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Bob Mackin It doesn't pack the cultural import

Lawsuit aims to stop taxpayer-funded Liberal election ads and force party to reimburse treasury

Bob Mackin

With 50 days until the May 9 provincial election, the legal problems are piling up for the B.C. Liberals.

The RCMP is investigating the party’s cash for access and pay to play campaign fundraising after the Globe and Mail reported on indirect donations via lobbyists.

Democracy Watch wants the Court of Appeal to order a new conflict of interest investigation of Premier Christy Clark after she received $300,000 in fundraising bonuses. Democracy Watch says B.C.’s conflict of interest commissioner, Paul Fraser, is in conflict of interest himself. His son is the Clark-appointed Deputy Minister of Government Communications and evidence points to Paul Fraser making donations to the Liberals before he was appointed in 2007.

Slogan from the Liberals’ taxpayer-funded pre-election ad campaign.

In a separate application, Democracy Watch wants a B.C. Supreme Court judge to deem Clark in conflict of interest for accepting $560,000 in donations from Kinder Morgan and its allies before her Liberal cabinet approved the pipeline twinning.

The latest? On March 20, two Vancouver lawyers filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court that says the B.C. Liberals are breaking the law with their $15 million-plus, taxpayer-funded, pre-election ad campaign. The lawsuit (see below) is aimed at forcing the B.C. Liberals to reimburse taxpayers for the Our Opportunity Is Here ad campaign. Paul Doroshenko and David Fai’s class action application, on behalf of David Trapp, also seeks a court order to stop the campaign.

Trapp, a 63-year-old, retired TransLink network analyst, was diagnosed with cancer in November 2015 and underwent surgery in August 2016, the legal document says.

“Just two days after his surgery, the plaintiff was released from hospital,” reads the notice of claim. “Only one followup was provided. The plaintiff concluded on the basis of his experience in the B.C. health care system that B.C.’s health care system is in great need of further provincial government funding to improve health care services for British Columbians.”

Outside the Law Courts in Vancouver on March 20, Trapp said the B.C. government should be spending public money on “real doctors, not spin doctors.”

The notice of claim argues that the Liberals have raised enough money on their own — $12.5 million in 2016 and $32.6 million since the 2013 election — that they don’t need to spend taxpayers’ money.

Lawyer Doroshenko

The notice of claim takes issue with ads branded with the B.C. Jobs Plan, B.C’s LNG industry, WorkBC and Our Opportunity Is Here slogans. It cites a December 2008 directive by the Gordon Campbell Liberal administration that banned non-essential ads for a four-month period before the May 2009 election. Clark did not follow Campbell’s lead.

“The defendant government as led by the defendant party has distorted the electoral process by using taxpayer money to fund an election campaign,” the statement of claim ends. “The defendant government has breached their fiduciary duty to the plaintiff and the proposed class and continues to breach this duty.”

For Doroshenko, NDP advertising waste in the 1990s was the catalyst for his work to help Campbell and the Liberals win the 2001 election. In 2017, Doroshenko says he sees no difference in the strategy employed by the NDP then and the Liberals now.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was the then-NDP government spending tax money in advance of the election just to enhance their chances of success in the election, runnning ads that just say ‘B.C. is great,’ to make pepole think well of the the government they’ve got,” Doroshenko told theBreaker.

Doroshenko said every government has a fiduciary duty to taxpayers to spend their money to benefit the taxpayers, not the party.

“This money that they’re spending is for the benefit of the B.C. Liberal Party, it’s money the B.C. Liberal Party doesn’t have to spend,” he said. “It’s our taxpayer money they’re spending, that’s a breach of fiduciary duty. They’re advertising because it works.”

The B.C. Liberals have only owned-up to a $15 million pre-election ad budget. Minister Andrew Wilkinson has refused to be interviewed by theBreaker and his staff have refused to say how much they are spending on the politically motivated WorkBC advertising.

Our Opportunity Is Here launched Nov. 19, 2015, hours after the fall sitting of the Legislature ended. Vizeum Canada is the media buyer on the campaigns and St. Bernadine Mission the creative agency. Kimbo Design (online) and Response Advertising (ethnic) are owned by longtime Clark friends Kim Pickett and Jatinder Rai. Pickett is the party’s logo designer. Clark appointed Rai to the B.C. Pavilion Corporation board of directors last fall and he is a regular attendee of campaign planning meetings at the $3.7 million Dunbar house Clark allegedly rents from a close associate of Vancouver Whitecaps’ owner Greg Kerfoot.

None of the advertising contracts was awarded through an open, public tendering process. Instead, the government created a “preferred suppliers list” after the 2013 election when Athana Mentzelopoulos, one of Clark’s closest confidantes, was deputy minister of the propaganda department. The Social Credit government in the 1980s, the NDP in the 1990s and the Liberals since 2001 all shamelessly rewarded their message-making friends in the advertising business.

Last July, the B.C. government disclosed that it spent $12.45 million on advertising for the year-ended March 31, 2016, an increase from $5.67 million spent the year before. In 2012-2013, before the previous election, the government spent $16.6 million on a B.C. Jobs Plan ad campaign.

The NDP’s Banning Publicly-Funded Campaign Advertisements bill proposed legislating a moratorium similar to Campbell’s 2008 order. It was not passed, like all bills tabled by the NDP, Greens and independent Vicki Huntington in the March 16-ended Legislature sitting.

When the NDP was in power, Clark didn’t fool anyone. She was an outspoken foe of government advertising waste and attacked then-Finance Minister Joy MacPhail in Question Period on April 1, 1999.

Watch the archival video below and ask: how many hospital beds, firefighters, police officers are not on the streets because Clark is spending more than $15 million on her ad campaign?

Trapp vs. Province of B.C. and B.C. Liberal Party by BobMackin on Scribd

March 20, 2017

Bob Mackin With 50 days until the May

Opinion

Some St. Patrick’s Day thoughts and feelings about the past, present and future of B.C.

Bob Mackin

Henry James Mackin died the year before the Deas Island Tunnel opened, but he did live to see export ships loaded with lumber at his Fraser Mills sail the Fraser River above where tunnel construction began in 1957.

The 1959-opened, Richmond-to-Delta tunnel was renamed for another prominent Irish-Canadian, George Massey, in 1967.

Their legacies were both celebrated March 11 by the Coquitlam Heritage Society and Ireland Canada Monument Society at Mackin House.

H.J. Mackin, my great-grandfather, was born 1884 in New York. He was one of eight children of Joseph Patrick Mackin and Catherine Byrne, immigrants from Drogheda, Ireland. H.J. began his career as a child labourer in a Portland, Ore. box factory and made his way to New Westminster in 1908, settling in the general manager’s house at then-Fraser Mills the next year. It became known as Mackin House during the 1910 census. Today it is lovingly restored civic museum and tourism office.

Henry James Mackin

He worked his way up to the presidency of Canadian Western Lumber Co., which boasted the largest mill in the Commonwealth. He also spearheaded the building of the Elk Falls pulp and paper mill near Campbell River.

Fraser Mills was an important industrial site that gave opportunities to families of diverse backgrounds. According to the 1910 census, of the 943 Fraser Mills residents, 172 were of Indian ethnicity, 66 Japanese, 24 Chinese, 12 Greek and five Norwegian.

Nehemiah George Massey came to Canada from County Wexford before he was 20. In 1946, with the help of many Lander citizens, he formed the Lower Fraser River Crossing Improvement Association. A decade later, he served four years as the Social Credit MLA for Delta. He had a vision for a tunnel.

“He prepared all his own maps along with research information,” his son, Doug Massey, remembered. “He spoke to many municipalities and cities in the area and with their support he was able to convince the provincial government that given the location and the soil conditions that a tunnel should be built instead of a bridge.”

In 2013, Premier Christy Clark announced a $3 billion bridge would replace the tunnel. The price tag has since risen to $3.5 billion and shovels are supposed to be in the ground sometime this year. The government refuses to release the business case for the megaproject.

George Massey

“The Liberal government in Victoria wants to remove the existing George Massey Tunnel and replace it with a high level, 10-lane bridge, but the geological facts show that another modern tunnel with rapid transit built would be a better alternative,” Massey said.

“It would appear that the real reason for removing the George Massey Tunnel is so they can dredge the river deeper deeper and accommodate bigger ships for industrial interests, end up destroying the Fraser River as the greatest salmon-bearing river in the world.”

It is bound to be an election issue on May 9. Lois Jackson, the Liberal mayor of Delta, wants it. Malcolm Brodie, the Liberal mayor in Richmond, doesn’t. NDP leader John Horgan, the son of an Irishman, calls it the premier’s vanity project. To Clark, anyone who questions her addiction to spending other people’s money on debt-fuelling projects that are prone to corruption and cronyism is attacked as anti-jobs.

In 2015, Metro Vancouverites were asked whether they would be willing to pay more sales tax to fund TransLink’s expansion. But there is no plebiscite for the Massey bridge.

We have a government, for now, that only pretends to be democratic. Where did B.C. go wrong?

The day before St. Patrick’s Day, the Legislature adjourned for no particular reason but the ruling Liberals want to devote all their time to their non-stop campaign and avoid the NDP’s grilling in Question Period.

They didn’t care to ask voters whether they want to fund a $3.5 billion bridge. Just like they didn’t ask for consent to pay for the $9 billion Site C dam, which will take most of the rest of the century to pay down. The B.C. Utilites Commission was purposely excluded from performing its normal regulatory duties.

These are the same Liberals who came to power in 2001 promising to become the most open, accountable and democratic government in Canada. Six months ago, the Deputy Premier, Rich Coleman, boasted the party was “fully funded” for the campaign. They raised $12.4 million last year and are continuing fundraising unabated. They refuse to ban corporate and union donations and are welcoming donations from foreign entities. Liberal allies at shadowy third-party attack ad campaigns Concerned Citizens for B.C. and Future Prosperity B.C. are spending millions in pre-election ad campaigns without the pressure of public disclosure.

Another $15 million of taxpayers’ money is being spent on deceptive government ads that are only necessary for Liberals who are scared of losing their government jobs.

They tout a balanced budget in name only. A wish — and it is only a wish — to phase-out medical insurance fees. They celebrate a whopping increase in jobs… part-time jobs, that is. And they give themselves a pat on the back for slapping a too little, too late tax on foreigners buying B.C. real estate. Housing is beyond the means of young British Columbians after billionaires from China, some with ill-gotten wealth, swooped in and bought from baby boomers. Meanwhile, homeless camps are popping up around Metro Vancouver. The regional district says there are 70.

The Liberals have too many skeletons in their closet, from dead children in provincial care and wrongly fired drug researchers to mass-destruction of email and the pay-to-play system of fundraising that they refuse to reform. They proudly cut income taxes, but raised the price of electricity, medical insurance, ferry rides, camping sites, vehicle insurance and beer.

While you’re enjoying the craic, wearing green and drinking black beer (green food colouring in Budweiser is not Irish) on St. Patrick’s Day, give it some thought.

Is this the British Columbia your ancestors hoped for? Is this the British Columbia you want?

Enjoy the music from March 11 at Mackin House and have a happy St. Patrick’s Day.

March 16, 2017

Bob Mackin Henry James Mackin died the year

BC Liberal Hogg “raps up” his career

Bob Mackin

As swan song speeches in the British Columbia Legislature go, Gordon Hogg’s has to go down as one of the more memorable.

The Surrey-White Rock BC Liberal is not running in the May 9 provincial election after a five-term career that included four undersecretary portfolios. He was the first minister of children and family development under Premier Gordon Campbell from June 2001 to January 2004. His successor in the most-mismanaged part of the B.C. government? Future premier Christy Clark.

Hogg has taken to waxing philosophical in his statements to the Legislature. Near the end of this final installment, on March 15, he thanked friends, family, constituents and others.

“Do I have time to mention the rest of the people I wanted to mention?” he said.

I will quickly try and find where I wrote them. I’ll hum for you a little bit. I’m a really good…. I’ve got a rap song that’s on YouTube, if you’d like to hear a couple bits of that.

He’s so fly, rapping with your bling.

He’s so fly, rapping when you sing.

My homies and my peeps are happy in the hood.

My homies and my peeps are doing what they should.

Find out what you’ve got. Give it up. Take it home.

Gee, where did all those papers go?

Watch the clip below.

Clark, who became premier in 2011, was not in the Legislature for the last Wednesday sitting before the election, so she did not witness “hip hop Hogg” in person. Her excuse was a photo op at the B.C. Tech Summit in Vancouver. Was the real reason rooted in superstition, to avoid her caucus mates on the Ides of March?

Hogg, a former 10-year White Rock mayor, earned his doctorate in criminology from Simon Fraser University last year and is an adjunct professor there. According to numbers crunched by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, he will earn $82,607 in his first year as a pensioner. By the time he is 80, he will have been paid $805,800.

Which would buy a lot of bling.

March 16, 2017

Bob Mackin As swan song speeches in the

Dead KPMG executive listed as $150K donor to BC Liberals

Bob Mackin

The Vancouver office of KPMG is back in the news.

The recent CBC Fifth Estate documentary, “The Untouchables,” described KPMG’s 1999-hatched Isle of Man tax-avoidance scheme.

Now KPMG comes under the microscope of theBreaker for large donations made to the BC Liberal Party. Specifically, the $150,203 listed in the Elections B.C. database from 2005 to 2010.

The donations ranged from a single contribution of $65 on April 8, 2005 to four for $20,000 (Dec. 31, 2007; Oct. 29, 2008; Dec. 10, 2009; and Dec. 28, 2010). David McShane and Eric Watt were named as KPMG’s principal officers in the Elections B.C. political donations database.

Who are they?

Watt was Premier Christy Clark’s financial agent for her 2011 leadership campaign. He retired from the firm as a senior partner in 2012. In 2014, he was named to the Knowledge Network board via cabinet order.

McShane was the managing partner of the Vancouver office, but never was involved in making any of the 24 separate donations spanning five years. He died of cancer on July 17, 2004 at age 49.

How did the name of a deceased accounting executive end up in the B.C. Liberal Party’s disclosures to Elections B.C. for so many years after his death?

“This was an inadvertent administrative error,” KPMG national spokeswoman Tenille Kennedy told theBreaker. “We have been in touch with the Liberal Party, who administers the information, to have this corrected with Elections B.C. as quickly as possible.”

On March 10, Elections B.C. said it called in the RCMP after a Globe and Mail story about big donations to the BC Liberals by lobbyists. IntegrityBC said March 14 that it will send the RCMP a list of 727 suspicious donations by 118 BC Liberal donors totalling nearly $1.6 million.

Watt’s name, meanwhile, is attached to another $173,450 in donations to the Liberals through Jan. 1, 2016, mostly with CEO Elio Luongo. There were also three KPMG donations to the NDP for $8,700. Watt also donated $3,500 to the Liberals under his own name at the end of 2009.

KPMG is the official auditor retained by BC Hydro and B.C. Lottery Corporation. The head of KPMG’s global infrastructure practice is Gary Webster, who has been contracted to review aspects of the $3 billion-plus Port Mann toll bridge and the nearly $9 billion Site C dam.

For the year ended March 31, 2016, the central government’s Public Accounts show that KPMG billed taxpayers $2,581,843, plus another $109,346 through April 2016.

March 15, 2017

Bob Mackin The Vancouver office of KPMG is

Developer Wall made big Liberal donation, days before selling Chinatown land to government

Bob Mackin

The Vancouver real estate tycoons who donated $400,000 to the BC Liberals on one day in February 2016 got a sweetheart deal to build a Downtown Eastside social housing tower, according to the NDP’s housing critic.

In Question Period on March 9, David Eby quoted from a leaked August 2015 Provincial Rental Housing Corporation [PRHC] report that recommended a $35,928,300 development agreement with Wall Financial Corp. to build an 11-storey project on East Hastings and Gore on the edge of Chinatown. The report budgeted $3,316,000 for “consultants” and recommended the division of taxpayer-owned B.C. Housing also pay Wall Financial $6,391,350 for the land.

Architect’s drawing of 288 East Hastings (BC Housing)

“It’s no wonder that the Wall Corp. and its principals donated $400,000 to the B.C. Liberals in 2016,” Eby said in Question Period. “They had an extra $3.3 million [developer’s fee] in B.C. Housing money to spend. This is money that was supposed to be spent to house the poorest of the poor, and it was given to a B.C. Liberal donor to do something they had to do anyway, under the zoning bylaws.”

Rich Coleman, the Housing Minister and Deputy Premier, appeared surprised at Eby’s question.

“It would be unusual for us to do what the member described, but it is not unusual for us to enter into an agreement to take affordable rental units that we can subsidize in the marketplace for people that need housing in Vancouver or anywhere else in the province of British Columbia,” responded Coleman, who also co-chairs the party’s 2017 election campaign.

According to public documents, Wall Financial founder Peter Wall and president Bruno Wall and two of their relatives showered the BC Liberal Party with six-figure donations, the week before the land sale was registered.

The party’s unaudited report for last year shows Feb. 26, 2016 donations from two Peter Wall companies, 2300 Kingsway Residences ($200,000) and PWO Investments ($100,000), his nephew Bruno Wall’s BJW Investment ($100,000), plus John Redekop Construction ($200,000) and Peter Redekop ($100,000).

In January, theBreaker reported that the donations were actually connected to a Feb. 23, 2016-held, Patrick Kinsella-coordinated private fundraising dinner at the Wall Centre Hotel in Vancouver. Coleman and Premier Christy Clark were special guests. More than $1 million was raised for the party’s 2017 re-election campaign.

Unlike other provinces, British Columbia has no limit on the size or source of political donations. The Liberals reported raising more than $12.4 million last year.

A search by theBreaker of the Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C. database showed a March 1, 2016 application to transfer ownership of the site from Wall-owned 292 East Hastings Holdings Ltd. to PRHC. The declared value was $6,699,984 — $1.9 million higher than the 2015 assessment.

Vancouver city hall’s development permit board approved rezoning at the end of January 2016 for the property, now known as 288 East Hastings. Last June, city council approved a $1.04 million subsidy for 104 social housing units. The other 68 will be secured market rental units. Construction of the $39.5 million project began last August. No signs for Wall, PRHC or B.C. Housing were visible outside the site on March 10.

“B.C. Housing has estimated that the cost associated with the social housing component is ~$19.2 million,” read the civic report. “B.C. Housing is responsible for the design, construction and financing of the project, including any take-out financing.”

288 East Hastings under construction, March 10 (Mackin)

Eby told theBreaker in an interview that he was unhappy with many aspects of the deal, including glaring omissions from documents released under freedom of information by Shayne Ramsay, who is the CEO of both B.C. Housing and PRHC.

“I don’t like that when I ask for a list of B.C. Housing-financed projects that this one was left off the list,” Eby said. “I don’t like that the Walls were obligated to build this housing under the zoning and yet B.C. Housing appears to have picked-up the carrying costs of that property and all the construction charges for the Walls, and I don’t like that the Walls seem to be getting some sort of administration fee from B.C. Housing all for doing something they would have had to do under the zoning any way.”

The PRHC report mentioned that Atira Women’s Resource Centre was the preferred agency to operate the social housing. Atira’s CEO Janice Abbott is the wife of Ramsay. Ramsay did not respond for comment.

Bruno Wall also did not respond.

ITC Construction Group, which donated $60,000 to the Liberals on Feb. 26, 2016, is the builder. Rent for the 104 social housing units would range from $375 to $912 per month.

In its annual report for the year-ended Jan. 31, 2016, Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Wall reported a $23.7 million profit on $133.2 million revenue, with $900.3 million in assets. Elections BC’s database shows Peter and Bruno Wall gave $474,795 to the Liberals between 2005 and 2015.

PRHC Board_Executive Committee Submission by BobMackin on Scribd

March 10, 2017

Bob Mackin The Vancouver real estate tycoons who

Taxi tidbits and Uber nuggets: can Liberals have their cake and eat it too?

Bob Mackin

Fassbender: has a cupcake and eats it too

After more than a year of promising a “made in B.C. solution” to legalize ride-hailing services, B.C.’s minister for transit and taxis unveiled what is instead a “made for the B.C. election strategy.”

On March 7, Peter Fassbender announced Uber and Lyft would be welcome in B.C., but not until Christmastime.

For the remaining nine months, which includes the May 9 election and the lucrative spring-to-fall cruise ship season, the taxi cartel will continue to enjoy its monopoly. The Liberals pledge to give the cartel $1 million from taxpayers to create a B.C. taxi app and another $3.5 million to install crash avoidance technology in cabs. It will also get to pick-up and drop-off passengers across any municipal boundary.

This, just over a year since Fassbender told a Vancouver meeting of taxi drivers: “We as a government are concerned about the future of the taxi industry first and foremost. And why is that? That is because all of you in this room, all of the companies represented, all of the individual drivers in this province have invested their lives into this industry and families’ lives are at stake in terms of the future of the industry.”

Make no mistake, this is an election campaign strategy more than an economic development move. The Liberals want to dangle a carrot in front of tech-savvy millennial voters who are demanding Uber, but they don’t want to turn their backs on voters from the large South Asian community that supplies many of B.C.’s taxi drivers.

Fassbender was the first Liberal to open a campaign office last September. He won the Surrey-Fleetwood riding in 2013 by only 200 votes over the NDP’s Jagrup Brar. Surrey is a nine-riding battleground for the May 9 election, home to many taxi drivers and owners. Likewise for Abbotsford and South Vancouver.

Between 2005 and 2015, the NDP counted more donations from cab companies than the BC Liberals: $120,300 to $96,415.

In the Liberals’ unaudited 2016 list of donors, the Vancouver Taxi Association kicked-in another $27,450.

Taxi activism

Taxi drivers in other cities around the world, from London to Rio de Janeiro, have met 21st century ride-hailing competitors with protests.

Vancouver hasn’t seen a coordinated taxi strike since April 3, 1998, when 150 drivers parked their cabs on Sea Island, creating gridlock around Vancouver International Airport.

Some flustered travellers hauled their luggage from Vancouver, across the Arthur Laing Bridge, to the terminal. As a reporter covering the protest for the Richmond News, it was like finding myself on the freeway brought to standstill in REM’s “Everybody Hurts” video. Instead of song, I was surrounded by spoken Punjabi.

At issue was the airport authority’s requirement that drivers take the TaxiHost course, drive cars less than nine years old and pay $1 per pickup. Even though their $1,440 a year licence fee was dropped to $300, the pickup charge would result in $3,500 in additional costs for drivers already forced to work overtime to scrape by.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered the cabs to move. They continued to boycott until the airport authority agreed to soften its stance. The industry has never been the same since the Canada Line opened in August 2009, giving passengers a cheaper option to reach downtown Vancouver.

Monark

While Fassbender and the Liberals dillied and dallied, one of their friends cleverly jumped into the market.

Surrey’s Monark Ventures is behind the Uber-inspired Kater app that matches car owners with $25-an-hour freelance chauffeurs.

Monark donated $61,900 from 2014 to 2016 to the Liberals — including $28,000 on Dec. 23, 2014.

Monark vice-president since last November is Kareem Allam, a former aide to ex-Finance Minister Kevin Falcon. Allam has donated $12,718 to the party between 2008 and 2014. He was appointed to the Fraser Health board of directors in January.

Four years ago, when the Liberals spent $11 million of taxpayer funds on the Times of India Film Awards at B.C. Place Stadium, Monark was a bulk ticket reseller.

TaxiLink?

Why was TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond at the Fassbender news conference?

TransLink’s Coast Mountain Bus Company is a big cab user. Really big.

During the 2015 calendar year, it paid 16 companies $2,500,810, mostly to act as substitutes for the HandyDart minibuses for people with disabilities.

Yellow Cab Co. Ltd. ($367,411), Bonny’s Taxi Ltd. ($296,814) and Black Top Cabs ($285,639) were the top three suppliers. Half the companies on the list billed in six-figures.

Advocates for the disabled have repeatedly slammed TransLink for shoddy HandyDart service and the increasing reliance on taxi drivers untrained to deal with special needs passengers.

Let’s all go to the lobby

Lobbyist Pantazopoulos

Hill and Knowlton vice-president Sarah Weddell is the hired gun for the B.C. Taxi Association. For the Vancouver Taxi Association, the cartel of Yellow, MacLure’s, Black Top and Vancouver Taxi, it’s Craig Jangula.

Jangula was aide to ex-Liberal cabinet minister Mary McNeil for four years.

Weddell is a former BC Liberal staffer who was campaign manager for George Abbott’s unsuccessful bid to become premier in 2011.

On the other side, Maple Leaf Strategies is the lobbying company for Uber. Its Vancouver office is headed up by Dimitri Pantazopoulos, the Ontario Conservative who came west to be a top aide to Clark and later the 2013 campaign’s internal pollster. He’s reprising his role for the 2017 campaign. Pantazopoulos donated $2,770 in 2016.

Pantazopoulos opened his lobbying shop in summer 2013 in an office just two floors down from Clark’s Vancouver office in the World Trade Centre at Canada Place.

Lyft is represented by Ginny Movat of Crestview Strategy in Toronto.

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March 7, 2017

Bob Mackin [caption id="attachment_4253" align="alignright" width="259"] Fassbender: has

School board report points the finger at Bacchus and Lombardi

theBreaker has obtained a copy of the Vancouver School Board’s Feb. 17 report by a lawyer hired to investigate allegations that elected trustees bullied senior staff.

The report was released via freedom of information just four days after VSB awkwardly released an executive summary that did not name names.

Mike Lombardi

Though Roslyn Goldner’s report is heavily censored, it is critical of chair Mike Lombardi and ex-chair Patti Bacchus, two of the four Vision Vancouver trustees re-elected in 2014. All nine trustees were fired Oct. 17 by Education Minister Mike Bernier after months of bickering over a budget deficit, a government-ordered audit and an aborted study of cost-saving school closures.

Goldner’s report also cited the bungled implementation of the PeopleSoft payroll program, a “shared services program with the Department of Health and Public Service that was shepherded by Telus. The project was complex and according to some [censored] staff was implemented too soon resulting in confusion, overpayments and near pay fails.”

As for the allegations of a toxic work environment, Goldner wrote that the “board… was dominated by partisan politics and the advancement of a political rather than district agenda.”

Patti Bacchus

“While witnesses described the events of 2016 as creating a perfect storm, which led to the unprecedented situation in which all members of the senior management team left the workplace on leave, the majority of witnesses described a history of board dysfunction and bullying and harassment in the workplace. The consistent view expressed by witnesses, a view supported by the audit, was thea the systemic issues within the district created an environment in which board dysfunction was the norm and was tolerated, condoned and even rewarded.”

“Some trustees engaged in yelling, name calling and table pounding while others responded to their colleagues with eye-rolling and audible sighs. Some trustees routinely tweeted throughout meetings, conduct that was described by many witnesses as disruptive and disrespectful. While witnesses agreed that not all trustees behaved badly the board did nothing to intervene or to indicate that this conduct was inappropriate and unacceptable. This behaviour manifest at committee meetings and in private and public board meetings.”

Roslyn Goldner

The Sept. 26 public meeting was when things came to a head, Goldner wrote.

“According to witnesses, Trustee Bacchus then asked a series of questions related to other budget expenditures pointing out that many processes were undertaken without a dedicated budget and if this were the case then why could this not be done for the additional consultation. Witnesses reported that Trustee Bacchus paused after her questions as the audience laughed at the discomfort of the Superintendent. There was no intervention from any trustees and no attempt to restore order by trustee Lombardi in his capacity as chair…”

Goldner wrote that all nine trustees agreed to be interviewed and were interviewed after they were fired and replaced by an appointed trustee.

“Ex-trustee Lombardi had been criticized in his role as Chair of the Board for his failure to maintain order in meetings and a failure to promote respectful exchange of ideas and information.

“Several trustees acknowledged that the conduct of Trustees, both NPA and Vision Vancouver trustees, in private board meetings was disrespectful and rude. Several Trustees noted that the stakeholder representatives who attended committee and board meetings were also highly partisan and used these meetings to promote their agenda to ‘get rid of the Liberal government.” It was noted that there was a lack of objective, independent people at meetings.”

The report described meetings with consultants over the proposed school closures. (The name of the consultant, Context Research Ltd., does not appear in the version of the report that was released.)

“Several [censored] trustees advocated for the use of town hall meetings to facilitate public input. Several witnesses reported that the consultants strongly recommended against this approach as not being an effective way to engage the public or to gather reliable and representative input. The consultants noted that this forum largely attracts a partisan and politicized audience that is already decided and not representative of a cross section of the affected population.

“Several witnesses reported that staff were not in favour or town hall meetings… also , some staff expressed concern about security at these meetings but this was dismissed by the board.”

Read the Goldner report below.

Rosyln Goldner Report-Mackin FOI by BobMackin on Scribd

March 7, 2017

theBreaker has obtained a copy of the

A year after cost-saving cabinet order, hockey team donates to labour minister’s party

Bob Mackin

The Prince George Cougars’ $5,950 donation to the BC Liberals was the biggest in the party’s unaudited report for Feb. 17-22.

The Cougars donated almost exactly a year after Prince George-Valemount Liberal MLA (and notable Cougars’ fan) Shirley Bond signed a cabinet order excusing B.C.’s six Western Hockey League team owners from paying the scholarship-eligible players $10.85-an-hour.

WHL team owners are battling a class action lawsuit aimed at forcing them to pay players the minimum wage, which would add $280,000 in costs to each team. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the 16-to-20-year-old players are entitled to more than a $250-a-month stipend and room and board because the teams are multimillion-dollar, for-profit businesses that rely on the sale of tickets, souvenirs and advertising as well as proceeds from broadcast contracts.

Greg Pocock leads the Cougars’ six-man ownership group, which includes Cougars’ alumni Eric Brewer and Dan Hamhuis, that paid $6.4 million for the franchise in 2014. He refused to comment on the lawsuit because it is before the courts. By email, Pocock told theBreaker: “I am proud to support any political or non-political group that works tirelessly for the betterment of our province.”

The Cougars are not Pocock’s primary business. He owns industrial cleaning contractor Prince George Hydro Mechanical and co-owns the Forest Power Sports recreational vehicle dealer.

A Feb. 1 review of KPMG’s WHL financial summary by forensic auditor Ronald Smith says that the Cougars had $2.4 million in revenue, but lost $785,000 last year.

“Notwithstanding that the team lost an average of approximately $711,000 per year during the fiscal years/periods ended June 30, 2012 and 2013 and March 31, 2014, the purchaser appears to have paid $6,381,133 for goodwill, based on its balance sheets,” Smith wrote about the Cougars. “The team had losses of approximately $1,057,000 and $785,000 in fiscal years ended June 30, 2015 and 2016 respectively and the goodwill is still on the balance sheet in the amount of $6,381,133.

“It does not appear that team believes that there has been an impairment in the value of goodwill.”

Internal B.C. government documents, released under freedom of information, show that Pocock and co-owner John Pateman, along with WHL commissioner Ron Robison, first met with Labour Minister Bond in 2014 to lobby for the minimum wage exemption.

“We very much appreciate that you are in support of our position to preserve the amateur athlete status of WHL players who participate on our B.C. based WHL teams,” Robison wrote on Sept. 3, 2014. “We are also very appreciative of the fact that you are prepared to have your staff address this matter at the upcoming provincial Labour Minister meetings later this week in Halifax. It is also our understanding you will be reviewing your current employment and labour legislation to determine if it adequately addresses the status of of amateur athletes in your province.”

Robison continued his lobbying. In an April 27, 2015 letter to Bond’s assistant deputy minister Trevor Hughes, he mentioned that Washington had excluded the state’s four WHL teams from minimum wage laws.

B.C. WHL jersey crests outside the Premier’s Vancouver Office. (Mackin)

“The current class action lawsuit against the WHL may not only threaten the viability of our B.C. based franchises, but also have serious implications on the amateur sport system as a whole in the province. It is therefore extremely important this matter be addressed as soon as possible by the cabinet,” wrote Robison.

Kelowna Rockets’ owner Bruce Hamilton emailed his local MLA, Norm Letnick, on Aug. 5, 2015, to seek a meeting.

“This is an issue that could have a terrible impact in all WHL Team Cities in B.C. Ron Toigo from Vancouver has kept Shirley and the Premier up to date. I just want you informed before this item gets to you,” Hamilton wrote.

The Cougars’ recent donation pales in comparison to the support from Vancouver Giants’ owner Toigo and his companies. The Liberals reported receiving $194,625 from the White Spot restaurants owner between 2005 and 2016.

Bond submitted a request for cabinet’s priorities and planning committee in late September 2015 to endorse the ministry recommendation to amend the Employment Standards Act to exclude WHL players from minimum wage laws.

“Workers in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, agriculture, silviculture, trucking and taxis are currently excluded from select parts of the Act,” read Bond’s submission. “Certain professional occupations where individuals are licensed by statute or are self governing by statute — such as physicians and lawyers — are excluded from all of the Act, as are sitters, students and other participates in certain work study or workplace training programs and newspaper carriers who are still in school.”

The minimum wage exemption that the WHL lobbied for was rubber-stamped by cabinet on Feb. 15, 2016.

March 4, 2017

Bob Mackin The Prince George Cougars’ $5,950 donation

Clark’s off-the-cuff fentanyl-in-pot talk surprised cops and docs

Bob Mackin

Remember that week last November when Premier Christy Clark went to London to meet the Queen and then to Ottawa for a summit on the fentanyl crisis?

Health Minister Terry Lake and then Solicitor General Mike Morris were tasked with running interference for Clark, after she caught senior bureaucrats, cops and doctors off-guard with these Nov. 17 comments: “Regulating marijuana is even more important now, when we’re finding fentanyl in marijuana. Vancouver Police did a major seizure.”

Vancouver Police had vaguely claimed in March 2015 that fentanyl was showing up in marijuana, but that had never been confirmed. Documents obtained under freedom of information by theBreaker show that Clark’s comments in the nation’s capital set-off a behind-the-scenes flurry as government spinners sought to craft a coherent message on Nov. 18.

Clark and Parliamentary Secretary Bill Blair. (BC Gov)

Wrote Deputy Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry at 7:55 a.m.: “…we don’t know if fentanyl is in cannabis vs. people taking both. We do know most deaths involve multiple substances.”

VPD media spokesman Sgt. Brian Montague said via email at 8:23 a.m.: “I can’t speak for other police departments and I can’t say that fentanyl has not, is not or couldn’t be placed in marijuana, but I can tell you that the VPD has not seized marijuana that has been tested and shown that it has been laced with fentanyl.”

B.C. Director of Police Services Clayton Pecknold added his voice at 8:28 a.m. He copied a statement from Masset RCMP on Nov. 8 that said the Mounties had “reason to believe that there is marijuana available for sale in Masset that is laced with fentanyl.”

(RCMP North District Cpl. Madonna Saunderson told theBreaker in February that “RCMP have been unable to corroborate, either through investigations or drug seizures, of the presence of fentanyl in marijuana.”)

Dr. Perry Kendall, the province’s Chief Medical Officer, chimed-in at 11:18 a.m.: “How would the police, or anyone for that matter, know that fentanyl was in cannabis absent any confirmation through lab testing? And had testing occurred we would have been informed of it wouldn’t we?”

The government, through contractor LifeLabs, said Feb. 1 that it found carfentanil, which is 100 times more powerful a than fentanyl, “in the illegal drug supply in the Lower Mainland and being ingested,” based on 57 of 1,766 urine tests in January. It did not say whether it was found laced with marijuana.

There were 922 deaths by illicit drug overdose in 2016 in B.C., up from 513 in 2015.

Kendall declared a public health emergency on April 14, 2016.

PSS-2016-64808 records by BobMackin on Scribd

March 3, 2017