John Winter is the public face of Future Prosperity B.C. Inc., a BC Liberal surrogate that launched an anti-NDP attack campaign on Jan. 10.
But the ex-B.C. Chamber of Commerce head is only one-third of the triumvirate behind the Oct. 6, 2016-incorporated venture aimed at re-electing Premier Christy Clark.
Jim Laurence (LinkedIn)
Frank Pasacreta (LinkedIn)
theBreaker has learned that Frank Pasacreta and Jim Laurence are the other directors. You won’t find anything about their past on the Future Prosperity of B.C. Inc. website. That’s because only Winter’s name is disclosed.
Pasacreta spent 20 years with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, climbing from vice-president of operations to CEO, until retiring in 2007. He also spent a decade as the chair of the province’s Industry Training Authority before Premier Christy Clark replaced him in 2014 with Gwyn Morgan, the ex-chair of scandal-plagued SNC-Lavalin.
On Nov. 30, 2016, Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson reappointed Pasacreta to the board of the Degree Quality Assessment Board, which vets applications for new post-secondary degrees and decides whether a university can be called a university.
Between 2005 and 2013, Pasacreta donated $237,319 to the BC Liberals via the BCMEA.
Laurence is president and COO at Magil Construction Pacific Inc., the Vancouver arm of the Montreal construction giant. Magil donated $8,528.66 on Dec. 31, 2015.
Bocci aficionado Laurence is better known in local construction circles for chairing the non-union construction lobby Independent Contractors and Business Association of B.C. between 1999 and 2008. He also founded Merit Canada, the national lobby for ICBA and seven other provincial non-union construction associations.
ICBA donated $245,934.50 to the BC Liberals over a decade, of which $47,022 was contributed from 2005 to 2008 during Laurence’s chairmanship.
Shaun Webb of Harper and Associates (LinkedIn)
The address listed for Winter on the corporate registration matches with law firm Fasken Martineau, a $356,760 donor to the BC Liberals between 2005 and 2015.
One name you will find on the Winter, Pasacreta and Laurence company’s SayAnythingJohn.ca website is Shaun Webb, the media relations contact.
Webb worked in North Vancouver Conservative MP Andrew Saxton’s office from 2008 to 2010, managed his 2011 and 2015 campaigns and spent a year as a policy advisor in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office. Webb is now employed by the ex-PM’s Harper and Associates Consulting firm, but says he is working on Future Prosperity B.C. Inc. on his own time.
There are no restrictions on election advertising by third parties or registered political parties before the official election period, which is scheduled to begin April 11. The Future Prosperity B.C. Inc. website does not show who is funding its campaign, but it says donations are not tax deductible.
Staff in the Premier’s office experienced regal sticker shock last September when they were buying gifts from the Premier’s fave fashion designer for Will and Kate and their kids.
Premier Christy Clark giving the Cambridges gifts designed by Chloë Angus and Haida artist Clarence Mills. (Angus/Facebook)
“[Aide] Ina Gjoka called with a request from Premier Clark,” Kelly Brubacher, the Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat executive director, wrote Sept. 13, 2016. “She is having a dress made by Vancouver designer Chloë Angus with First Nations art work on it for the upcoming royal visit. I gather this same artist made a green top that [Clark] has worn several times this past year.
“Premier is now requesting that a blanket be made by the same artist to be gifted to [Their Royal Highnesses] when they visit B.C. The designer is needing an emblem, such as the coat of arms to be added to the blanket. Ina wanted to check with our office to ensure this is done correctly.”
Angus is a Dunbar-based fashion designer who hails from the Sunshine Coast. A news release written by her public relations agent described Angus as the “exclusive wardrobe provider” for Clark during the Sept. 24 to Oct. 1 royal visit.
Angus originally invoiced Sept. 14 for a custom bear blanket with faith buttons costing $1,344, including taxes, according to records released under freedom of information.
Then came the scope creep.
A Sept. 20 email from Clark aide Adam McPhee to protocol chief Lucy Lobmeier said: “It is my understanding that we will also be giving an outfit/shawl to her highness as well. Need to confirm if this is a gift from Chloë Angus or the province.”
On Sept. 23, Angus invoiced $1,770.72 for: the $1,200 cream bear blanket with buttons, $93 spirit button wrap (for Duchess Kate), one $89 child’s sapphire bow tie (for Prince George), one men’s sapphire bow tie (for Prince William) for $129 and a $70 child’s spirit button wrap (for Princess Charlotte). All items bore the bear stylings of Haida artist Clarence Mills.
Then Lobmeier emailed McPhee on Sept. 23. “Hi Adam. Just confirming that we asked for all of these items including the bow ties. The total cost is higher than we expected.”
You might remember Feb. 11, 2016, when Premier Christy “Amor de Camera” Clark clowned around during a photo op with Burnaby crooner Michael Buble. Clark was at Bryan Adams’ Warehouse Studio to dole out a $15 million grant for the fledgling B.C. Music Fund.
Documents, however, show that the head of the national music industry lobby really wanted a tax break instead.
Premier Christy Clark (left) and Michael Buble. (BC Gov)
According to email released under freedom of information to the NDP, Music Canada president Graham Henderson was quite clear to Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s chief of staff, Brian Menzies.
“In my meeting with Neil [Sweeney, corporate policy deputy minister] and Michelle [Cadario, deputy chief of staff], they told me there was some confusion about exactly what we were asking for,” Henderson wrote. “That some officials concluded it was a grant. I made it clear to the Minister’s satisfaction that such was not the case. I am attaching a revised document that removes ALL references to a grant.”
Menzies explained that when the government writes a cheque, “it’s called a grant; when we allow for a rebate on your taxes, it’s a credit.”
“Will your folks be waiting post filing of taxes for a refund (tax credit) — or will they be seeking out a financial contribution for which is greater than taxes submitted? The film tax credit is a misnomer — it’s a grant. You’re looking for 15 million (to) be redistributed — correct — not for us to offset tax revenues by 15 million. Please clarify.”
Henderson put it bluntly on Jan. 15, 2016.
“Music Canada is proposing a fully-refundable music production tax credit. The application process would be similar to the British Columbia Production Services Tax Credit but with adaptations to suit music business activities including production, distribution, touring, capital investment in facilities, and tourism generated by music festivals and live music. In addition, we would offer suggestions as to how to cap the tax credit at $15 million annually through a combination of pre-approvals an maximum allowable credit amounts, I though this was clear from our documentation, but it appears different folks characterize the request with different terminology. Is this clear now?”
Henderson contacted Menzies again in the morning of Jan. 19 and changed his tune. If they couldn’t rock out to a grant, they’d roll with a tax credit.
“Regarding the format of the strategy, I have had a lengthy conversation with an analyst, Paul Flanagan. And Brad has spoken to Michelle Cadario. It sounds like we just need to sort out what works best for MC and Finance — fully refundable tax credit or grant; the Premier’s office is agnostic.”
Later the same day, one of Music Canada’s B.C. lobbyists chimed-in. None other than Brad Zubyk, who plays the “zu” in the Liberal insider “band” Wazuku.
“I know you guys are swamped ahead of the budget but just following up on the e-mail from Graham Henderson,” Zubyk wrote to Menzies. “Graham has been in discussions with finance officials and just wants to verify that your Minister has no preferred option. Music Canada is good with either scenario but Is looking for your (very quick) input.”
NDP critic Spencer Chandra Herbert wonders who really benefited from the grant, because, he said, it looks more like “the Premier’s buddies getting a win for their client.”
Chandra Herbert said he is in favour of greater support for the creative sector if it is done the right way with proper business planning.
“With a grant, you can throw the money out the door. With a tax credit, there is more accountability,” Chandra Herbert said.
“It’s like pick your poison, there are problems with either a tax credit or grant,” said Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation. “Either way, this is not what we should be paying tax money for. Tax money should be going for necessities.”
Bateman said $15 million could have been better used to seismically upgrade schools or battle the fentanyl overdose crisis.
In the end, the Premier got her photo op with superstar Buble and the music industry scored some free dough.
Remember when the B.C. Liberal government issued its “Debunking Massey replacement myths” news release in early 2016?
Alleged “Myth #4” about the $3.5 billion plan to replace the four-lane tunnel with a 10-lane bridge was “this project is being driven by Port Metro Vancouver.”
The 1959-built Massey Tunnel (Mackin)
Documents released under freedom of information laws show that Port of Vancouver was indeed deeply involved in lobbying the government to replace the tunnel with a bridge. The federal Port authority wants bigger freighters to ply the Fraser River.
A Feb. 16, 2016 “Marine Clearance” briefing note to Todd Stone, the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, claimed four of the six tunnel segments would be removed to make way for the bridge. It said there would be no significant impact on the size of the ships because of other utilities and the tunnel is “currently flush with the bottom of the river channel.”
“In early discussions, [Port of Vancouver] informally advised of potentially larger Post-Panamax vessels using the River (366m length x 49m beam x 15.2m draft), as well as a preference for a clearance of 65 m to allow for Solstice class cruise ships to pass under the new bridge,” said the briefing note by project director Geoff Freer.
The government has consistently spun this project as a road traffic bottleneck remover, and its myth-debunker claimed that the bridge would be the same height as the Alex Fraser Bridge. But that news release omitted some important details.
Freer’s briefing note for Stone further says that the new bridge will still be high enough for most of the ships in the world to navigate under.
“[Port of Vancouver] have agreed that air clearances similar to the Alex Fraser Bridge are acceptable. These clearances range from 57 to 60 metres for a two-way shipping channel and 59 to 63 metres for a one-way shipping channel (the range is resulting from various tide levels).
“These proposed navigation envelopes would allow the passage for most of the world shipping fleet, including 94% of bulk carriers, 89% of container ships and 62% of liquid bulk (LNG) carriers, for a two-way channel; and 98% of bulk carriers, 96% of container ships and 70% of liquid bulk (LNG) carriers, for a one-way channel.”
B.C. government rendering of the proposed $3.5 billion Richmond-to-Delta bridge.
This means that shipping traffic up and down the Fraser still stands to increase with a bridge replacing the tunnel.
Signs near the tunnel say that construction is to begin in 2017. Completion would be as early as 2022.
The above information came under FOI from Stone’s budget estimates briefing book, which I requested on May 2, 2016.
It was finally delivered to me on Jan. 6, 2017. What should have been disclosed in 30 business days or less took eight calendar months and then some.
This is the kind of lacklustre performance that has become the hallmark of the BC Liberals under Premier Christy Clark.
Stone is the minister who was at the centre of the Triple Delete scandal in 2015. He is also co-chair, with Deputy Premier Rich Coleman, of the BC Liberal re-election committee, aka the committee to re-elect the Premier.
Where were you when the B.C. Place Stadium roof ripped and collapsed 10 years ago, after 12:33 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2007?
It was a cold day with occasional drizzle, even wet snow. I was at home, staying warm and dry, watching Canada beat Russia for the World Junior Hockey Championship on TSN. The phone rang. It was a friend that was not watching the game.
“Quick, turn on CKNW! B.C. Place’s roof is down!”
So I did. It was true. Less than a minute later, I called my editor at 24 Hours Vancouver, Dean Broughton. We agreed to rush downtown to the stadium on our day off.
The hole cut in B.C. Place’s roof on Jan. 5, 2007.
I also called a source who told me that the roof had numerous patches and that management had cut back on use of the snow-melting system to save money. The source gave me the phone number for the control room at the stadium. To my surprise, Linda Bilben from the stadium’s external public relations company, Reputations Corporation, answered and told me there would be a media briefing in an hour.
First, we went to the top of the Hampton Inn hotel on Beatty Street, which afforded us a view of the entire downed roof and the masses of snow, ice and slush strewn across the Teflon-coated Fibreglas surface. Then to the hastily called news conference at the east airlock door of the stadium. Reporters allowed were speechless as they gazed from a safe distance at the underside of the downed roof, the damaged lighting and sound equipment, and puddles of water and piles of snow.
B.C. Place’s collapsed roof, as seen from the Hampton Inn.
Throughout the next week, B.C. Place management stubbornly and vainly claimed that it came down by way of a “controlled deflation” and that wind was to blame. Meanwhile, my source leaked internal documents that proved otherwise and delivered eyewitness accounts of what was really going on inside the stadium. For instance, stadium operations director Brian Griffin was spotted watching the World Junior hockey final on a TV in the lunchroom, unaware that the roof-hung speaker cluster was drooping toward field level.
What happened? In a nutshell, nobody activated the roof-heating system in the 1983-opened stadium.
Management should have learned a lesson at Christmastime 1996, when staffers were called in to urgently shovel snow from the roof. They earned special golf shirts to commemorate their role in saving the roof and preventing cancellation of the New Year’s Eve Three Tenors concert.
General manager Howard Crosley indicated in a sit-down interview with me a week later that cost was a reason for not turning on the roof heater. He claimed the roof was withstanding the weight of the snow, ice and slush. NDP critic Guy Gentner charged that preservation of annual executive bonuses at PavCo was really behind the penny pinching which put the public asset at risk.
The roof was patched and reinflated in two weeks. But the main ceremonies stadium for the next Winter Olympics in 2010 gained worldwide attention for the wrong reasons.
BC Place general manager Howard Crosley (left) and operations director Brian Griffin in January 2007.
Despite PavCo’s best efforts to spin the story, we reported the key facts:
Snow had been allowed to accumulate, the temperature fluctuated and five snow alarms were ignored. Nobody turned on the snow-melting system.
In the absence of heat, a control room worker spiked the interior air pressure. But that jolted the mass of snow, ice and slush, causing it to cascade on the west side of the roof where it sliced a gash in the roof and air rapidly escaped the building as the fabric roof violently flapped.
B.C. Place, the home of pro sports franchises owned by billionaires, got ahead of the line for capital funding before earthquake-prone St. Paul’s Hospital.
The stadium was eventually renovated and a new roof constructed for $514 million after the Olympics.
The roofing job was too big and too complex to be done before the Games. The entire cost was on the shoulders of taxpayers after elements of the financing came apart.
Cabinet scuttled the $40 million Telus naming rights deal in early 2012. The BC Liberal government had been under fire for handing a $1 billion, 10-year omnibus contract to Telus in June 2011 after abruptly halting a two-year bidding process on nine separate contracts. Bidders Bell, Rogers and Shaw threatened legal action. Bell is the Whitecaps’ main sponsor and the club’s owner, Greg Kerfoot, is a friend of Campbell’s successor, Premier Christy Clark.
Inside B.C. Place, after the roof ripped and collapsed on Jan. 5, 2007.
In April 2011, Vancouver city council approved the relocation of Edgewater Casino from the Plaza of Nations to the parking lot on the stadium’s west side. But it refused to allow Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming to double its slot machines in the new facility. So the agreed $6 million-a-year lease payments with PavCo were halved to $3 million in a 2013 renegotiation.
The Musqueam Indian Band later negotiated for a piece of the action and will receive $8.5 million of the first $9 million in revenue when the Parq Vancouver casino/hotel complex finally opens later this year.
A decade later, five elements of the incident and its legacy stand out.
Spin cycle
PavCo’s PR company, Reputations Corporation, was quick on the scene Jan. 5, 2007. The company was responsible for the “controlled deflation” spin, which many media outlets wrongly took as gospel.
A quickie engineering report released a week later by Geiger Engineering, another PavCo contractor, put some of the blame on winds and the aging roof.
Winds were not a significant factor on the day. They peaked at around 20 km-h. Geiger corrected itself and completed its final report in October 2007.
Mysterious wish list
In July of 2007, we learned that B.C. Pavilion Corporation had asked its parent ministry, Tourism, to fund major upgrades more than six months before the incident.
The building would host the Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in February 2010 but was not scheduled for any significant modernization.
Chad Skelton at the Vancouver Sun had unearthed the heavily censored “Infrastructure Improvements” report via FOI. Fourteen of the 15 pages were blacked out.
The June 20, 2006 report said the stadium had “worn out assets which are critical to basic tenant operations” and improvements were required to “bring it up to standards expected by clients and spectators at events.”
As Skelton reported, Minister Stan Hagen was “unavailable.” Hagen’s spokesman first claimed there was nothing in the report about the roof, and then changed his story to say he didn’t know what was in the report. Crosley refused to comment.
Promises broken
Premier Gordon Campbell insisted that the renovation would require a business case approved by cabinet.
Campbell had come to power in 2001, vowing his BC Liberal government would never repeat the mistakes of the NDP’s Fast Ferries debacle. There would be evidence-based decision-making via business plans for every major project undertaken. His BC Liberals would also be the most open, accountable and democratic in Canada.
They failed that test.
My quest to get a copy of that business case and cost-benefit analysis for the renovation and roof replacement finally ended in failure in March 2016 when an adjudicator with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner ruled that the documents were protected by cabinet confidentiality.
We do know that Burgess Cawley Sullivan & Associates was hired to review the 2010 to 2014 business plan for the stadium, but we don’t know how deep it went.
Did the consultants consider the impact of an aging population, the end of sports TV blackouts as we know them, the proliferation of high definition TV and desire for content on mobile devices?
All of those challenges have combined to cause major attendance declines for sporting events at the 2011-reopened B.C. Place. The Major League Soccer Whitecaps haven’t opened level 4 once after six seasons and the B.C. Lions closed level 4 in 2015.
The skyline of Vancouver, after the B.C. Place roof ripped and collapsed Jan. 5, 2007.
Post-election sendoff
Crosley and operations manager Brian Griffin both kept their jobs. Not only that, but they were key figures in the renovation project.
While Griffin remains employed at PavCo, Crosley was mysteriously fired the day after the 2013 provincial election (the surprise Liberal win) and sent packing with a nearly half-million-dollar golden parachute.
Why did that happen?
Audit avoided, documents destroyed
Did taxpayers get value for their money?
We may never know.
In early 2013, with a provincial election looming, Auditor General John Doyle agreed to undertake a fact-finding mission after NDP critic Spencer Chandra Herbert complained. Chandra Herbert found a Jan. 22, 2008 letter from PavCo chair David Podmore to Vancouver’s city manager Judy Rogers. Podmore wrote that the cost would be “in the order of $100 million, which includes replacement of the roof.”
Rather than replace the inflatable roof, Podmore and co., with the Campbell cabinet’s blessing, decided on a German-engineered retractable system that would be built under a $365 million funding envelope announced in January 2009.
By the fall of 2009, the budget ballooned to $563 million.
After a power struggle with the BC Liberal government, Doyle went back to Australia without greenlighting an audit. (It would have required the contracting of external auditors, because B.C.’s auditor general is also the auditor for PavCo’s annual report).
In late 2015, my source gave me a tip about a paper-shredding truck that pulled up to the stadium for an afternoon. PavCo was forced to admit to me under a freedom of information request that it paid nearly $1,700 for a company to destroy 403 bankers boxes full of files spanning 1983 to 2009.
They included operations and engineering work logs.
What would those documents have told us about the events of Jan. 5, 2007?
My 24 Hours Vancouver news report on Jan. 5, 2007
The Skonenblades video of the roof ripping and collapsing
Welcome to theBreaker, your source for news, opinion and analysis about British Columbia issues and institutions. It is a vehicle to stop secrecy, unravel the spin and enable citizens to better scrutinize those who hold power and influence on the west coast of Canada and beyond.
Please send me your feedback and news tips. See the bottom of the page.
As a pivotal year dawns, the media industry is in decline and democracy is under attack around the world. Now, more than ever, citizens need to stand up and speak out for their communities against the status quo.
Before we can move forward, we must remember how we got here. To that end, seven storylines from 2016 that will shape 2017. Happy new year!
–Bob Mackin, publisher
Cash for access
Premier Christy Clark (Mackin photo)
Thank Bernie Sanders and, to a lesser degree, Donald Trump for thrusting the issue of big money in politics onto the stage. It spilled over to Canada, where we learned that B.C. Premier Christy Clark earns a $50,000 a year bonus for attending BC Liberal fundraisers.
Democracy Watch has gone to court after the conflict of interest commissioner cleared Clark. Democracy Watch says the commissioner, Paul Fraser, is in a conflict himself and should step aside.
On one hand, justice. On the other, an embarrassment for the RCMP.
Pipelines and plants and terminals, oh my
It was a classic case of campaigning from the left in 2015 and governing from the right in 2016.
The Trudeau Liberals gave thumbs up to Woodfibre LNG, Petronas Pacific NorthWest LNG, Kinder Morgan and Energy East. Who knows when or if they’ll get built, but it sends a message to the environmentalists who voted for the Grits to beat the Harper Conservatives that the economy takes precedence over the environment.
Broken promise
In 2001, the BC Liberals beat the NDP on the basis of the New Era platform that promised a Liberal government would become Canada’s most open, democratic and accountable.
More than a decade-and-a-half has elapsed. We’re still waiting.
She moved out of her $1.7 million Mount Pleasant house to live on the western edge of the Vancouver-Quilchena riding in a $3.7 million house. The deed lists the name of an associate of Greg Kerfoot, the Vancouver Whitecaps’ owner. Clark and her brother Bruce bought their parents’ $720,000 Galiano Island property out of a trust.
A career politician living in the lap of luxury. How can she relate to the average British Columbian struggling to make ends meet?
May 9 is the next provincial election. It’s up to you, the people, to decide her future.
Two youths (go ahead, say it like Joe Pesci did in “My Cousin Vinny”) almost got away with riding the exterior of the SeaBus on Sept. 30.
North Vancouver RCMP arrested them and recommended mischief charges after the southbound Burrard Otter was forced to turn back when one of the attendants noticed them.
Attendant Liz Forster’s incident report said she saw red and black on the outside back deck at 6:32 p.m. as the Otter departed Lonsdale Quay. Forster wrote that she went to the office and radioed the boat to return to the dock, as the red and black was “a person on the deck lying down.”
A third person was inside the vessel, seen using his cell phone to record the other two. Upon disembarking, “The persons were cocky and made remarks like, ‘what are you upset about. If we fell in, it’s only water.’”
North Vancouver RCMP officers arrived at 7:10 p.m. and the two who were on the deck claimed they had no identification. They were arrested, handcuffed and led up the ramp.
“The other boy filmed this. I asked if this was for YouTube and he said no for my personal use. He boarded the boat and departed.”
TransLink released 25 still images from the CCTV footage, in response to a freedom of information request.
It’s 8 p.m. on Sunday, do you know where your mayor is?
HBO’s Game of Thrones, the hit medieval fantasy series, is the ultimate in appointment television. The spring 2016 season was must-see-TV for Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who included it in his daily agenda.
Not a surprise, since Vancouver is fast-becoming a city of royals and nobles (read: resort city/playground for the rich).
On Dec. 8, Robertson marked his eighth year occupying the leather throne at 12th and Cambie. Less than two years remain in his mandate. Will he serve it out or set out to conquer the federal scene, by appointment or election?
Some of the B.C. government’s $32,000 in podium signs for photo ops by Premier Christy Clark and Education Minister Mike Bernier (B.C. Gov)
The BC Liberal government spent almost $32,000 between April 2013 and July 2016 on podium signs for news conferences.
Forty-two of the slogan-slathered boards cost taxpayers more than $100 each.
Both the quantity and cost have increased year-over-year, from $5,852.13 for 96 signs in the 2013 fiscal year to $7,709.32 for 143 in 2014. Last year, the government spent $12,643.57 for 240 podium signs. In just over three months of the fiscal year that began March 31, the government already spent $5,469.77 on 83 signs.
An explanation from the Government Communications and Public Engagement office that was included in the documents explained that the podium signs are employed to “effectively communicate the event message to the public”. “By having a podium sign, the viewer is able to see the event information in close-up photos/videos of the speaker,” said the note. “As social media and technology evolved, the podium sign became an event staple in order to accurately convey the announcement to viewers.”
Staff use their online Graphic Design Request System to supply slogans, deadlines and locations for delivery. The Queen’s Printer orders the signs from a pre-qualified vendor (such as SW Audio Visual and MediaCo). Costs depend on the deadline and printing location.
“Once the announcement is complete and if the signs cannot be used again for future events, many podium signs are taken by stakeholders as a keepsake,” the explanation continued. “Some podium signs are brought back to GCPE headquarters for storage. If possible, podium signs are re-used for similar announcements at a later date. Podium signs are kept for approximately two to three years and if they are deemed unusable for future events, they are given to Records Services for disposal.”
During the period, there were 562 signs bearing slogans from Balanced Budget, Investing in B.C. students and Supporting B.C. families to Strong economy, Taking Action on Housing Affordability in B.C. and Clean LNG.
The Creative Energy plant near B.C. Place and the Georgia Viaduct (Google)
Ian Gillespie, the titan of tall towers in downtown Vancouver, met June 13 with Deputy Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Grant Main.
Gillespie, whose Westbank Developments built the Telus Gardens, Living Shangri-La and Fairmont Pacific Rim, hired ex-B.C. Pavilion Corporation CEO Dana Hayden to lobby the government earlier this year to sell him land east of B.C. Place Stadium.
Gillespie’s Creative Energy owns the natural gas-fired steam plant next to the stadium. On Sept. 26, the B.C. Utilities Commission turned down his bid for Creative’s city hall-granted district energy monopoly in Chinatown and Northeast False Creek. The regulator disagreed with the Vision Vancouver majority city council.
Transportation and Infrastructure is the ministry responsible for both B.C. Place and the adjacent Georgia Viaduct.
Vision wants to demolish both the Georgia Viaduct and Dunsmuir Viaduct, which is part of the provincial Highway 99A route.
So what did the developer and the mandarin discuss?
A Freedom of Information request for notes from the meeting turned up a single, heavily censored page that mysteriously reads: Ian Gillespie, Ministry of Environment, Biomass is.
