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Briefly: A B.C. Supreme Court judge threw out a negligence lawsuit from a group of citizens contesting city hall and the parks board’s $18 million operation to log Stanley Park trees affected by the Hemlock looper moth infestation. The Stanley Park Preservation Society is pondering next steps.

Bob Mackin

The Stanley Park Preservation Society won a battle but lost the war.

In an Oct. 1 written decision, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Maegen Giltrow refused to grant the self-represented group an injunction to halt the $18 million operation to log Stanley Park trees damaged or killed by the Hemlock looper moth infestation.

Crews load logged Stanley Park trees at a makeshift yard in the Prospect Point Picnic Area (Bob Mackin photo)

The plaintiffs — software developer Michael Robert Caditz and homemaker Katherine Caditz, holistic health educator Anita Hansen and schoolteacher Jillian Maguire — had accused the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, urban forestry manager Joe McLeod and forestry contractor B.A. Blackwell and Associates of negligence. The group, originally called Save Stanley Park, said the logging that began last fall caused its members stress, anxiety, sadness and fear.

The judge acknowledged the group opted for a negligence lawsuit instead of filing for a judicial review, because there was no “transparent and considered decision” made by the park board to respond to infestation. Blackwell said it affected 160,000 trees, or a third of the park, and was necessary for public safety.

The judge said the quartet “raised credible and legitimate questions about the process,” which played out behind closed doors for more than a year. She also acknowledged that Iain Dixon, the lawyer for the city and park board, conceded in court “that being able to identify the decision maker in this case is ‘a little murky’.”

By contrast, Giltrow wrote, park board commissioners regularly vote on decisions that affect Vancouver parks that “on their face, appear of at least comparable consequence to the decision to remove up to one-third of the trees in Stanley Park.”

The only resolution about Stanley Park’s tree health at an open meeting of the commissioners was July 10, 2023 when they voted for staff to develop an updated risk management program. But Giltrow said it was not clear whether the plan was ever developed or submitted to the commissioners

So, the “group of citizens has put their hands up and said something is amiss. It may well be; in fact, the public respondents acknowledged this possibility during the hearing of this matter.”

Stumps and fallen trees near Lumbermen’s Arch in Stanley Park (Bob Mackin photo)

Giltrow, however, said what the plaintiffs sought was an untenable precedent and their application did not meet the legal test to trigger an injunction.

“I am of the view that it is unlikely that a novel duty of care would be found against any of the defendants at trial,” she concluded.

Asked if the society would appeal, Michael Robert Caditz said that the judge “misunderstood our case.”

“We are waiting to see what Park Board does before deciding how to proceed,” Caditz said.

The society, however, did succeed in bringing sunshine to the issue. The city disclosed hundreds of pages of internal reports, minutes and email to the plaintiffs. One of the key documents was a confidential June 3 memo to park board commissioners that said Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC majority city council unanimously consented to an $11.1 million “budget adjustment” during a closed-door May 28 meeting.

The city’s lawyer also said during the Sept. 16 and 20 court hearing that Blackwell’s latest contract, awarded in June, will see another 30 hectares of low tree density but high consequence areas logged during this fall and winter’s phase. Blackwell estimates 6,000 trees — of which 2,000 are greater than 20 centimetres in diameter — will be removed. Last fall and winter, Blackwell subcontractors took down more than 7,200 trees.

“Counsel for the public respondents also advised that there is not currently a plan to ultimately remove all 160,000 dead or dying trees; however, about 12.5% [or 20,000] of the approximately 160,000 are greater than 20 centimetres and the public respondents do expect to remove those,” the judge said. “Of the remaining dead or dying trees, many may not be removed.”

Park board commissioners are expected to receive an update at their Oct. 7 open meeting from staff on the second phase. A staff report said the operation is scheduled to restart in mid-October, affect trails and Stanley Park Drive, and include “complex helicopter work above the seawall.” Restoration is scheduled for March 2025.

“Should the board not approve staff’s recommendation related to phase two work, staff would halt planned operations and report back to the board, on an expedited timeline, on planned closures and impacts (financial and operational),” the report said.

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Briefly: A B.C. Supreme Court judge threw

Business, News

Briefly:Inside the $250 million deal, announced just 10 weeks before the election kickoff

Bob Mackin

As the provincial election loomed, the NDP government set three red lines for Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and city council to accept a $250 million deal for ending the dispute over who would police B.C.’s second biggest city.

It also demanded secrecy.

Premier David Eby’s government offered $150 million in July 2023 over a five-year period to switch from the RCMP to the Surrey Police Service (SPS). Early this year, another $100 million was on the table for the five-year period from 2029 to 2034.

Talks broke off while the city challenged the province’s edict to switch to the SPS, arguing in court that it would cost taxpayers an extra $75 million a year. In May, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kevin Loo upheld the province’s supremacy over municipal councils. Locke and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth eventually announced a settlement on July 10, just 10 weeks before the official start of the election campaign.

Premier David Eby (left) and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth at the Dec. 7, 2022 cabinet swearing-in (Felipe Fittipaldi/BC Gov)

“Surrey fully supports the transition, agrees that a separate police tax is not necessary and will provide space, funding and payroll for the SPS,” the Surrey news release said.

The main financial terms of the agreement were published on the city website, but not the finer details contained in the province’s secret, four-page draft term sheet seen by this reporter.

The March 7 document defined the three ways that City of Surrey could default and trigger termination: Running a public relations campaign after the effective date, failing to provide capacity funding for the Semiahmoo First Nation to fully participate in the transition and failing to provide SPS with access to required space.

The document itself was banned from public disclosure.

In bold, red letters, it states: “without prejudice and subject to settlement privilege” and “the entirety of this document is protected by settlement privilege and must not be disclosed pursuant to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.”

Asked about negotiations with the province, the term sheet and the province’s demands, Locke refused to answer any questions.

“I can only speak to the announcement,” Locke said.

Farnworth has not responded to an interview request from theBreaker.news.

Settlement privilege became a new tool in 2017 for public bodies to withhold information from citizens after a B.C. Supreme Court judge quashed a 2015 ruling from an Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner adjudicator. The adjudicator had ordered the release of the total amount paid by City of Richmond to settle disputes with two former employees and the total legal fees Richmond incurred.

Justice Victoria Gray agreed that the solicitor-client privilege clause in the freedom of information law was not enough to block release of the information, but wrote: “the common law settlement privilege over the amount of a negotiated settlement applies and, as a result, the settlements information is protected from disclosure.”

Quoting from previous cases, Gray explained that settlement privilege is intended to promote agreements by wrapping a “protective veil” around negotiations.

Back to the term sheet.

It said Surrey would be required to take all necessary steps to complete the full transition to the SPS, plus “cease all public relations campaigns and activities against the transition.” Additionally, “city mayor and council will publicly support the completion of the policing model transition to the Surrey Police Service, including in communication with Surrey RCMP, the SPS and other related policing and staff representative bodies.”

If Surrey could not follow the terms and keep the secrets, the province threatened to tear up the agreement and send Surrey the bill.

“In the event of termination for breach of the agreement, at B.C.’s option, the city to repay all or a portion of B.C. contributions,” the document said.

In April, Farnworth set Nov. 29 as the date SPS would become the police force of jurisdiction. It is scheduled to become the exclusive police force by the end of 2026.

Elenore Sturko is the Conservative candidate for Surrey-Cloverdale and the former Surrey RCMP public information sergeant. She said province used the deal to gag Surrey because it is really about making sure Eby and Farnworth “can save face, instead of what is in the best interest of our community.”

“It really takes away from that accountability that the residents of Surrey were promised, and that is a direct result of David Eby, Mike Farnworth and his absolutely dictatorial government and the way that they’ve treated the City of Surrey over the past seven years,” Sturko said.

Since 2020, the NDP has held seven of the nine existing seats in Surrey. A 10th riding was added for the Oct. 19 election due to population increases.

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Briefly:Inside the $250 million deal, announced just

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Briefly:Surrey’s Mircea Iulian Pripoae pleads guilty to uttering threats as the Crown stays a charge of public incitement of hatred.

Bob Mackin

A 34-year-old Surrey man was sentenced Oct. 2 in Vancouver Provincial Court to 30 days of house arrest and one-year on probation after an antisemitic incident last fall.

Inside Vancouver Provincial Court (Provincial Court of B.C.)

Before Judge David St. Pierre, Mircea Iulian Pripoae pleaded guilty to uttering threats. The Crown stayed a charge of public incitement of hatred.

On Oct. 22, 2023, Pripoae approached two people who were affixing posters of people kidnapped by Hamas to a wall in the 4200-block of Main Street in Vancouver. Pripoae said, among other things, Jews should “be wiped off the Earth” and “death to Israel,” and scrawled a swastika on a poster.

St. Pierre said that Pripoae had consumed alcohol and made poor decisions on where to express “strong-held feelings about the issues that are occurring halfway around the world in Gaza.”

“Clearly, Mr. Pripoae had been feeling some heightened, emotional feelings about the loss of life that had been occurring in Gaza, and anybody is well within their rights to criticize, to protest policies of any government, any nation in the world if they have an issue with the policies,” St. Pierre said.

However, Pripoae “went much further” by making threats of harm against an identifiable group in society.

“These kind of incidents, they eat away at the safety and the confidence that all people have, or should have, in Canada,” St. Pierre said.

Part of the incident was recorded on a smartphone. A statement from one of the victims said that they no longer feel safe in Vancouver to display a Star of David necklace while in public.

“Less than 80 years after the Holocaust, I experienced firsthand a call to again commit genocide against the Jews right here in my home city,” said the victim impact statement. “Throughout my primary and secondary education in Jewish schools, I learned how, too quickly, antisemitism can spiral out of control in society.”

Pripoae apologized in court to the Jewish community, offered to write a letter of apology to the victims and said his behaviour that night was “foreign and non-characteristic of who I normally am as a person.”

St. Pierre said it was to Pripoae’s credit that he pleaded guilty, expressed remorse and regret and offered to write the apology letter. Pripoae was born in Romania, grew up in Calgary and has a history of mental health issues, which St. Pierre acknowledged, but said did not lead directly to the incident.

St. Pierre accepted the joint Crown and defence submission for a 30-day conditional sentence to be served under house arrest. Once a sentencing supervisor approves, Pripoae will be free to leave his residence during hours of employment and for any medical emergency. He must not consume alcohol or drugs, possess any weapons or contact the victims. He must also perform 20 hours of community service work and serve a year on probation.

The incident was one of the 33 reports of antisemitism to the Vancouver Police Department in 2023 after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Incidents have continued into 2024. The most recent was Sept. 29 near an “emergency rally” at the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) to mourn Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in a Sept. 27 Israeli air strike on Beirut. Canada added Hezbollah to its terrorist list in 2002.

Vancouver Police said they arrested a youth after a 34-year-old woman was knocked to the ground, assaulted and called antisemitic slurs. The woman needed treatment in hospital for her injuries.

The promoter of the Sept. 29 protest, Samidoun, is organizing a downtown rally on Oct. 7, the anniversary of what it calls the Al-Aqsa Flood, the name Hamas gave to its terrorist attack on Israel during last year’s Simchat Torah Jewish holiday.

Vancouver Police arrested Samidoun’s international director Charlotte Kates in April under suspicion of inciting or promoting hatred. Kates was released on conditions to avoid protests and public gatherings. She is due in court on Oct. 8. Charges have yet to be announced.

At an April 26 rally outside VAG, Kates called Hamas “heroic and brave” and urged followers to support it and other groups that are fighting to end the state of Israel. In August, Kates traveled to Tehran to receive an award from the government of Iran, which finances and arms Hamas and Hezbollah.

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Briefly:Surrey's Mircea Iulian Pripoae pleads guilty to

Business, News

Briefly: Rustad not ruffled by testy Eby.

Bob Mackin

Leaders of British Columbia’s big three provincial parties, David Eby (NDP), John Rustad (Conservative) and Sonia Furstenau (Green), were in the same room on Oct. 2 for the first time since the Legislature adjourned last May.

They gathered in the downtown Vancouver studio of CKNW AM 980 for the first of two debates en route to the Oct. 19 election day. This one was also simulcast on Global’s BC1 news channel.

Scroll down for what you need to know:

Fast format

Not a full hour, it started after the 9 a.m. newscast and broke for commercials, with a total run time of just under 50 minutes. Host Mike Smyth did not do as U.S. presidential and vice-presidential debate host broadcasters have done — cut the mic of the leader not speaking. Because of the free debate style, cross-talk and interruption was common and Eby, the incumbent premier, was the main offender. By comparison, who could have predicted that Donald Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, would be better behaved in the previous night’s vice-presidential debate?

Topics included cost of living, healthcare, public safety and toxic drug crisis, Indigenous relations and the negative tone of the campaign.

B.C. leaders Oct. 2 radio debate, clockwise from right: host Mike Smyth, Green Sonia Furstenau, Conservative John Rustad and NDP’s David Eby (CKNW/Global)

Two-against-one

Was it Rustad’s middle seat, the NDP and Greens being closer together on the political spectrum or a bit of both?

Eby and Furstenau took turns on several occasions against Rustad, almost in tag-team fashion. Eby said he agreed with Furstenau more than once. Both Eby and Furstenau suggested that a Rustad government would rely heavily on private companies to deliver healthcare services.

Furstenau, however, seemed to agree with Rustad on one aspect of healthcare management under the NDP when she said: “What we have are doctors not willing to work in a system that is way too heavy on bureaucracy and is not letting it be led by the experts, the health care professionals.”

Cranky versus calm

The NDP stumbled on social media when it tried to cast Rustad as an angry and confused grandpa; he isn’t a grandpa, because his wife Kim went through cervical cancer.

During the debate, it was Eby that came off as irritable and prone to interrupting Rustad. Rustad could have been more energetic and aggressive, but, to his credit, he did not take Eby’s bait. He will need to up his game for next week’s second debate.

Instead, Rustad was often on the defensive, denying Eby’s litany of false claims. Rustad said the Conservatives will not cut billions from healthcare budgets (they’d increase the budgets), the Rustad Rebate will not begin in 2029 (it’s promised for 2026), and will not avoid enforcing laws to stop criminal use of firearms (a Conservative government would still pursue gangsters and gun runners).

The VAIDS Tweet

In the 20th minute, Eby tabled a printout of a Tweet from North Coast-Haida Gwaii Conservative candidate Chris Sankey, a pro-industry former Lax Kw’alaams Band councillor.

On Oct. 4, 2023, Sankey reposted a Tweet about so-called Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

“I just wonder, John, about who’s going to be running our health care system?” Eby asked. “Like I think about my kid, if my kid gets sick, do I want to take them to a hospital that’s run by a government or a cabinet minister who thinks that covid vaccines cause AIDS?”

In a December 2021 fact check, the Associated Press debunked VAIDS.

In a Jan. 30, 2022 post, Sankey actually encouraged people to get vaccinated; he wrote that he had two doses and was waiting for a booster.

What’s more, scientists have found that COVID-19 can have an adverse impact on a patient’s immune system.

Research published by Infection and Drug Resistance in March 2023 under the headline “Emergence of Post COVID-19 Vaccine Autoimmune Diseases: A Single Center Study,” said: “One of the rare adverse events is post vaccine new onset autoimmune diseases.”

In Autoimmune Reviews in July 2023, authors of “Insights into new-onset autoimmune diseases after COVID-19 vaccination,” found “evidence that vaccination induces autoimmunity.” Yet, they concluded that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks.

NDP leader David Eby in the Oct. 2 radio debate (CKNW/Global)

A National Institutes of Health-funded study from the journal Cell in August 2023 said severe COVID-19 may lead to long-term innate immune system changes, thus “underscoring vaccine importance.”

Quotable

Eby: “I wouldn’t trust John Rustad to run my Thanksgiving dinner conversation with the family, let alone a hospital where my kids have to be safe, where parents and grandparents have to be safe.”

Furstenau: “You must remember, John Rustad was a cabinet minister in Christy Clark’s government. They keep doing the same thing, election after election. Years later, B.C. ends up in the same place of throwing their hands up in the air.”

Rustad: “People are dying on our streets from drugs. People are dying on our streets from crime. Our healthcare system is collapsing and in crisis. People are having an affordability crisis. Our economy is in shambles. Our resource sector is being destroyed. We’ve got a budget problem. We have so many issues that need to be debated, and David Eby only wants to go negative. And I get that, because he can’t defend his record. He can’t defend what he’s doing, he cannot defend it. So that’s what a weak leader does.”

The second and final debate is Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m. on all major B.C. broadcast outlets.

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Briefly: Rustad not ruffled by testy Eby. Bob

Opinion

For the week of  Sept. 29, 2024:

The MMA Panel returns, as host Bob Mackin welcomes Research Co president Mario Canseco and Simon Fraser University city program director Andy Yan to look back and look ahead at local, provincial and federal political trends. 

The panel analyzes the latest on Ken Sim’s clash with the integrity commissioner and move to abolish the elected Park Board, the B.C. election battle between the Conservaties and NDP and the future of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after NDP leader Jagmeet Singh ended the confidence and supply agreement with the Liberals. 

Also on this edition, hear from Burnaby lawyer Mark Berry. He is one of two Law Society of B.C. members that unsuccessfully proposed correction of one sentence in the mandatory Indigenous intercultural training material that claims bodies of 215 children were discovered under the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. 

Berry explains the resolution and reacts to the backlash before and after the Law Society’s annual general meeting.

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

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

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For the week of  Sept. 29, 2024:

Business, News

Briefly: Public outcry keeps Lisa Southern’s city hall watchdog office open

Bob Mackin

At a special meeting on Sept. 25, ABC Coun. Lenny Zhou tried to rescind his July 24 motion aimed at pausing Lisa Southern’s investigations, pending a review of her office. However, for procedural reasons, the best Zhou could do was ask to recess the meeting until April 9.

Vancouver integrity commissioner Lisa Southern (SBP)

“Over the past two months, I think I heard a loud and clear from the residents of Vancouver that they do not want to see this amendment move forward, and I agree with them,” said Zhou, who vowed to cooperate with Southern. .

The rest of council, including Mayor Ken Sim, unanimously agreed with Zhou.

Coun. Christine Boyle, who is running for the NDP in Vancouver-Little Mountain, and Coun. Rebecca Bligh were absent.

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“I, too, have heard from Vancouverites that the pause is not something that they want, and like everything else, we do listen to the residents of Vancouver quite a bit,” Sim said. “So to be clear, I’m unable to speak to the item and vote at this time, but I do think that councillor Zhou’s motion to recess today’s business is the correct path forward.”

The Sept. 25 meeting was adjourned from Aug. 6, when Sim blamed Green Coun. Pete Fry for filing a complaint to Southern’s office in the wake of two integrity commissioner reports issued Aug. 2.

ABC Mayor Ken Sim (YouTube)

In the first report, Southern dismissed a complaint from Sim’s top two aides against two Park Board commissioners no longer with Sim’s ABC party, Scott Jensen and Brennan Bastyovanszky. One of the park board commissioner’s complained that Sim used chief of staff Trevor Ford and senior advisor David Grewal to meddle in the selection of the Park Board chair before Sim announced that he wants provincial government permission to abolish the elected park board.

In a second decision dated Aug. 2, Southern dismissed Bastyovanszky’s December and April complaints of retaliation on a technicality.

Southern said the Code of Conduct Bylaw does not apply to Ford and Grewal, because they are politically appointed civic employees.

However, a template of the Mayor’s Office Staff contract, obtained by theBreaker.news, includes a clause that states the employee is “subject to and will comply with all policies applying to exempt employees of the City, including but not limited to the Code of Conduct.”

Neither Ford nor Grewal responded for comment.

Last February, Southern ordered Sim be reprimanded and requested to write a letter of apology to the third former ABC Park Board commissioner, Laura Christensen, for excluding her from a Dec. 5 meeting about his plan to abolish the Park Board. Sim publicly announced his plan the next day.

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Briefly: Public outcry keeps Lisa Southern's city

Business, News

Briefly: Former BC United Surrey South MLA Sturko, who is seeking the seat in Surrey-Cloverdale, alleges that Parm Kahlon’s Core Firm was not registered to represent its client Renewal Development and that her brother, Minister Ravi Kahlon, has publicly promoted the company.

Bob Mackin

Conservative candidate Elenore Sturko has complained to the Registrar of Lobbyists, alleging a company co-founded by the NDP housing minister’s sister has broken the law.

In a Sept. 25 letter, Sturko wants registrar Michael Harvey to investigate the Kahlon siblings and Glyn Lewis, the founder of Renewal.

Ravi (right) and Parm Kahlon (Twitter)

Sturko’s complaint includes a clip from an April 2 report on Global News about Renewal’s work with developer Wesgroup Properties to relocate houses in Port Moody.

“This public endorsement of a client represented by his sibling’s firm warrants scrutiny, particularly to ensure compliance with the Lobbyist Transparency Act and to maintain public trust in the impartiality of government decision-making processes,” Sturko wrote.

Sturko’s letter said Harvey should investigate whether Ravi Kahlon has met or communicated with Renewal or Core Firm about Renewal, the terms of the contract between Renewal and Core, why Ravi Kahlon endorsed the company and whether he has ever referred companies he deals with in government to Core as potential clients.

Neither Ravi Kahlon nor Lewis have responded to theBreaker.news for comment.

Parm Kahlon did not return a phone message, but Core sent an email statement that said the Renewal work “did not involve government relations or interactions with the Government of B.C. The scope of the work was related to the private sector.”

“We value our personal and professional reputations as women who act with integrity. We will protect our reputations through all legal remedies available to us.”

On X, formerly Twitter, Ravi Kahlon called Sturko’s complaint “false and desperate.”

“The housing company in question does not do work with government,” Kahlon posted.

Responded Sturko: “This isn’t a minor technicality—it’s potentially a direct conflict of interest that Kahlon is trying to sweep under the rug.”

Parm Kahlon was registered as a lobbyist in B.C. for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1518 while working as executive director from 2019 to 2023. She previously spent four years as an aide to Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley.

Parm Kahlon formed Core in May with Nikki Hill, a former NDP campaign manager and veteran Earnscliffe Strategy Group lobbyist, and Opreet Kang, an NDP patronage appointee to the Fraser Health board and elected member of the Vancity Credit Union Board.

On its website, Renewal described its business to save single family houses from demolition, by relocating and repurposing them “for communities in need.”

“We do this in partnership with Nickel Bros., one of the largest and most reputable moving companies in North America,” the website said.

One of its higher-profile jobs was the 2023 relocation of the 1912-built Henry Hudson Elementary schoolhouse from Kitsilano to a Squamish Nation reserve in North Vancouver, where it became a Squamish language learning centre.

Sturko’s allegations, on the way to the Oct. 19 election day, could shine more light on the evolution of lobbying under the NDP.

Elenore Sturko (left) with fellow Conservative candidate Tim Thielmann (X/Sturko)

After the NDP came to power in 2017, Premier John Horgan’s government banned corporate and union donations and capped individuals to giving $1,200-a-year, a rate that has risen with inflation.

Then-Attorney-General, now-Premier David Eby imposed a two-year, post-employment ban on lobbying by former senior provincial public office holders. But the law does not cover junior officials or former party officials. Nor does the B.C. government have its own code of ethics for lobbyists.

“Federally, there’s an ethics code, you can’t do anything to place the public officeholder in a real or apparent conflict of interest,” DemocracyWatch co-founder Duff Conacher said in a 2022 interview. “So it doesn’t matter how the conflict of interest is generated, just can’t do it. One of the things that generates conflict of interest is helping someone get elected.”

Early on, the NDP’s corporate fundraiser, Rob Nagai, left the party office to join Bluestone Group, the firm run by veteran BC Liberal lobbyist Mark Jiles.

Horgan speechwriter Danielle Dalzell quit to join Earnscliffe Strategy Group in April 2020, but returned to government as executive director of cabinet priorities in February 2023.

In 2022, ex-NDP president Craig Keating joined former party executive directors Michael Gardiner and Raj Sihota at Strategies 360.

Veteran lobbyist Jeffrey Ferrier was the Ministry of Health’s executive director of communications for almost a year, but joined Hill and Knowlton in 2022. He co-founded Framepoint Public Affairs in 2023 with longtime federal Liberal lobbyist Brittney Kerr.

Amanda van Baarsen, who was Minister of Health Adrian Dix’s senior aide, joined Counsel Public Affairs in 2022 as the associate vice-president for Western Canada. She was reunited with Jean-Marc Prevost, Dr. Bonnie Henry’s scriptwriter until he quit in early 2021, under Counsel partner and longtime NDP insider Brad Lavigne.

Liam Iliffe was an aide in Premier John Horgan’s office and government communications from 2017 to 2022. The husband of Horgan’s press secretary, Sheena McConnell, went to work for TC Energy, the company behind the Coastal GasLink pipeline to feed the LNG Canada plant in Kitimat.

He resigned from TC Energy in June after the Narwhal reported on a leaked video in which Iliffe outlined tactics to influence government decision-making.

Conacher said the NDP reforms did not go far enough, because there are still more loopholes than solid rules.

“They need to be turned into solid rules that prohibit people from giving an advantage and essentially selling access and information that they learned while they were supposedly serving the public,” Conacher said.

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Briefly: Former BC United Surrey South MLA

Business, News

Briefly: Cost of living, housing and healthcare were the top priorities. A majority of the 2,005 respondents to a Leger poll in late November 2023 said David Eby’s government was on the wrong track.

Bob Mackin

It is a blueprint for the B.C. NDP’s 2024 re-election campaign and you paid for it.

The Dec. 22, 2023, confidential report for cabinet, by polling agency Leger, gauged the opinions of 2,005 British Columbians (with a margin of error of error plus/minus 2.18%). The omnibus survey was released under the freedom of information law.

(Leger/GCPE)

Cost of living, housing and healthcare, in that order, were top-of-mind in the survey, which was conducted in the last week of November. Almost six-in-10 respondents felt the province was on the wrong track and 55% felt that Premier David Eby’s government was on the wrong track.

“Those more likely to feel the province is on the right track include men, Fraser Valley residents, and British Columbians with higher incomes (above $70,000),” the report said.

The poll found trust in government and public organizations to be “moderate to low.”

On healthcare, only 18% gave the government positive ratings, “while nearly half (49%) believe that it is doing a poor job.”

“Just under half (44%) say that while there are barriers to access, they can often get what they need. This suggests there is an opportunity to reduce barriers to accessing health care.”

Only 13% believed the province was doing a good job dealing with mental health and addictions.

On the NDP government’s efforts to make life more affordable, almost two-thirds (65%) gave negative ratings.

“B.C. households spend, on average, around $4,159 (mean) on major household expenses with the majority of this allocated to housing/shelter. One-third (34%) of British Columbians could not cover an unexpected $500 expense.”

How severe is the affordability crisis? It showed up in questions about sports and recreation.

“Almost one-third (29%) of British Columbians say their ability to participate in sports/sporting events in their community has been reduced due to cost-of-living pressures, while one-in-five (19%) say their ability to access these public recreation facilities and programming has been reduced.”

Almost two-thirds (63%) felt the government was doing a poor job on housing issues.

Awareness of new rules to regulate short term rentals and increase density on single family lots was moderate to high, at 74% and 70%, respectively.

But those were not the most-popular moves.

“The most supported actions for the B.C. government to take on housing include cracking down on criminal activity in the housing market (88% agree it is a good idea) and investing in new co-op and other non-market (81%).”

Where did the NDP’s performance garner applause?

Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples (36% positive), keeping kids safe (30%), and supporting new economic sectors (28%).

However, the report pointed out, reconciliation with Indigenous people was also the lowest priority of respondents.

“Improving health care and life/housing affordability continues to be what British Columbians want the B.C. government to focus on most.”

Hence, the NDP’s messaging en route to the Oct. 19 provincial election.

Carson Binda, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, said the NDP should not be charging taxpayers for such a survey. Nor should there be a $10 charge to obtain a copy under FOI — the federal government publishes its survey reports.

(Leger/GCPE)

Under the FOI law, Binda found that the NDP government paid $453,000 for 13 market research projects by five companies between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024. Four of them by Leger, totalling $136,000.

“If the Premier is going to be doing partisan polling, that should come out of the NDP’s coffers. We shouldn’t be sticking taxpayers with the bill,” Binda said in an interview.

Binda called the Government Communications and Public Engagement department a “research wing of the provincial NDP.”

“The government shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to give themselves an unfair advantage in the election.”

Others contracted by GCPE during the period included: Research Co., $152,000 for three surveys (multilanguage, gig economy and Surrey survey); McAllister, $89,000 for two cost of living polls; Environics, $65,000 for three multilanguage surveys; and Strategic Communications, for an $11,000 project called “in-person consultations —engagement strategy.”

Dead heat

In a poll released before the Sept. 21 writ day, Research Co’s Mario Canseco found Eby’s NDP and the John Rustad-led Conservatives were in a statistical tie, 44% to 42%, after Kevin Falcon withdrew BC United from the election in late August.

Way back in January, it looked as if the NDP was on the road to another majority win.

“It could ultimately come down to a very close election, specifically in areas where the Conservatives can grow,” Canseco said on theBreaker.news Podcast. “Maybe they can win a couple of seats in northern and central Vancouver Island, start to run the numbers a little bit more in the Fraser Valley, where the NDP won seven of nine seats in 2020. Now a lot of those seats seem to be up for grabs.”

CLICK HERE to hear more from Mario Canseco on the Sept. 22 edition of theBreaker.news Podcast — the race to Oct. 19 is on.

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Briefly: Cost of living, housing and healthcare

Opinion

For the week of  Sept. 22, 2024:

A double dose of democracy on this week’s edition of thePodcast. 

Mario Canseco of Research Co helps host Bob Mackin set the stage for British Columbia’s 43rd provincial election. 

His latest poll says it will be a close race between David Eby’s NDP and John Rustad’s Conservatives on the way to Oct. 19. 

North Vancouver schoolteacher John O’Flynn was one of the 90 candidates who did not win last week’s federal by-election in Montreal. He explains why he did not run to win, but as a protest in favour of electoral reform. 

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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

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

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For the week of  Sept. 22, 2024:

Business, News

Briefly: Document about the NDP’s shelved Land Act amendments reinforces the proposed sharing of Crown land management with First Nations. 
Conservative candidate says the NDP needs to be transparent about their plans and hold a referendum.

Bob Mackin

If the NDP wins the Oct. 19 provincial election, is Premier David Eby planning to revive the shelved plan to share management of Crown lands with First Nations? 

On Sept. 19, at one of his last pre-election conferences, Eby was asked about a document that the Conservatives suggest would give First Nations the power to make Land Act decisions and for the minister responsible to supersede individual land rights. 

“No, not at all,” said Eby, who called it a conspiracy theory.

David Eby, centre, on Sept. 19 (BC Gov/Flickr)

“Bringing that approach to our relationship with Indigenous people, and the fact and the reality that Indigenous people have rights protected under the constitution of Canada, that they have repeatedly, successfully asserted in court, and that we have to work in partnership together going forward, bringing that conspiracy theory approach to say things that simply are not correct is not helpful.”

Eby, however, later conceded: “We need certainty. We need agreements. We need partnership.”

The NDP had planned to pass Land Act amendments during last spring’s sitting of the Legislature in order to share decisionmaking with Indigenous governing bodies so as to align more B.C. laws with the 2019 adoption of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Early this year, the government slipped a summary of the proposal onto the consultation website. It did not publicize the proposal by either a news release or news conference. The BC United opposition said that is because the government wanted to ram it through the last session of the Legislature before the election with minimal debate.

Nathan Cullen, the NDP Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, downplayed the proposed changes and claimed to have discussed it with 650 people in mining, forestry, energy, ranching, tourism, hunting and fishing.

On Feb. 21, however, Cullen shelved the proposal, admitting it was contentious. 

From Proposal to enable Land Act decisions to be
made with Indigenous Governing Bodies
(Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship)

The government website includes a nine-page Feb. 14 presentation, but it differs from the 10-page, Jan. 12 version.

Scroll down to read the Jan. 12 version. 

The presentations both explain that the Land Act allows for access and use of public land for 25 separate programs from communication towers to agriculture to waterpower projects.

The February, version reiterated the legal requirement for the province to consult affected First Nations on all Land Act decisions. It also claimed that the amendments would not “lead to broad, sweeping or automatic changes.” 

“There is no impact from the proposed amendments to the public’s ability to access Crown land, to existing tenures or existing decision-making processes,” the February presentation said. 

The January version, however, contains a unique chart on a page headed Objective, which shows the stark difference between the status quo and the proposed amendments, in that “Land Act decisions could now be made by First Nation/Indigenous Governing Bodies and Minister.”

Elenore Sturko, the Conservative candidate in Surrey-Cloverdale, posted on X, formerly Twitter: “I am shocked to see Eby so blatantly lie when asked about it.” 

Sturko, originally elected in Surrey South for BC United, said the NDP proposal would see the government give land use power to First Nations governments that are not accountable to the wider electorate. 

If the NDP wants to go ahead with the amendments, Sturko said Eby should be transparent during the election and commit to holding a referendum afterward.

Eby was speaking Sept. 19 at the announcement of a $672 million public financing deal for 2,600 units of housing at the MST Development Heather Lands in Vancouver. NDP insiders Joy MacPhail and Mike Magee are both on the board of MST partner Squamish Nation’s Nch’kay Development Corp. 

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Proposal to Enable Land Act Decisions to be made with Indigenous Governing Bodies by 2010goldrush on Scribd

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Briefly: Document about the NDP’s shelved Land

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