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Bob Mackin

NPA Coun. Hector Bremner’s continued vice-presidency of a firm that lobbies for real estate, construction and retail companies has sparked a citizen’s complaint to city hall that the rookie politician is breaching the code of conduct.

“On a number of occasions Councillor Bremner sat in council while plans [were discussed] affecting various clients or organizations that are known to have been conducting business with the City of Vancouver and his other employer Pace Group,” wrote complainant Mirza Raza in an April 10 submission to City Manager Sadhu Johnston, Mayor Gregor Robertson and City Solicitor Francie Connell. “Councillor Bremner failed to declare the business relationships on these occasions. Because of Councillor Bremner’s great potential of past, current, or future perceived or real possible conflicts of interest, it is felt that he cannot act without bias for much of his time in council.”

Has a citizen caught Coun. Hector Bremner (far right) with his pants down? (@PaceGroupVan)

Bremner is one of three declared candidates for the NPA mayoral nomination. NPA president Gregory Baker told theBreaker that he had received the complaint and is reviewing the matter. 

“I’m not aware of any alleged breach of conduct and that the city should obviously investigate any alleged breach, if there is one, but I don’t have any other information to share,” Baker said. “I am going to look into it.” 

Raza’s complaint cites Bremner’s involvement in the Dec. 12, 2017 city council meeting about West Point Grey density, and alleges that Pace Group client Aquilini Investment Group could stand to benefit from development plans in and around Point Grey. He also cites a Jan. 31, 2018 city council meeting where the Northeast False Creek Plan and demolition of the Dunsmuir and Georgia Viaducts, which surround Rogers Arena, were discussed.  

“It is believed that Councillor Bremner’s client Aquilini Investment Group would stand to benefit due to their large land holdings in and around Northeast False Creek,” Raza wrote. “At no time while considering these two items did the NPA Councillor Bremner disclose to the public or council the relationship between his primary employer Pace Group and Aquilini Investment Group. It would appear that Mr. Bremner obtains income from his primary employer who is representing a party who was an affected party on these two occasions.”

Bremner did not respond for comment. 

Bremner lost a run for the BC Liberals in New Westminster in the 2013 election and was an aide to BC Liberal cabinet ministers Rich Coleman and Teresa Wat before joining Pace Group in 2015. The firm’s clients also include developers Concert Properties and Intracorp, architecture and engineering firms Stantec and Omicron, and Save-On-Foods’ parent Overwaitea Food Group.

Bremner was registered to lobby the provincial government for Steelhead LNG. He has also appeared at city council meetings in North Vancouver and Maple Ridge on behalf of the B.C. Wine Institute and Save-On-Foods’ applications for liquor retail licences. In September 2016, he was a guest speaker at the Canadian Institute’s Canadian Cannabis Business Week conference on the future of government relations (aka lobbying) and cannabis. In his bio on the city hall website, Bremner promotes himself as Pace Group’s vice-president of public affairs, where he “puts his unique experience and special capabilities toward navigating the process of public policy making and ensuring his clients’ messages are heard.”

In an interview, Raza, a software engineer and NPA member, said he is hopeful that city officials handle his complaint thoroughly.

“When I looked at Hector and his past record, it is something that worries me,” Raza said. “He is not the right person to be on any council, he shouldn’t be there now and shouldn’t be there in the future.”

City hall spokeswoman Ellie Lambert confirmed to theBreaker that the complaint was received and it will be handled as per city policy. That means the Mayor shall, within 30 days, appoint an independent third party to conduct a preliminary assessment of the complaint and, potentially, a full investigation.  

Bremner and 2017 by-election campaign worker Bhela in 2013. (Twitter)

theBreaker reported last week that Bremner’s by-election campaign team included Raj Bhela, the former general secretary of the Ross Street Sikh temple who was Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s South Asian liaison in B.C. until numerous lawsuits against Bhela came to light. 

City hall policy states council officials, staff and advisory board members “are keepers of the public trust” who must “be free from undue influence and not act, or appear to act, in order to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, family, friends or business interests.” It states that a conflict of interest exists when an individual is or could be influenced, or appear to be influenced, by a personal interest, financial or otherwise, when carrying out public duties. 

The Vancouver Charter states that a council member must not, directly or indirectly, accept a fee, gift or personal benefit that is connected with the member’s performance of the duties of office. The penalty is disqualification from office. A council member also must not use information obtained in the performance of duties for the purpose of “gaining or furthering a direct or indirect pecuniary interest.”

Said Baker: “We shouldn’t be electing politicians who are in conflict of interest, it’s a key thing. If you’re perpetually in conflict of interest at city council how could you be called upon to conduct the business you were elected to do? Conflict of interest is a serious thing with the NPA. I certainly would not want to have candidates that are running for us who are perpetually in that position.”

Baker said those hoping to run on the NPA ticket this fall will be vetted through the party’s candidate selection and green light committees. Members are scheduled to meet May 29 to elect a mayoral candidate and decide the fate of incumbents. 

The civic election is Oct. 20.

UPDATE (April 19): Robertson formally received the complaint and acknowledged it, in-writing, on April 18. He has appointed lawyer Henry Wood as the investigator, pending the approval of both Raza and Bremner. See Robertson’s letter below. 

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Code of Conduct-April 18-Robertson by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin NPA Coun. Hector Bremner’s continued vice-presidency

Miscellany, News

Bob Mackin 

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered a lawsuit involving dual agency and shadow flipping in the sale of a British Properties house to go to full trial instead of a summary hearing “at the earliest possible opportunity,” because it would be unjust otherwise. 

In a written April 11 verdict, Justice Nigel Kent decided against defendants Zhixiang Li, Sincere Real Estate Services Ltd. and agent Yi Zhang aka Leo Zhang, who sought a summary hearing on liability issues and dismissal of the case generally.

Plaintiff Wen Hsien Tsai claimed he is elderly and unsophisticated with poor English skills and was the victim of deception and fraud. Tsai accused Li and Zhang of conspiring to induce him to sell his property below market value so they could resell it for a profit. The defendants deny conspiracy or other wrongful conduct. 

Sincere agent Yi Leo Zhang (Sincere)

Plaintiff Tsai agreed to buy 1028 Eyremount Drive in West Vancouver’s British Properties on May 16, 2015 for $5.1 million. Sincere was the broker of the transaction. On the same date and at the same time, Tsai signed an exclusive listing contract with Sincere. He agreed to pay a gross commission of $100,000 and a limited dual agency agreement authorizing Zhang to be agent for both buyer and seller.  

Two months later, on July 14, 2015, Li assigned the contract of purchase to a numbered company, 1035566 B.C. Ltd., for $600,000, representing a total purchase price for the property to the assignee of $5.7 million. The next day, Tsai signed an addendum to the deal, extending possession and adjustment dates for the transition from the end of October to the start of December. 

“That addendum contained a clause expressly reserving Mr. Li’s right to assign the contract to any third party without notice to Mr. Tsai. Mr. Zhang of Sincere acted as Mr. Li’s broker for the purpose of the assignment and also secured Mr. Tsai’s signature on the Addendum the following day,” Kent wrote.  

Tsai received a $5,000 cheque on July 15, drawn from the numbered company’s bank account, with the notation: “For the extension of completion from Oct 30 to Nov 30.” The contract was further assigned by the numbered company to Lian Zhang, who is not related to Sincere’s Zhang, for $6.3 million. 

Tsai claimed he was unaware of the assignment transactions until mid-October of that year and filed a lawsuit on Oct. 23, 2015. He refused to complete sale of the property on Nov. 30, 2015. In expert reports to the court, the May 2015 property value was estimated at between $5 million and $5.645 million. BC Assessment set the five-bedroom, five-bathroom house at $6.01 million last year.

Court documents include various WeChat messages between Li and Zhang from March to December 2015. During some of the exchanges they refer to themselves as “brother” or “bro.” 

“Some exchanges relate to the property that is the subject matter of the present litigation, as well as to over 40 other properties,” Kent wrote. 

“The fact that Mr. Li and Mr. Zhang may have been friends before the transaction with Mr. Tsai may have no legal significance whatsoever.  In the context of a dual agency scenario, however, skeptics might suggest otherwise. And it must not be overlooked that Mr. Tsai has sworn under oath that he was effectively deceived by Mr. Zhang. First, he portrays himself as an elderly, retired gentleman with a poor command of the English language and whose cataracts make reading difficult for him in any event. “

New provincial rules to stop shadow flipping and dual agency came into effect across British Columbia last month. 

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Bob Mackin  A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered

Miscellany, News, Opinion

Bob Mackin

A B.C. Supreme Court judge agreed with lawyers for the BC Liberal Party and quashed a lawsuit aimed at forcing the party to repay the public treasury for millions of dollars of partisan pre-election ads. 

David Trapp, a retired, 63-year-old TransLink network analyst, had sued the BC Liberals and the B.C. government on March 20, 2017. He claimed the government breached its fiduciary duty to taxpayers by diverting money for use by the governing party on a pre-election ad blitz aimed at winning re-election. Trapp’s lawsuit alleged that the BC Liberals had conspired to be unjustly enriched and committed conversion.

The BC Liberal government ad campaign that sparked a lawsuit. (BC Gov)

In his April 10 written ruling, Justice Ward Branch said that a political party is an unincorporated association that cannot be sued. The party’s argument was supported by a 1987 Ontario Superior Court ruling that stated, “At common law, political parties, like trade unions, have had no legal existence.”

In a Feb. 23 hearing, Trapp’s lawyers, Paul Doroshenko and David Fai, unsuccessfully argued that political parties should be considered legal entities because they must be registered, state their assets and liabilities, appoint a financial agent and auditor, and be governed by expense limits and other laws. The BC Liberals were represented by lawyers Andrew Borrell and Caroline Senini of Fasken, the firm behind $439,785 in donations to the party. 

“You can’t get recourse against political parties by suing them, it’s unfortunate for our society,” Doroshenko said in an interview. “It opens it up for them to be able to abuse that. I guess that’s what they did, they know they can get away with it.”

Branch wrote that the key question was whether provincial tax dollars are “goods of the plaintiff” that can be the subject of the conversion claim against the BC Liberals. 

“I find they are not,” Branch wrote. “Once tax dollars enter the government’s coffers, it would not be proper to characterize those as goods of the plaintiff. Rather they become the property of the government. Decisions made by public officials in pursuit of the public good often cause adverse effects on private interests. But that will not, without more, establish a private interest in public money enforceable in tort.”

Branch also wrote that the only deprivation alleged by the plaintiff under the claim for unjust enrichment was that the government failed to expend funds on other worthy causes. 

“Taxpayers cannot generally control how government funds are spent,” Branch wrote. “There is no guarantee that any monies spent on other objects would necessarily be spent on causes favoured by each and every taxpayer. Indeed, it is virtually assured that they will not be.”

Branch suggested four alternative means for the plaintiff to go about righting the wrong: quasi-criminal proceedings under the Election Act; criminal prosecution for breach of trust under the Criminal Code; a claim for malfeasance in public office; or voting out the party who performed the wrongful acts in an election. 

“We’ve already done one,” Doroshenko said. “The discussion that was thrust out there to the public assisted the public to vote the way they did. We’re investigating the other ones.”

When he filed the lawsuit, former cancer patient Trapp said the government should spend money on “real doctors, not spin doctors.” 

His statement of claim said the party had raised enough money on its own — more than $32.6 million since the 2013 election — that it could afford to pay for its own campaign and not rely on taxpayers. 

Doroshenko is a former BC Liberal volunteer who worked on ex-Premier Gordon Campbell’s riding campaigns. He said NDP advertising waste in the 1990s spurred his activism to help the Liberals win the 2001 election. Campbell banned non-essential advertising in the four-month lead-up to the 2009 election, a policy that Christy Clark scrapped after she became premier in 2011. In opposition in 1999, Clark had been an outspoken foe of NDP advertising waste.  

During Clark’s last fiscal year in office, the party spent $20.5 million of taxpayers’ funds on advertising, but only $1.6 million was deemed statutory. Nearly $15.4 million went to four companies for the “Our Opportunity Is Here” campaign. Companies owned by BC Liberal party workers Kim Pickett ($2.5 million) and Jatinder Rai ($503,000) were among the four suppliers. 

Lawyer Doroshenko

Clark unleashed the “Our Opportunity Is Here” campaign in November 2015, strategically designed to position the BC Liberals for a 2017 win. The Clark Clique wound up losing nine seats and its majority, setting the stage for the Green-supported NDP’s rise to power.

Before the last election, the NDP had promised to enact a law giving the auditor general veto power over government ad campaigns. Premier John Horgan’s government has not yet tabled such a bill. Instead, it has embarked on an ad blitz on multiple fronts: $1.325 million on budget-related ads, $2 million on anti-overdose ads and $300,000 for an electoral reform campaign. ICBC, meanwhile, has spent $800,000 for ads about its financial troubles and BC Hydro is amid a $1.3 million campaign to promote household energy saving. 

“Neither one of us are letting it go,” Doroshenko said. “We’re going to try and figure out how we can call attention to it and get our politicians to look at their behaviour here. There is nothing more offensive than to use taxpayer money to promote their party.” 

Meanwhile, the Elections BC database shows a $300 donation to the BC Liberal Party from a Ward Branch, dated March 31, 2017. A man with the same name also made two donations to the B.C. NDP in spring 2013 worth $150 and $250. At the time of the BC Liberal donation, Branch was a managing partner at Branch MacMaster LLP. The class-action specialist was appointed to the B.C. Supreme Court on June 9, 2017. 

theBreaker asked Bruce Cohen, the communications officer for B.C.’s superior courts, to confirm whether the Ward Branch who donated to the BC Liberal Party before the 2017 election is now the B.C. Supreme Court judge. “I have no comment in response to your inquiry,” Cohen said by email. 

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Bob Mackin A B.C. Supreme Court judge agreed

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Bob Mackin

Sources tell theBreaker that Linda Hepner, the Mayor of Surrey, will not run for re-election this fall. 

Her party, Surrey First, is holding its annual general meeting tonight and it is expected that Coun. Tom Gill will become candidate for mayor in the Oct. 20 election. A news conference has been scheduled for April 11 in the morning at Surrey city hall. 

Hepner, 69, is the 36th mayor of Surrey, who succeeded her mentor, Dianne Watts, in 2014. The New Brunswick native is a former city hall bureaucrat who ran for a seat on city council under Doug McCallum’s Surrey Electors Team in 2005 and later defected to Surrey First.

Hepner’s spokesman, Oliver Lum, neither confirmed nor denied an announcement was forthcoming. He also would not comment when theBreaker asked if Hepner was going to run this fall.  There was no answer on Hepner’s home phone number and she has not immediately replied to the message.

Hepner will join Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson, North Vancouver City’s Darrell Mussatto, North Vancouver District’s Richard Walton, Port Coquitlam’s Greg Moore and Delta’s Lois Jackson as mayors who will not stand for re-election. That means 1.45 million residents of the Lower Mainland are governed by lame duck mayors until Oct. 20, when they voters will go to the polls to elect new mayors. 

UPDATE: Surrey city hall made it official at 7 p.m., with a statement from Hepner. She will be holding a news conference on April 11 at 9:30 a.m. at Surrey city hall. 

“For 33 years the City of Surrey has been a chosen priority in my life and I have been honoured to serve the people of this City. Now after this four year term as Mayor, nine years as Councillor and more than two decades as a senior staff member, I have decided not to seek re-election at the end of this Council term… I have thought long and hard about this and it has not been an easy decision to make, but I sincerely believe that now is the right time to dedicate more time to my family and friends… Finally, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to the people of Surrey for their ongoing trust and support. It has been an honour and privilege to serve you and the City of Surrey.”

More to come…

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Bob Mackin Sources tell theBreaker that Linda Hepner,

Miscellany, Sports

Bob Mackin

Rod the Mod is back, for one night only, tonight at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. 

Did you know that Rod Stewart was briefly signed to a contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps of the North American Soccer League? 

Rod Stewart’s July 10, 1984 contract with the NASL Whitecaps.

During what would be the final NASL season at B.C. Place Stadium in 1984, the club was searching for ways to put bums in seats again. The honeymoon from the previous season’s move from Empire Stadium to Canada’s first inflated-dome stadium had worn off. There were other challenges that season. A double-whammy of labour unrest affected transportation and communication in the city that would host a world’s fair on those themes in just two years. 

Reporters and photographers from Pacific Press, the publisher of the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers, walked the picket line for much of spring. Then Metro Transit bus drivers walked the picket lines for much of the summer. 

Rod Stewart with Celtic Supporters in Vancouver in April 2011 (Facebook)

Someone in the Whitecaps’ front office had the clever idea to capitalize on the Vancouver stop of Stewart’s Camouflage tour at the Pacific Coliseum on July 10, 1984 (featuring Jeff Beck on guitar). They knew Stewart was the world’s most-famous fan of Glasgow, Scotland’s beloved Celtic FC and he likes to kick soccer balls into the crowd at his concerts.

So they offered him a contract with the Whitecaps. For a sum, the contract says, that was “to be negotiated.”

Stewart inked the deal, “c/o Pacific Coliseum,” with Whitecaps’ coach Alan Hinton. 

On April 22, 2011, Stewart was on another tour through Vancouver. He stuck around Vancouver to join the Vancouver Shamrock Celtic Supporters Club on April 24, 2011 at Library Square Public House to watch the Hoops play to a scoreless tie against Rangers.

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Bob Mackin Rod the Mod is back, for

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Bob Mackin 

A funny thing happened on the way to the Leader’s Levee. 

A booze binge. 

No, not me. The NDP.

Ex-NDP corporate fundraiser Rob Nagai with John Horgan. (Twitter)

Elections BC released the governing party’s 2017 annual report on April 9. Premier John Horgan’s biggest fundraiser after the May 9 election was at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver last Sept. 22, for what was billed as the Leader’s Levee.

The cash for access cocktail party drew 443 who paid $550-a-pop. Another 58 paid $165 each. The party grossed almost $200,000 and netted $125,228.18. Only two reporters, including yours truly, attended the event, but access was severely limited. There were no interviews allowed with Horgan and reporters were not allowed to freely circulate in the ballroom. 

When the speech was over and party president Craig Keating conducted a brief scrum, reporters were ushered out the door.  

The Elections BC database does not make it clear who donated to the Sept. 22 event, so more digging is required. But a look at the day before, Sept. 21, revealed the sleeper story. 

On the last day of summer, the party reported $670,434.48 in donations — approximately $370,000 in big money contributions from the liquor industry. 

Some of the donors (and amounts) included: Alpenhaus Restaurants ($100,000); Paddlewheeler, John B. Pub, Byrton Liquor Warehouse, Woody’s Sports Pub Inc. Liquor Store ($20,000 each); Langley Hospitality Inc. Samz Neighbourhood Pub ($15,000), Oliver Twist Neighbourhood Pub, Monarc Hospitality Corp., Jericho Liquor Store, Sapperton Liquor Store, Two Parrots Pub and Liquor Store ($10,000 each), Queen’s Cross, Black Bear Pub, Berezan LRS Langley, Berezan LRS White Rock, Berezan LRS Hwy 33 ($5,000 each).

On the same day, Terrim Properties donated $25,000 each from its Chances Salmon Arm and Chances Castlegar casinos. Those are also Ralph Berezan-owned enterprises. 

“It reads like a Liberals’ donor list,” said Dermod Travis of IntegrityBC. “I’m actually surprised at the groups they took money from. It’s not going to go over well in the party.” 

Travis also noticed 11 of the cheques from pub and liquor store owners were each for the identical amount of $1,818. 

The NDP fundraising flurry eclipsed a March 24, 2010 event hosted by then-BC Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell and perennial liquor minister Rich Coleman at the Gotham Steakhouse in downtown Vancouver. On that day, just weeks before industry-pleasing Liquor Control and Licensing Act amendments, the BC Liberals raised $302,500. At least a dozen liquor businesses donated $15,000 each for that event. 

Did the liquor loot have an impact on the fledgling NDP government? 

Save-On-Foods president Darrell Jones leaves an NDP fundraiser on Sept. 22, 2017 at the Hotel Vancouver (Mackin)

You be the judge. 

Attorney General David Eby announced Nov. 7 that he had retained wine lawyer Mark Hicken as a liquor policy analyst and industry liaison. On Feb. 23, Eby announced Hicken would chair a Business Technical Advisory Panel, to include members from the major provincial lobby groups representing the wine, craft beer, craft distillers, national beer brands, restaurant industry and private liquor stores. 

For the 2017 calendar year, the NDP reported raising $15.3 million in donations and an $820,000 surplus. The BC Liberals, who lost power when the NDP and Greens forced a June 29 no confidence vote, reported $12.75 million in donations, but a whopping deficit of $7.36 million.

The NDP banned corporate and union donations and set $1,200 as the maximum for individuals to donate. 

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Bob Mackin  A funny thing happened on the

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Will Facebook survive the snowballing scandal around its sharing of users’ data with political campaign data miners?

Last week, Facebook admitted that data for at least 87 million users was shared improperly with Cambridge Analytica. Documents suggest the company involved in the Brexit and Trump campaigns had a franchise in Victoria, B.C. called AggregateIQ. Authorities in the United Kingdom and Canada are investigating.

On this edition of theBreaker.news Podcast, host Bob Mackin interviews Kwantlen Polytechnic University criminology professor Mike Larsen.

Larsen researches state secrecy and is the president of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. He is not surprised that political parties exploited social media channels to gain voter intelligence and spread their slogans. But he also wonders whether political parties actually see social media users as adversaries.  

“I’m sure a lot of politcal campaigns regard this as money well-spent,” Larsen said, “to be able to get, in a fairly short turnaround, reams of predictive information that allows for not just for targeted campaigning campaigning towards people who might be receptive to a message, but also towards some fairly nefarious disruption and discouragement activities.”

In the interview, Larsen also offers privacy tips for the public and solutions for regulators. 

Also on this edition, commentaries about the good, the bad and the ugly of British Columbia, and the regular scan of headlines around Cascadia and the Pacific Rim. 

Listen by clicking below or go to iTunes and subscribe. 

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

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Will Facebook survive the snowballing scandal around

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Bob Mackin

A principal of the company that tore down North Burnaby’s Royal Canadian Legion, and reneged on promises to rebuild it, played a key role in a US$75 million deal for 618 acres of vacant land near Palm Springs. 

Vancouver’s Clarity Real Estate landed The Eagle in Rancho Mirage, Calif. (Asset Solutions Group)

But it does not appear that Epta Properties vice-president of finance, Alex B. Tsakumis, was left with a significant stake in the deal. 

The Desert Sun newspaper in California reported March 28 that EC Rancho Mirage Holdings GP Corp. bought the trophy property, known as Section 31, at the geographical centre of Rancho Mirage. 

Russell Holmes, vice-president of Clarity Real Estate, said his company led the deal for what is also known as The Eagle. It is adjacent to Sunnylands, the former estate of Walter Annenberg, who published TV Guide and Daily Racing Form in their heyday. The private resort and golf club came to be known as the “Camp David of the West” for hosting the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and Xi Jinping. 

Holmes said that the majority of capital for the transaction came from two New York family offices. He declined to identify them. Likewise, he declined to name the principals of Clarity, other than to say that they are also managers at Second City Capital Partners of Vancouver. Holmes said Second City chair Sam Belzberg is not affiliated with Clarity. Coincidentally, and tragically, Belzberg died March 30 in a Vancouver hospital after suffering a stroke. The private equity investor and philanthropist was 89. 

The Rancho Mirage land is zoned for residential, resort hotel, commercial and retail use, but Holmes said there are no definite plans yet. 

“We’re still very early in our planning and envisioning processes and we haven’t yet assembled our full, world-class team of developers and consultants,” Holmes said. 

Holmes called Epta “instrumental in sourcing the acquisition, as well as forming the entity that put it under contract,” but he wouldn’t say how much, if any, equity that Tsakumis, his two brothers and father have in the deal. 

“I can’t speak to the exact equity partners, but I spoke to the two New York family offices and Clarity forming the majority of the equity,” Holmes said. 

Vacant Burnaby Heights lot where a Royal Candian Legion stood until developer Epta demolished it. (Mackin)

Tsakumis did not respond to theBreaker’s request for an interview. He listed the address of a $2.158 million-assessed house in West Vancouver’s Eagle Harbour neighbourhood on the Nov. 30, 2017 California corporate registration. The form said EC Rancho Mirage Holdings GP was incorporated last May 2 in Delaware. 

His cousin is a former media commentator who emphatically denied any connection with Epta. Last November, Trigate Properties CEO Alex G. Tsakumis said his company has no overlapping interests or directors with Epta. 

“We have never had anything to do with Epta Properties, and we will never have anything to do with Epta Properties — ever, period,” said Alex G. Tsakumis.

Last November, theBreaker reported that Epta was negotiating for prime land in Greater Palm Springs. At the time, CBRE listing agent Jeff Woolson would only say the land was under contract. Woolson was the broker for sellers Stark RM Eagle LLC and Difference RM Properties LLC. He referred theBreaker to Holmes. 

Epta has been a party in more than 40 court actions in British Columbia and it never put a shovel in the ground to rebuild the Branch 148 Legion Hall in North Burnaby after demolishing the 1955-built social venue for war veterans. It vowed in 2013 to build a new Legion canteen within the mixed-use Centro, with two dozen condos, by fall 2015. Epta paid the Legion’s $145,000 tax bill for 2014. It took out a $3.1 million loan, but claimed $2.82 million in costs, including a $700,000 “development management fee.” 

Instead of suing Epta or giving it more time to begin construction, members of the cash-strapped Legion voted to sell the property to Beedie Development Corp., even if that meant the canteen plan would fall by the wayside. The site remains vacant.

Alex B. (left), Chris, Angelo and Bill Tsakumis (Epta).

Epta’s related company, Apollo, started as a wine importer and became a major cranberry grower for giant Ocean Spray. Court filings show that, over a seven-year period, Apollo advanced $5.9 million from its cranberry farming cashflow to related parties, “with the majority of the advances made to Epta Properties Ltd.”

Apollo was in default to Farm Credit Canada in January 2015 when it owed $23.626 million to secured creditors, primarily Farm Credit ($17.3 million) and First West ($4 million). In July 2015, Apollo reached a deal to sell the land, buildings, equipment, permits and contracts to D.R. Barnston Holdings Ltd. for $24.875 million, with a Feb. 11, 2016 closing date.

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Bob Mackin A principal of the company that

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Bob Mackin

When he was the leader of the opposition and the BC Liberals gave advertising contracts to friends of Christy Clark, John Horgan slammed the governing party for “padding the pockets of their political pals.” 

Horgan’s premiership is barely nine months old and the NDP has given a second patronage gig to the Vancouver ad agency that helped the party regain power last year.

Scenes from the Now Communications Group ad on budgetary housing measures (BC Gov)

Now Communications Group is one of three shops behind the $725,000 “Working for B.C.” campaign that promotes taxes on foreign home buyers and speculators, as announced in the February budget. Captus Advertising and Trapeze Communications are the other two. Vizeum and Jungle were the media buyers. 

Now also had the contract on the $600,000 budget ad campaign. 

The Government Communications and Public Engagement department put Now and nine others on a preferred suppliers list, to avoid publicly tendering every contract worth $75,000 or more. The NDP-appointed bureaucrat who oversees the government’s advertising and marketing office is Robb Gibbs, the former Now creative director and husband of ex-Now CEO Marie Della Mattia. 

Della Mattia quit in 2016 to become Horgan’s campaign advisor. Her sister (and Gibbs’s sister-in-law) Michele Della Mattia remains Now’s vice-president of operations. 

Now was launched at the end of 1991 by Ron Johnson and Shane Lunny from the team that helped Mike Harcourt become B.C.’s second NDP premier. Now’s $165,000 contract in March 1992 for the Commission on Resources and Environment was the Harcourt government’s first scandal. 

Marie Della Mattia (left), Robb Gibbs and Michele Della Mattia.

Johnson, ironically, co-wrote the party’s 1991 platform, which bluntly stated that a “Harcourt government will put an end to secret deals and special favours for political friends.” 

In May 1995, Auditor General George Morfitt reported that the NDP government spent $21.3 million on contracts with 10 ad agencies over four years, but Now was the top supplier at $4.8 million. Despite Now’s close ties with Harcourt, Morfitt surprised the ad industry by finding no pattern of favouritism. He was, however, “perturbed” that Now concealed the names and amounts paid to some of its subcontractors from the U.S.

From November 2015 to March 2017, the BC Liberals spent $20.5 million on the controversial “Our Opportunity Is Here” B.C. services campaign, which sparked a class action lawsuit that ultimately wants the party to repay the public treasury. Agencies owned by Clark cronies Jatinder Rai and Kim Pickett were among the four main contractors for the campaign. 

Paul Doroshenko, one of the lawyers behind the lawsuit, Tweeted on March 31 that NDP government ad campaigns paid for with tax money were “as bad as the BC Liberals.” 

“It’s condoning the dirty theft of tax money by the BC Liberals,” Doroshenko wrote. “It’s an insult to British Columbians.”

The NDP promised it would ban partisan advertising by the government and that it would empower the auditor general to approve or reject ad campaigns. But the Horgan government has done neither so far.

The “Working for B.C.” ad includes several slogans, including a repeat of the 10-year goal of building “114,000 new homes”  that appeared in the 2017 election platform.

NDP ad agency Now Communications Group.

The NDP budget ad campaign is the most-important, so far, from a strategic standpoint. But it is not the most-expensive. 

The StopOverdoseBC ad campaign through Traction Creative, Vizeum and Jungle Media is costing $2 million. The NDP government also ran a $300,000 campaign through St. Bernadine Mission and Captus Advertising to promote the “How We Vote” public comment period for electoral system reform. Meanwhile, ICBC has spent $800,000 on ads about its troubles, despite being close to insolvency. BC Hydro hiked rates 3% on April 1, but is in the middle of a $1.3 million ad blitz about household energy saving. 

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Miscellany, News, Opinion

Bob Mackin 

Three months after WorkSafeBC slapped TransLink with a whopping six-figure fine that led to an executive shakeup, the TransLink division that operates SkyTrain has rebranded. 

Cake served at TransLink staff lunch on March 13 (TransLink)

An internal video leaked to theBreaker shows a March 13 lunch for SkyTrain and West Coast Express staff at the Burnaby Firefighters’ Hall. Executives gave away coffee mugs and pieces of cake while outlining a communications plan rife with slogans, icons and ads. 

B.C. Rapid Transit Company, the name of TransLink’s rail division, has been rebranded as “SkyTrain Delivered by B.C. Rapid Transit Company.”

Last Dec. 19, WorkSafeBC fined TransLink $607,497.56 after a May 26, 2017 incident during passenger operating hours at Nanaimo Station. Two electricians were working on an energized electrical panel when an arc flash occurred. One of the workers was seriously burned. According to WorkSafeBC, TransLink has paid the penalty, but it is under appeal. 

Coffee mugs from gift bags for SkyTrain staff (TransLink)

“WorkSafeBC’s investigation determined that the panel had not been completely locked out before work began,” said the WorkSafeBC log entry for the province’s fourth-biggest fine of 2017. “The employer failed to ensure energy sources were isolated and effectively controlled, and that energy isolation devices were secured using appropriate locks. These were high-risk violations. The employer also failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety.”

The incident happened almost three years after a five-hour outage on the Expo and Millennium lines caused by an unsupervised electrician using a non-insulated screwdriver on a panel. A report on the July 21, 2014 incident stated that: “Although standard operating procedures did not restrict this from occurring during operating hours, they also did not state that it could occur during operating hours.”

The presentation — at least the version that made the cut for the slick, 12-minute video — does not mention the hefty fine or appeal. 

The fine led to the Jan. 8 departure of health, safety, training and environment director Natalia Skapski. Her interim replacement, Eva Kaczmarczyk, told the March 13 meeting that an environmental and emergency management system would be developed by the third quarter of 2018 and a new safety management system would be phased-in starting in the fourth quarter. 

SkyTrain GM Vivienne King (TransLink)

General manager Vivienne King vowed her division will “go from good to great,” by emphasizing a new “safety first” slogan on internal and external posters, banners and billboards. She stressed a five-year plan to encourage teamwork, support and excellence. 

Operations vice-president Mike Richard said training for supervisors would be established in the fourth quarter, while maintenance vice-president Richard Sykes said the two-week planning window for rail network access to perform maintenance would be extended by two weeks by the fourth quarter. 

“That’s a big ask, but be happy if we can move from two weeks to four weeks, and maybe have a six or an eight week outlook in a couple of years time,” Sykes said. “It will take time. State of good repair will take time, change takes time. What I need you all is to come with me on the journey.”

Sajeeta Saroop, the customer experience and public support director, said another round of focus groups is being conducted, to find out what passengers want, need and expect for system cleanliness and communications. She suggested TransLink examine the cleaning contract and station announcements. 

“Let’s do an audit of all of our train announcements and see if they’re the right ones,” Saroop said. “Do we need to add more to it?”

The event was emceed by consultant Karen Elliott, who is, coincidentally, a Squamish city councillor. 

The former BCRTC seems to be in major catch-up mode, having a better-late-than-never epiphany about the vital importance of safety. After all, it has been in business since the December 1985 launch of SkyTrain’s Expo Line. It expanded with the Millennium Line (2002), Canada Line (2009) and Evergreen Line (2016).

The B.C. NDP government is on the verge of green-lighting the Broadway subway and Surrey light rail. TransLink has not publicly updated cost estimates since 2014, but has conceded that prices have ballooned because of escalation in land, labour and materials costs. 

UPDATE (April 17): TransLink staffers were informed in a memo from King that Sykes is no longer with the company. “I would like to thank him for his service and contributions,” King wrote in a mass email to “all users” at SkyTrain. 

Chun Ho Lau, the director of asset management and engineering, was immediately named as Sykes’s interim replacement. No reason was given. Neither King, nor CEO Kevin Desmond nor anyone in TransLink’s media relations department responded to theBreaker. 

Ex-SkyTrain VP Richard Sykes (TransLink)

Despite the recent rebranding, King started the email with the salutation “Hello BCRTC” and her email signature remains the organization’s old logo. 

Geoff Morbey, director of assurance in the maintenance division, wrote in a memo to Sykes’s ex-subordinates that the division would “continue as before, along the same path towards the overall vision and strategy as you have all heard Richard discuss.

“I reallize that some of you have built a strong working relationship with Richard and this has come as a shock.” 

Sykes came to TransLink in 2014 from London’s Docklands Light Railway, where he was general manager of rolling stock during a period that included the London 2012 Olympics. Lau also worked at the Serco-owned operation, as the senior project engineer of rolling stock engineering.

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Bob Mackin  Three months after WorkSafeBC slapped TransLink

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