UN Conference on Human Settlements, was demolished in 2011. 

The new report calls the pier a “colonial structure,” and whatever happens on the site after demolition would involve the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, who are planning to build condo towers on the Jericho Lands up the hill.

In 2016, the Park Board had already adopted 11 calls for action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report. Five years later, Vancouver became the first Canadian municipality to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Early last year, the Park Board voted to explore co-managing parks with the three First Nations. 

The 2017 report said 867 people filled out a questionnaire, with 76% of them supporting replacement. An archaeological overview was conducted, recommending a more thorough assessment take place before any construction. 

White Rock Pier in 2021 (Mackin)

“Staff will continue to work with the [First] Nations to ensure that the final design adequately addresses their needs and concerns,” it said.

In 2017, staff did not shy away from the pier’s precarious position. The six issues and considerations for the site included the pier’s age, and threats from storm surge and sea level rise and strong wind and wave action. 

“King tides and storm surges flood the existing pier and cause damage. These conditions are expected to become more acute with climate change,” the 2017 report said. “The pier is subject to intense storm and wave action. The boats launched at the Jericho Sailing Centre require protection from the wave action.”

The Park Board requested $2 million from the 2016 to 2018 capital plan “as an emerging priority,” and suggested seeking more funds from the 2019 to 2022 version. The Disabled Sailing Association, which since rebranded as the Adaptive Sailing Association of B.C., and the Park Board began a fundraising campaign. 

But the new report starkly states: “Sufficient funding for construction of a new pier is not presently available.” Not surprising words, in an expensive city that is struggling (and, in many cases, failing) to provide basic housing and social programs to those in need.

Fundraising after the 2017 vote did not generate any donations or grants, according to the 2023 report. But how hard did they try? Or is this just the Rodney Dangerfield of piers, that it can’t get no respect? 

On the first weekend of May in 1978, fire crews saved it from disappearing. A pre-graduation party by a group of high schoolers went awry, causing $43,000 worth of damage. That is more than $200,000 in today’s dollars. Luckily it was restored. 

Something else happened since November 2017. In December 2018, a heavy storm cut the 1914-built White Rock Pier in half. The community rallied and $4 million in private and public funds were raised to repair Canada’s longest pier. It reopened the following summer. 

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

0 Comments

Bob Mackin  What happened since Vancouver Park Board

Business, News

Bob Mackin

An internal BC Hydro report rated geopolitical, cybersecurity and capital planning risks higher priorities than climate change, debt and supply chain.

The draft quarterly risk report presentation for the March 2 board meeting, obtained under freedom of information, identified eight areas as high priorities on a so-called risk landscape, and said the Crown corporation’s enterprise risk management program was about to undergo its first internal audit since 2014.

Vladimir Putin (left) and Xi Jinping during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (PRC)

“Ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions including the war in Ukraine, shifting global trade alliances, energy security, COVID-19 recovery, global inflation, etc. are driving uncertainty resulting in broad range of impacts to our business and our customers,” said the document. “Global GDP in 2023 is anticipated to be lower than predicted in 2022 with ongoing recession uncertainty however there are signs that global inflation may be starting to peak.”

To mitigate this risk, an executive subcommittee and working group of senior supply chain and business group leaders were meeting frequently to monitor price and availability issues. It also said that BC Hydro’s trading arm, Powerex, helps it understand the impacts of current events, such as the European energy crisis and surplus sales.

“Senior leaders maintain oversight on addressing cybersecurity advisories resulting from the potential Russian threat against NATO countries.”

When Russia invaded Ukraine, BC Hydro developed cybersecurity scenarios and reviewed North American cybersecurity advisories on potential threats against NATO members supporting Ukraine, including threats to critical infrastructure.

The elevated cyber threat level and significant threat of ransomware triggered the rollout of new mandatory cyber training at BC Hydro, with an end of February deadline for all employees and contractors. 

Meanwhile, the capital plan faced “significant cost pressure” due to system maintenance requirements and inflation-driven increases in construction, equipment and materials costs and labour and supply chain shortages. The presentation said that BC Hydro has a special reserve amount for large projects to account for cost escalation and an executive subcommittee and working group to monitor price and availability. “In some cases, project schedules are also being updated to account for longer lead times,” said the summary.

The Crown corporation’s biggest project, the $16 billion Site C dam, also got a high risk rating. The summary cited concrete production, delivery and placement, inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, and equipment and material supply constraints. Mitigation measures included completing a review of the project budget to identify cost pressures and savings, and confirm that the project can be delivered within the approved amount.

Hydro was also concerned about fluctuations in commercial electricity load due to customer decisions and shifting timelines. 

“Some recent examples of note have included the Prince George Canfor Pulp Mill closure announcement, the extension of government support to the Paper Excellence’s Crofton mill, the government moratorium on cryptocurrency project interconnections and the opportunity for full electrification of LNG Canada’s phase 2 expansion through additional transmission infrastructure delivering capacity to the North Coast.”

Under the heading of shareholder expectations, the Crown corporation flagged the transition from Premier John Horgan to Premier David Eby in late 2022 as a high priority. 

“BC Hydro’s efforts in improving our ability to efficiently connect customers (linked to the priority of attainable and affordable housing), implementation of the electrification plan in support of CleanBC and our progress on safely completing Site C on schedule and on budget are aligned with current shareholder expectations.” 

Climate change got the same medium risk priority rating as environmental incident, emergency preparedness and serious injury or fatality. 

To address the climate change risk, the report said BC Hydro relies on water management, and weather and inflow forecasting to mitigate the problem and has a suite of plans covering adaptation, greenhouse gases and electrification.

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

0 Comments

Bob Mackin An internal BC Hydro report rated

m
About Us

theBreaker.news and theBreaker.news Podcast: your source for news, opinion and analysis about British Columbia issues, institutions and influencers.

Contact
theBreaker is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and published by Bob Mackin.
Email: bob@thebreaker.news
Send tips via secure Protonmail theBreakernews@protonmail.com
Support theBreaker.news
For as low as $2 a month, you can help support theBreaker.news on Patreon
Support theBreaker.news on Patreon
Find out how by clicking here!