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Bob Mackin

More about how the sausage is made. 

This time, the BC Housing edition. 

That’s the Crown corporation controlled by Deputy Premier Rich Coleman. Its mandate is to house the poor, but it is under fire for apparently enriching BC Liberal donors. 

Coleman (Mackin)

Two downtown Vancouver projects involving $80 million of public money are under the microscope. The RCMP is investigating one of them.

On March 9, NDP critic David Eby tabled a leaked report in Question Period about BC Housing’s non-tendered, private-public partnership in Chinatown with Wall Financial Corp. theBreaker found BC Housing paid almost $7 million to buy the land, only days after Bruno and Peter Wall donated $400,000 to the BC Liberals in February 2016

On April 5, Postmedia’s Sam Cooper reported the RCMP is investigating the Brenhill land swap after a complaint by South Vancouver Parks Society’s Glen Chernen. Liberal bagman Bob Rennie was on the BC Housing board when the deal was made and his company later marketed the luxury tower component of the land swap.

A March 28, not-for-attribution technical briefing by BC Housing chief financial officer Dan Maxwell at Burnaby headquarters left reporters with more questions than answers about both the Brenhill and Wall deals. 

Coleman was not in attendance, nor was he made available over the phone.  

theBreaker noticed timing inconsistencies in the minutes of a Nov. 23, 2015 board meeting that were provided to reporters. The board rubber-stamped a recommendation to spend $7 million to buy the Wall land, loan Wall $36 million to build 172 units and then pay Wall $15.4 million to buy 104 units for social housing rentals. 

Ramsay (BC Housing)

The minutes say that BC Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay “left the room at 3:56 p.m. due to a conflict.” Ramsay is married to Atira CEO Janice Abbott and the report on the Wall proposal said Atira was the preferred operator of the building. 

The minutes also say Ramsay returned to the meeting four minutes later at 4 p.m.

But, on the first page of the minutes, it says the meeting was called to order at 4 p.m.

The board also gave provisional approval to loan Townline Ventures $23.2 million for its 84-unit, mixed use project at 2513 Clarke Street, the Strand. Townline owner Rick Ilich donated $100,000 to the Liberals on the same February 2016 day as the Walls gave $400,000.

theBreaker asked BC Housing for clarification of the timing discrepancy in the minutes and details and documents about the Townline project. 

BC Housing dawdled and dawdled for almost two weeks until the day the election writ was issued. It used that as an excuse to shut the door on theBreaker

Questions remain unanswered about dubious board minutes and another non-tendered, P3 deal between a Coleman Crown corporation and a big Liberal donor. 

Coleman refused to comment after he was approached by theBreaker, on-camera, outside the April 10 BC Liberal Leader’s Dinner fundraiser. 

The BC Liberals doubled BC Housing’s budget to $1.33 billion for the election year. 

BC Housing’s lack of responsiveness to routine media questions in 2017 recalls similar secretive behaviour by B.C. Pavilion Corporation and Liquor Distribution Branch when those taxpayer-owned companies were controlled by career politician and ex-Mountie Coleman before the 2013 provincial election. 

Below is theBreaker’s March 30-April 11 email exchange with BC Housing’s communications department.

MARCH 30

From: Bob Mackin [mailto:bob@thebreaker.news]
Sent: March-30-17 9:41 AM
To: Ally Skinner-Reynolds; dfreeman@bchousing.com
Subject: media request – Nov. 23, 2015 minutes and Towline

Hello, 

Regarding the Nov. 23, 2015 BC Housing board minutes, would you be able to confer with John Bell to clarify and correct the timing of the meeting?  

It says the meeting was called to order at 4 p.m.

Under Capital Review Committee, it says Shayne Ramsay left the room at 3:56 p.m. due to a conflict. 

It says on the next page that he returned to the meeting at 4 p.m. (before the Townline Ventures agenda item). 

Could Mr. Bell explain the inconsistency and correct the timing, if he is able? 

On the matter of the BC Housing financing for Townline Ventures’ project at 2513 Clarke St., Port Moody — for $23,228,253 — what is the status of that project and that financing?  

Would you be able to share with me documents about the Townline Ventures matter, similar to those about Brenhill and Wall that were provided at the media briefing? 

Specifically, the board submission, board minutes and agreement with Townline?  

Sincerely,

Bob Mackin

reporter, theBreaker

Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org> Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 9:49 AM

To: “bob@thebreaker.news” <bob@thebreaker.news>

Hi Bob,

Ally sent your request my way, so I’ll work on getting the answers for you. Can you please tell me your

deadline?

Thanks,

Cindy Kralj

Senior Communications Specialist

Corporate Communications|BC Housing

Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news> Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 10:06 AM

To: Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org>

5 p.m. today. Thank-you.

Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org> Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 3:13 PM

To: Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news>

Hi Bob,

Thanks for letting me know your deadline. We’re working on it and I hope to have a response for you by 5 p.m.

If I don’t end up sending you something (I’ll be leaving around 4 p.m.), you’ll get a response from Ally.

Thanks,

Cindy

MARCH 31

Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news> Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 11:50 AM

To: Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org>

Hi,

Any info yet?

Thank-you,

—bob

Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org> Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 12:05 PM

To: Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news>

Hi Bob,

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to send you anything yet. We’ve been quite busy. I’ll get you something as soon as I can though.

Thanks,

Cindy

APRIL 5

Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news> Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 9:31 AM

To: Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org>, mloup@bchousing.org

Any info yet?

Mat Loup <mloup@bchousing.org> Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 9:55 AM

To: Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news>

Nothing yet, I will follow up.

APRIL 10

Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news> Mon, Apr 10, 2017 at 3:40 PM

To: Mat Loup <mloup@bchousing.org>, dfreeman@bchousing.com, Ally Skinner-Reynolds <asreynolds@bchousing.org>,

Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org>

Hello,

I have not had a reply to my queries about the inconsistency in the November 2015 minutes and the loan to Townline.

It has been almost two weeks. Please see the bottom to refresh your memory.

On a separate matter, in the Statements of Financial Information, there was a $3.4 million payment to Central Park Development Ltd., which is a Bosa company. What was that for?

Sincerely,

Bob Mackin

APRIL 11

Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org> Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 9:31 AM

To: Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news>

Hi Bob,

I’m sorry for the delay on this one. I’ll work to get you something as soon as I can.

Thanks,

Cindy

Cindy Kralj <ckralj@bchousing.org> Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 3:58 PM

To: Bob Mackin <bob@thebreaker.news>

Hi Bob,

As background information for you, as you know, the provincial government has entered into a writ period. During this period, we do not provide comment on the campaign promises of any political party, or make comments about government programs, policies and services. Further, as part of our obligation to remain impartial during this time, we will not be offering support beyond pointing you to publicly available data or information.

Thank you,

Cindy Kralj

Senior Communications Specialist

Corporate Communications|BC Housing

 

Nov. 23, 2015 BC Housing by BobMackin on Scribd

Bob Mackin More about how the sausage is

Bob Mackin

It is called putting lipstick on the pig. Or polishing the turd. 

And the BC Liberals are among the best in the business because they are addicted to other people’s money. They rely on tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers and donors to fuel their modern message-massaging and manipulation machine. 

It works. They got a hat trick of re-elections. Will they make it a grand slam on May 9?

From 2017 Liberal platform.

They published their road map April 10, with Premier Christy Clark pretending to be a mother of a little girl. Skip forward to page 75 of the platform for the headline “modern, transparent, accountable government.”

Like Voltaire said about the Holy Roman Empire, the BC Liberal government is not really modern, transparent or accountable. If Clark wins another mandate, don’t expect change. 

Page 30 of the party’s New Era platform in 2001 promised: 

“BC Liberals will reform how government works from top to bottom, to create the most open, democratic and accountable government in Canada.

“British Columbians know that our institutions need to be reformed, to ensure all MLAs are accountable first and foremost to the people who elected them.”

Clark’s pre-premiership mug appears before it, as well as a quote from NDP’s Corky Evans, ruing the fact that power corrupts. 

That was 16 years ago and this government has taken steps — no, leaps — backward. Even after Clark pledged in 2011 that she would run an open government because, as she said, after all, it’s taxpayers’ money and taxpayers’ information. 

From the 2001 Liberal platform.

For starters, there is this lie that the NDP wants to put the cost of political campaigns entirely on the shoulders of taxpayers:

“We don’t support a system that will take taxpayer money to fund political parties, like the BC NDP would.”

Reality: The NDP tabled a private members’ bill aimed at banning corporate and union donations, which means the system would rely on individual donations. It wound up on the scrap heap of private members’ bills. The Alberta NDP did ban corporate and union donations after its 2015 election. What the Liberals won’t admit is that the B.C. system is already indirectly supported by taxpayers. It says so on the BC Liberals website. 

The myth is that elections are expensive. But they don’t need to be so. What better way for politicians to audition for holding the public purse than demonstrating that they can be frugal in their extended job interview period? 

Donors to political parties are eligible to get more money back than they would if they donated to a registered charity. For every $100 cheque the Liberals cash, the donor gets a receipt that he or she can use for a $75 credit on their tax return. A donation of $1,150 gets the maximum $500 tax credit. By comparison, donors to charities can get only $20.06 in tax credits for a $100 donation. 

The cost to the public treasury is about $4 million a year in foregone tax revenue. 

How many paramedics, teachers or cops could be hired with another $4 million in the provincial budget? 

“…we have also dramatically improved how British Columbians interact with government online, and are providing more consultation and engagement opportunities than ever before.”

Reality: The Government Communications and Public Engagement office spends about $38 million a year, primarily to tell the public how good a job the government thinks it’s doing with taxpayers’ funds. 

There are more people employed in public relations for ministries than there will be at the Vancouver Sun and Province after the latest round of Postmedia layoffs. That doesn’t count ministers’ offices, agencies and Crown corporations.

Clark bashing NDP ad waste in 1999

The recent $15 million Our Opportunity Is Here ad campaign was spun as a public engagement exercise, yet some of the ads were slammed as partisan and unnecessary by the Auditor General. Lawyers Paul Doroshenko and David Fai have sued and they want a judge to order the BC Liberal Party to repay the public treasury. (Doroshenko, by the way, is a Campbell-era Liberal who worked on three campaigns and he has turned his back on the Clark Liberals.) 

Heck, even Clark herself admitted government ad spending is wasteful, way back when she was in opposition in 1999 and the NDP was in power. If you didn’t see the video of her slamming the NDP, here it is.

The section also lists three “accomplishments”: 

Established the Auditor General for Local Government to enhance transparency and accountability of local governments.

Reality: In two words (and apologies to Chuck Barris) gong show!

The Auditor General for Local Government is an unmitigated failure. The first one, Basia Ruta, was fired. Ruta had finished only two audits during her three years on the job and not a single one looked behind the curtain at the biggest, most-secretive city that spends the most taxpayers’ money in the province: Vancouver.

Why don’t the Liberals want taxpayers to know about Vision Vancouver’s misdeeds? Is it because they share some of the same campaign strategists, such as Don Millar and Don Guy? 

The website shows that the most-recent audit was of the City of New Westminster, from January 2016. 

It prompted Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation’s Jordan Bateman to write a column comparing the office to the historical effectiveness of Vancouver Canucks’ first round draft picks. (Who can remember Alex Stojanov, Dale Tallon, Rick Blight or Dan Woodley?)

Ruta even shut down investigations before the 2014 local government elections, lest they influence voters to toss an incumbent for, you know, wasting taxpayers’ dollars. 

“Given the delays in releasing any AGLG reports, this is ludicrous,” Bateman wrote. “What better time for taxpayers to get a report into their city hall than when they can take action to vote their council in or out?

“Why shouldn’t taxpayers have access to as much information as possible?”

Number two? 

First Canadian province to legislate a duty to document, improving open government and best practices in information management.

Reality: When they weren’t triple deleting tens of thousands of emails, they weren’t even writing things down. Well, maybe on post-it notes. 

The government moved its Information Access Operations department into the Ministry of Finance under Mike de Jong in 2016, just in time for the appointment of Clark’s hyper-political bridesmaid, Athana Mentzelopoulos, to become Deputy Minister. Mentzelopoulos is the former head of GCPE.  

Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham wised-up to the BC Liberals tricks in October 2015 with her watershed Access Denied report on the triple deleting scandal centred in the offices of Transport Minister Todd Stone and Clark. Stone aide George Gretes was charged with lying under oath about destroying email that should have gone to FOI requesters, later pleaded guilty and was slapped with a $2,500 fine. 

Denham faced interference from government lawyers before she released the report. She took a better job with as the U.K. information and privacy commissar and was replaced by the de Jong-installed, retired Telus vice-president Drew McArthur. The committee charged with replacing Denham couldn’t agree on a replacement, so McArthur remains through the election.

The OIPC website shows that McArthur has made no significant rulings in favour of the public’s right to know, but has issued a report about surveillance at a medical clinic and how poorly the government manages smart phones, tablets and laptops. He has announced an audit of ICBC’s information sharing agreements, but the lead investigator, Tanya Allen, told theBreaker that ICBC’s controversial police line will not be one of them. 

De Jong and company took almost three years to agree to Denham’s recommendation to publish ministers’ and senior bureaucrats’ calendars and expense reports. But no credible transparency advocate ever recommended publishing a list of active FOI requests or publish the documents. They did it anyway. 

Government communications offices routinely stall reporters’ simple and reasonable requests for facts and stats and deny more interview requests with ministers than they approve. Heck, reporters aren’t allowed to talk to bureaucrats anymore. What is this, a corporation?  

As for that duty to document, it’s a hollow law. On March 8, the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association’s executive director Vince Gogolek had this to say: 

“Despite demands from the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA), the Information Commissioner’s office and the recommendations of a Special Legislative Committee, the BC government has introduced a law that is entirely discretionary and does not create any duty whatsoever.

“The government has been feeling the pressure to do something, and this is as far as they are willing to go. The people of this province will soon be judging them on their performance, and on this issue they deserve a failing grade.”

The last “accomplishment”? 

Modernized the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act.

Reality: Just like the above, another law that did nothing for the cause of democratic reform. 

The act was so wishy-wash that CityHallWatch dubbed it B.C.’s Unfair Elections Act for Local Government and made a top 10 list of all the things wrong with it:

  1. “The sky is the limit” – no spending limits for candidates and local political parties (elector organizations)
  2. No caps on donations from a single source
  3. No bans on corporate or union donations
  4. Four year terms of office, an increase from current three year terms, done without any public consultation
  5. No tax receipts to be allowed for donations used in municipal elections
  6. No spending limits on third party advertising
  7. Donors are not limited to B.C. (bill does not prohibit outside money)
  8. More red tape: extra paperwork and administrative burdens on campaigns
  9. No ongoing reporting for municipal political parties in non-election years; this enables parties that take big money contributions to hire several permanent staff members and not have transparency between elections
  10. Very weak controls for accurate reporting of campaign spending; it appears easy to circumvent the rules

So, 16 years after promising to be the most open, democratic and accountable in the country, the BC Liberals haven’t delivered such a government. They have let citizens down. 

They want you to pay them to insult your intelligence for another four years.

Remember that on May 9… or if you vote early. 

Advance polls open April 29. 

Bob Mackin It is called putting lipstick on

Bob Mackin noticed Rich Coleman leaving the Vancouver Convention Centre, after the pre-election Leader’s Dinner on April 10.

Here is what happened, raw and uncut.

The Deputy Premier, Natural Gas and Housing Minister claims he has issues with the veracity of Mackin’s stories about him. Mackin has never received a demand for a correction or retraction from Coleman or his staff. Mackin stands behind his work.

Coleman has never agreed to a one-on-one interview with Mackin, despite countless requests by Mackin about public interest topics involving Coleman. Issues like the kiboshed Liquor Distribution Branch privatization of 2012 to Coleman’s role in a Feb. 23, 2016 private fundraising event at which real estate tycoons donated more than $1 million.

On March 29, via Twitter, Mackin publicly challenged Coleman to sit down for a live, webcast interview before the May 9 election.

That invitation still stands.

 

Bob Mackin noticed Rich Coleman leaving the

Bob Mackin

Paul Oei is a prominent businessman and socialite in Vancouver’s Chinese community, who impressed by driving expensive cars, rubbing elbows with politicians and donating to charities.

So said the lawyer prosecuting fraud charges against BC Liberal donor Oei in front of a B.C. Securities Commission tribunal on April 10. 

Mila Pivnenko, representing BCSC executive director Peter Brady, told the tribunal that Oei ran a fraudulent scheme connected to the sale of shares in Cascade Renewable Carbon Corp., Cascade Renewable Organic Fertilizer Corp., and Organic Eco-Centre Corp. 

Oei enters B.C. Securities Commission tower in Vancouver (Mackin)

Pivnenko alleged that Oei used two numbered companies and his Canadian Manu Immigration and Financial Services Inc. to raise $13.3 million from 64 investors, but he used $6.9 million for himself. 

Oei met Gerald Salberg in 2009 and Oei agreed to raise money in the Chinese community to help Salberg build a plant to recycle organic waste into topsoil and fertilizer. But Pivnenko said Oei kept his investors in the dark and exploited their lack of understanding of English and the Canadian investment process.  

“How was Mr. Oei able to keep more than half of the investors’ money and not be caught? Paul Oei exploited the looseness of his arrangement with Cascade management, various weaknesses of the investors, and by layering investor funds with his personal funds and those of his other businesses,” Pivnenko said. 

“Oei tailored his sales pitch to what would be most persuasive to each investor. He told investors that the Cascade investment was approved by the B.C. government,” she said. “He told some investors who wanted to immigrate to Canada that they could immigrate if they invested in the Cascade project.”

Oei and Salberg had a falling out in 2012. Oei took over the company, but Cascade Renewable Carbon Corp. declared bankruptcy in May 2013. 

The hearing couldn’t come at a worse time for the incumbent BC Liberals. The hearing began the day before the provincial election writ is issued and the case involves immigration consultant Oei, who paid for access to Premier Christy Clark and told investors that his company was endorsed by her government. 

Elections BC’s database shows that Oei donated $55,787.85 between 2011-2015 to the BC Liberals, plus $680 through his Canadian Manu Immigration and Financial Services Inc. His wife, Loretta Lai, gave the party $13,565 between 2012 and 2016.

Pivnenko said in her opening statements that Oei took advantage of his investors who spoke little or no English and were unaware of Canadian investing regulations. She said Oei layered funds and used many accounts, and that he commingled investors funds with his personal funds. 

Paul Oei (left) with Premier Christy Clark and John Yap at a 2015 Liberal fundraiser. (Twitter)

Oei boasted in interviews with Chinese media outlets that he wanted to build 100 composting plants.

Pivnenko said nine investors would be called to testify. The case will be complicated by the death two weeks ago of BCSC star witness Salberg. Pivnenko said he was interviewed under oath a year and a half ago and she would submit a transcript for the panel’s consideration. 

Defence lawyer Teresa Tomchak said Oei denied the allegations and mentioned Joe Peschisolido as the lawyer who gave advice and drew up documents for investors. She said evidence will be introduced to show Oei’s ex-business partner, the late Salberg, was terminated for mismanaging investors’ funds.

“So, the respondents agree that Mr. Oei was the guiding mind of all of the respondents.

However, they say that he solicited investments on behalf of Cascade in a manner that accorded with his agreement with Cascade and pursuant to legal advice,” Tomchak said. “The respondents deny that Mr. Oei made the representations that are alleged in the Notice of Hearing.”

She said Oei denies using investor funds on expenses unrelated to Cascade. 

“The respondents say that they, in fact, used funds in excess of $13.3 million in relation to Cascade. And the respondents say that they used the Canadian Manu bank accounts to receive investors’ money in accordance with the instructions from those investors.”

Oei, Lai and Peschisolido were named in a March 2014 lawsuit by Cascade investors Wei Chen and Junping Zhen, who claim they were victims of fraud and breach of trust. 

Peschisolido is a Richmond Liberal MP elected in 2015 and has denied any wrongdoing.

Chen and Zhen claim Oei told them his scheme was supported by the B.C. government. 

Before the hearing, theBreaker asked Oei for comment on both the case against him and his BC Liberal donations. He declined. 

The hearing is scheduled to run through April 25. 

Bob Mackin Paul Oei is a prominent businessman

Bob Mackin

One year ago, on April 7, 2016, real estate agent Tina Oliver posted a photo on Facebook. It was her sun-splashed Dexter Associates Realty sign on the lawn outside a house on a pleasant, tree-lined street in Dunbar.

“SOLD in 6 days, way over ask, super happy Seller and Buyer!” Oliver wrote about the four-bedroom, four-bathroom house. 

(Facebook)

BC Liberal insiders know that Oliver is a friend of power broker Patrick Kinsella and his wife Brenda, and was a campaign worker on Premier Christy Clark’s 2011 leadership win. Oliver’s website said the 2005-built house was listed at $3.488 million, but sold for $3.688 million. 

It caused more than 30 seconds of commotion on Facebook, when several of her followers offered their congratulations throughout the day. 

“This market is absolutely crazy!” wrote Jatinder Ardhawa. 

“This sold to a local buyer, so I feel somewhat saintly,” wrote Oliver in a reply before midnight. 

A Blueshore Financial Credit Union mortgage for the property was registered July 11, 2016. 

Later in the summer, a famous new tenant moved in: Christy Clark. 

Clark had lived in a house less than a kilometre south of Vancouver city hall, since she moved in 2005 from Port Moody with hopes of becoming Vancouver’s mayor. She was listed on the deed as “Christina Joan Clark, businesswoman.” She still hasn’t fulfilled her promise to buy a house in Kelowna after winning a 2013 by-election. She does have a half-interest in Galiano Island recreational property with her brother, Bruce Clark.

As reported in November, Clark’s Dunbar house is registered in the name of Nevin Sangha. Sangha is a close business associate of longtime Clark friend and Vancouver Whitecaps principal owner Greg Kerfoot. Sangha and Kerfoot played together on the same Hollyburn Country Club hockey team in 2004.

The Dunbar house, where Clark parks her party-leased, Dueck-supplied Buick SUV that theBreaker was first to tell you about, is also used as a meeting place for the BC Liberals’ inner circle. A source told theBreaker that Bruce Clark, her ex-husband Mark Marissen and Liberal adman Jatinder Rai have attended campaign strategy sessions there.

Aspects of Sangha and Kerfoot’s business affairs are intermingled. The B.C. Registry Services database shows Sangha is the sole director of Carrera Management Corporation. The Carrera website shows it does business from the same office as Landing Holdings Corporation, whose only director is Kerfoot. 

Landing Holdings owns the Gastown heritage building where the Whitecaps souvenir store and offices are located. Kerfoot and Sangha both moved their corporate records to the same Langley law firm last summer.

Elections BC shows that Kerfoot was the principal officer of Carrera when he made a  $7,500 donation to the BC Liberals on April 14, 2014. Sangha donated $1,250 in August 2010.

First page of secret Whitecaps rent deal.

British Columbia laws do not require the registration and reporting of beneficial owners of land or companies. In its No Reason to Hide report last December, Transparency International said it is harder to get a library card than to register real estate or a business in Canada. “Public libraries typically require proof of address and photo identification,” the report said. “No corporate registry in Canada asks for either.”  

B.C. Assessment’s latest valuation pegs the house at $3.426 million, a whopping $921,000 jump from 2015.

While Clark was MLA for Vancouver Point Grey in 2012, her cabinet approved a $14.5 million grant to the Whitecaps, primarily to build a training centre at the University of B.C.’s main campus. Kerfoot has donated almost $80,000 to the BC Liberals since 2005. The Bell sponsorship of the Whitecaps was one of the reasons why the government scrapped the $40 million Telus naming rights agreement for B.C. Place in early 2012. Taxpayers got a $15.2 million bill instead for Telus goods and services.

On Nov. 4, 2016, the Whitecaps and taxpayer-owned B.C. Pavilion Corporation signed a new B.C. Place rent contract, but the terms are a secret. The copy PavCo provided to theBreaker under the freedom of information law was illegally blacked-out. theBreaker has filed a complaint with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. 

In 2015, the OIPC ordered PavCo to release its full contract with the B.C. Lions.

Clark’s new income source

In the same month that Clark said she swore-off her $50,000-a-year party stipend — she said the party would pay her expenses instead — she reported a new source of income. 

theBreaker has learned that Clark filed a material change to her 2016 Public Disclosure Statement with Conflict of Interest Commissioner Paul Fraser on Jan. 12. The summary version for public eyes, filed Jan. 16 with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, said Clark is receiving rental income on a residential property. That would most likely be the Mount Pleasant house she vacated last summer. 

Clark reports undisclosed rental income.

Last fall, her spokesman Ben Chin claimed, without showing any proof, that Clark was paying $5,500 to $6,500 per month to rent the Dunbar house. Chin said Clark went beyond her legal obligation and mentioned it to Fraser. 

When this reporter tried to confirm that, he met a wall of secrecy. Fraser’s office said that, beyond the documents already provided by the Clerk’s office, “members’ files are otherwise confidential.” 

theBreaker also made repeated requests to the Office of the Premier for permission to inspect full copies of the disclosure and material change forms that Clark submitted to Fraser. theBreaker also wanted to inspect Clark’s tenancy agreement for the Dunbar house and see the cancelled rent cheques. 

Clark’s press secretary, Stephen Smart, did not reply to any of theBreaker’s repeated email and phone messages since March 16. Clark walked away from theBreaker’s questions after the April 26 televised leaders’ debate (see video below).

The requests to Clark’s office were similar to one made by this reporter to the NDP in 2014 and 2015 to inspect Jenny Kwan’s Vancity banking records in the wake of the Portland Hotel Society expenses scandal. In 2015, Dunbar-dweller Clark ridiculed Kwan as the “member for Disneyland.”

A B.C. government-commissioned audit found that Kwan’s ex-husband, senior PHS manager Dan Small, had charged PHS for their trips to Disneyland and Europe.

Premier Christy Clark (Mackin photo)

The NDP granted this reporter a supervised inspection of Kwan’s cancelled cheque and her related bank statements. The documents showed that she did reimburse the Downtown Eastside charity for $32,992.57. Former B.C. NDP MLA Kwan is now the NDP MP for Vancouver East. 

IntegrityBC’s Dermod Travis said Clark should go beyond the letter of the law and set an example for transparency and accountability. 

“She should be proactively disclosing it, even if the law doesn’t require it, to set a standard that people can look up to, rather than do this little wiggle routine when she’s caught out,” Travis told theBreaker.

Instead of setting the standard, Travis said Clark is taking “the sneaky route” that leads to public distrust of politicians.

“You shouldn’t be in a situation where people are starting to talk about maybe we need to force premiers to disclose their tax returns. But that’s the position that all of her glib answers, all of her glib filings, have put us in,” Travis said.

Conflict of interest scandals involving the homes of two previous B.C. premiers led to the resignations of Social Credit’s Bill Vander Zalm in 1991 and NDP’s Glen Clark in 1999. 

UPDATE, May 4: Bob Mackin spoke briefly with Clark’s lawyer, John Esson, on May 1 after sending him a detailed request by email to see Clark’s tenancy contract, cancelled rent cheques and annual conflict of interest disclosure submission. Esson did not respond to several follow-up email and phone messages. 

Advance voting began April 29 for the May 9 British Columbia election.

 

Bob Mackin One year ago, on April 7,

The BC Liberal government was wrong to fire drug researchers Ramsay Hamdi, Robert Hart, Roderick MacIssac, Dr. Malcolm Maclure, Ron Mattson, David Scott, Dr. Rebecca Warburton and Dr. William Warburton. Whistleblower Alana James’ s allegations weren’t credible and the lead internal investigator, Wendy Taylor, went rogue. The RCMP never was investigating. 

No evidence of political interference was found, but the 512-page report issued April 6 by Ombudsperson Jay Chalke paints a damning picture of systemic bullying, under the ultimate watch of Premier Christy Clark, Minister Mike de Jong and his hastily named replacement, patsy Margaret MacDiarmid. 

Clark dons a pink shirt once a year for anti-bullying day, but an office of the Ministry of Health became a year-round toxic work environment under dark clouds of fear, anxiety, loss of productivity at work, risk-aversion and, for some, health problems. It was an attack on science and scientists and nobody has been held accountable. 

Innocent workers had nightmares police would raid their homes in the middle of the night. MacIsaac couldn’t take the shame of losing his job and died of suicide. Evidence shows that, when his performance was reappraised, nobody called to tell him so. In hindsight, it could have kept him alive.

Chalke’s report Misfire: The 2012 Ministry of Health Employment Terminations and Other Matters, is a long report, which you can find at this link, but theBreaker is publishing excerpts below. Many questions remain, but we are better informed than yesterday. 

Every British Columbian needs to know about this dark chapter in the province’s history before they vote in the May 9 election. –Bob Mackin

Page 1: At about 2:30 p.m. on September 6, 2012, newly appointed Minister of Health Margaret MacDiarmid held a news conference to announce that her ministry had “asked the RCMP to investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct, contracting and data management practices involving ministry employees and drug researchers.” 

The minister announced that an internal investigation had resulted in four employees being fired and three more being suspended. In addition, the contracts of two contractors were suspended and later cancelled. All access to data and research on drug and evidence development in the Pharmaceutical Services Division of the Ministry of Health were suspended, pending the outcome of the investigation. Government indicated this was a serious situation that had been uncovered through an internal investigation. The minister stated that she was “profoundly disappointed” to be dealing with this “very concerning set of circumstances.” 

In the more than four years since that announcement, the individuals impacted by these decisions, including their families and colleagues, suffered significantly. Although government settled all legal proceedings with the fired employees, significant questions about the firings remained. Without clear information about why the firings occurred or about who made those decisions, various theories have emerged in the public discourse. 

There have been reports issued related to certain aspects of the matter. A report released by the Information and Privacy Commissioner in June 2013 detailed apparent data breaches that had been reported to that office by the Ministry of Health. A review report by outside lawyer Marcia McNeil, delivered to the government in December 2014, shed some light on the internal investigation that led to the employee termination decisions, pointing to a process that was “ awed from the outset, as it was embarked upon with a pre-conceived theory of employee misconduct.”

Health minister briefed

Page 133: On August 3, 2012, Mr. Whitmarsh briefed then-Minister of Health Michael de Jong about the investigation. In a draft letter summarizing the meeting, Mr. Whitmarsh wrote: 

Career politician de Jong

This is further to our discussion on August 3, 2012 when I briefed you on an investigation that was actively under way under my direction. This investigation into inappropriate data access arrangements and intellectual property infringements; irregular procurement, contracting and research grant practices; and standards of conduct policy conflicts and preferential treatment in employee-contractor relations within the Ministry of Health (primarily its Pharmaceutical Services Division – PSD) commenced after our being contacted by the Office of the Auditor General. 

The letter further noted that Minister de Jong had directed Mr. Whitmarsh to “take all necessary actions to identify and address the risk, ensure compliance with government policies and pursue employee disciplinary actions if warranted.” Minister de Jong remembered being told that a serious data breach had taken place, which was some- thing taken seriously by the government. Mr. Whitmarsh told us he warned the minister that this “had the potential to be a really significant issue” both in terms of privacy and contracting. 

Clark did not have a specific recollection

Page 134: At some point after his meeting with Mr. Whitmarsh and before the employee terminations on September 6, 2012 Mr. Dyble briefed Premier Christy Clark on the issue. He recalled mentioning it to her as an issue which might possibly come up. However, he told us that he kept the briefing high level and focused on the alleged privacy breach, on the basis that any related human resources issues were a public service matter in which politicians should not get involved. He recalled the discussion as follows: 

I mentioned that we had a data breach to the Premier and that there was an investigation going on – and that is the level I would have dealt with the Premier on it. Because there was a potential human resource role in here – I would have kept her away from it … whether or not you believe that’s the right thing to do but I believe that the public service should – the politicians shouldn’t get involved in human resources. Most of what I would have told her about was the data breach ‘cause that’s where the politics went in. 

Premier Clark did not have a specific recollection of being briefed on the matter prior to the terminations. 

“It started out with no paper”

Page 199: On September 5, 2012, Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid became Minister of Health, replacing outgoing Minister Mike de Jong, who became Minister of Finance. By this time, both the news release and the accompanying communications materials were in the final drafting stages. 

Margaret MacDiarmid

According to Minister MacDiarmid, Minister de Jong told her that he had left her with a “pretty big problem” and apologized in advance. Immediately after she was sworn in, Mr. Whitmarsh told Minister MacDiarmid that he had to brief her. Minister MacDiarmid was “horrified” by the situation Mr. Whitmarsh described. He explained how a “whistleblower” had come forward, was ignored within the ministry, and then took her complaint to the Auditor General. The resulting “complex investigation” by the Ministry of Health had uncovered many problems. Minister MacDiarmid recalled that the problems were described in two ways. First, researchers were allegedly finding ways to work around the policies and regulations that governed access to health data. This included transferring personal health data onto unencrypted devices and possibly selling data. Second, contracts were allegedly being direct-awarded at a low rate, but the contracts’ costs then increased significantly, as a way to circumvent direct-award rules. 

Minister MacDiarmid’s executive assistant, who had also started in the ministry that day, recalled being taken aback at the substance of the briefing and surprised by the way Mr. Whitmarsh briefed the Minister – he provided her with no options about the best way to proceed, which was inconsistent with her previous experience. This individual observed that Mr. Whitmarsh was very much directing the Minister on the next steps to take. 

Minister MacDiarmid’s shock at the contents of this briefing arose in part from her time at the Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government, where she had 

seen the conscientiousness with which public servants performed their duties. Given this experience, she was surprised that a group of public servants would – as was described to her – be “bending the rules and going around the rules.” She believed that the matter was reported to the RCMP because two unencrypted flash drives that were believed to have data on them could not be found – and thus were presumed stolen. 

Minister MacDiarmid recalled that, from her perspective, “one of the things that I was really gobsmacked by was that people were being fired. I didn’t remember anyone being fired. People got severed and they got huge piles of money.” 

At the briefing on September 5, 2016, Mr. Whitmarsh provided Minister MacDiarmid with a verbal overview of the investigation. She did not see any of the underlying evidence supporting the allegations, nor did she receive a copy of the Relationship Web that Mr. Whitmarsh had used to brief the Deputy Minister to the Premier Mr. Dyble. Instead, Mr. Whitmarsh provided most of the information about the investigation verbally. In our interview with her, Minister MacDiarmid reflected on the lack of documentation that was presented to her once she became minister: 

… I never saw, like, any of the interviews or anything like that at all. And … those pieces of information, I feel like those were verbal… It was, you know, people walking me through and of course that’s why I then have to count on my memory because you can’t provide me with a briefing note that says this is what happened. 

And now that I reflect on that, it’s unusual. You know, it started out with no paper because I’d just started today. There’s no time for people to give me, you know, 48 hours. This is a big explosive issue, we’ve got to deal with it now. So I – I didn’t even question. 

But as time went on, this stands out for me. Other things that I would have met with Graham and other ADMs and so on with, I would have always had paper on them. It would be very unusual. Whereas this one continued to be verbal, and Graham and I talked about it frequently. 

And I don’t remember getting a lot of paper on this. 

When we interviewed her, Minister MacDiarmid took responsibility for her decision to appear at the press conference on September 6. She believed that she had to be accountable for what had gone wrong. However, it is clear that at the press conference, and in subsequent media appearances, she was operating on very little information. 

“Because I assumed that it was true”

Page 204: Ms. [Athana] Mentzelopoulos told us she would have supported the mention of the RCMP referral as long as it was true. In her view, government needed to demonstrate that it was serious about dealing with the privacy breaches, and describing the referral to the RCMP would show such leadership. However, in the interview with us, she said she had misjudged how news of the privacy breach would quickly be overrun by the news of the dismissals and the RCMP referral In the end, the final news release stated in the first line, “The Ministry of Health has asked the RCMP to investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct, contracting and data-management practices involving ministry employees  and drug researchers.” 

Athana Mentzelopoulos

Despite the intensive discussions about the content of the news release, Minister MacDiarmid was unaware until years later that there had been internal debate or legal advice about including mention of the RCMP in the news release. No one shared the concerns we have described above with the minister. She told us: 

I just did not understand the consequences of even breathing the letters RCMP. I had no idea and no one told me…… 

It is clear that there was considerable confusion on September 6, 2012 over the content of the press release and, looking back, who had the final say as to the contents. Whatever the general practice was, the rushed events of that day meant that the issue was being actively considered until only a few minutes before the public release. It is important to note that GCPE supported the communications approach up to and including the Deputy Minister level. Ms. Mentzelopoulos conceded that she thought that it was important to have the RCMP in the press release, “because I assumed that it was true.” The GCPE Communications Manager had already confirmed the RCMP involvement to the Vancouver Sun, which had reported the fact that morning. 

The decision to make a public announcement about this investigation was driven by senior public servants wanting to demonstrate that the government was fulfilling its duty to inform people whose information may have been compromised, and to reassure the public that it was in control of the issue. However, this was a problem that government created for itself. The fact that employees were suspended without pay so early in the investigation led Mr. Whitmarsh to be concerned that there would be a leak about the investigation. This prompted him to ask GCPE to become more involved in the matter, going so far as to have GCPE representatives join the weekly meetings in August 2012, where he and investigators discussed the impending dismissal decisions. 

MacIsaac should not have been dismissed

Page 208: It is our conclusion that Mr. MacIsaac’s employment dismissal was wrong. We base this conclusion on the following: 

The interviews were conducted unfairly 

The dismissals were based on incorrect or incomplete evidence about Mr. MacIsaac’s PhD research and his access to and use of ministry administrative health data 

It was inappropriate and unfair to infer from Mr. MacIsaac’s conduct in the interview or his refusal to sign the data declaration that he was attempting to mislead the investigation team 

Mr. MacIsaac should not have been dismissed from his employment. 

Late Roderick MacIsaac, one of the health researchers wrongly fired.

After his dismissal, an investigator reviewed Mr. MacIsaac’s communications with respect to data access. On November 27, 2012, he determined that it was highly unlikely that Mr. MacIsaac had taken any data away from the ministry: 

Roderick worked a fair bit at home, but it appears that there was an understanding that he had to work at the office when working with sensitive data. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t be working in a vacuum, and there would have been government documents that he either developed at home or that he took home to work with. 

While he was provided copies of CCH survey and administrative data on his PC at the office which provided an opportunity to copy the data and bring it home, I have never found anything that suggests that he ever brought home any sensitive data, either PI or anonymized, or sent any of this data to UVIC accounts. Rather I found that he was adverse to the idea of handling this information at home and also that Rebecca instructed him to only work with “CCHS” and “admin data” at the office. 

As far as we can determine, the ministry did not contact Mr. MacIsaac to inform him of this reappraisal of his conduct. 

“I lost faith in the government” 

Page 362: The investigation affected individuals differently. There were, however, some common themes: fear, anxiety, loss of income and resulting financial uncertainty, harm to reputation and careers, harm to relationships, and, for some, health problems. 

One witness told us, “I was excessively worried about being able to continue to provide for my family, my reputation.” In some cases, the family members of the individuals under investigation had to cease their own work or educational commitments to provide emotional support. As one witness told us she “couldn’t keep up” her business because “my husband needed me.” One witness told us his spouse described him as “absent, unhappy, stressed.” 

Another witness explained that the stress she incurred by being treated unfairly through the investigation process and the loss of a job she loved caused her to break down physically and emotionally and was the “tipping point” for the dissolution of her marriage. 

Another witness told us that they suffered from recurring nightmares. One witness said that she was unable to return to the Ministry of Health building for almost a year due to the anxiety and trauma she suffered. 

A number of witnesses related instances of colleagues – locally, nationally and internationally – questioning their integrity as a result of their public connection to this matter and the implication that they had engaged in criminal conduct. They described how this affected their ability to participate fully in their communities. 

Some of the affected employees and contractors have cited significant difficulties finding other sources of employment. Some individuals described the impact of the 2012-2013 investigation as career-ending…

Many expressed frustration that their years of contributions to the public service or work in the public interest had ended so abruptly and

Clark and caucus mates in 2013. (BC Gov)

negatively. One witness explained how his experience with the investigation had undermined his belief in the values of the public service. Another witness told us, “I lost faith in the government … when it’s your own government that’s really unsettling. Not just any government. This is a government in Canada. This is Canada.” Another witness expressed how  “hard it is to raise teenagers to believe in government when this is going on, and we had a house full of teenagers at the time that this is all happening … and they are interested. How do you defend the role of government when this is going on?” 

The decision to refer publicly to police involvement contributed significantly to the negative impacts we have described above. It created a sense of fear and undermined people’s reputations in the community. 

One of the fired employees told us, “we were always scared … when the doorbell rings, I get a jolt of I’m scared … I never used to feel that way. It’s just very bizarre.” This witness described how another fired employee returned home from work to see police cars on his street and thought the RCMP had come to arrest him. This witness continued, “we were all petrified. I had nightmares for months.” 

Even those who were not connected to the public announcement, and who had not been part of the initial investigation, told us they wondered “if the RCMP were going to appear at the front door and remove all the computers from our home.” This witness told us, “I was surprised how stressed I was” and decided to end all ties with the ministry…

Following the initial media coverage and the government news release, this matter has remained in the public sphere. In addition to continued media attention, matters relating to the investigation were publicly reported on by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and as part of the McNeil review. Issues relating to the legal proceedings were the subject of media attention and government press releases. The leak of the Office of the Comptroller General report gave renewed life to allegations against some of the employees. Similarly, our investigation and the release of this report will continue to keep this matter in the public domain…..

Many staff across the Ministry of Health were negatively affected by the investigation, the dismissals, and the aftermath. Common impacts included fear, anxiety, loss of productivity at work, risk-aversion and, for some, health problems. 

A number of projects in the fields of health research, evaluation, health education and public health were delayed or never completed due to suspension of data access.

 

The BC Liberal government was wrong to

Bob Mackin

The Crown corporation that the BC Liberal Party’s campaign co-chair oversees is breaking the law to hide the contract with Premier Christy Clark’s favourite sports franchise. 

On March 24, B.C. Pavilion Corporation sent theBreaker a blacked-out copy of the Vancouver Whitecaps’ 27-page, Nov. 4, 2016 lease for B.C. Place Stadium. 

Todd Stone, the minister responsible for PavCo, did not respond for comment. 

When theBreaker applied under the freedom of information laws on Dec. 9, it explicitly reminded PavCo of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s landmark March 2015 ruling that forced PavCo to release its entire negotiated contract with the B.C. Lions. 

Adjudicator Vaughan Barrett ordered disclosure of the full contract, because there was no evidence its release would harm the business interests of either PavCo or the Canadian Football League team. In his ruling, Barrett cited the words of ex-OIPC commissioner David Loukidelis from a 2009 IT contract ruling: “[The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act] should be administered with a clear presumption in favour of disclosure… Businesses that contract with government must fully appreciate that the transparency of those dealings has no comparison in fully private transactions.”

Taxpayer-owned, money-losing B.C. Place is the only suitable permanent venue in B.C. for CFL or Major League Soccer games. The Lions and Whitecaps have market monopolies from their respective leagues. 

A source told theBreaker that whenever the two sides reached an impasse in negotiations, the Whitecaps would seek intervention from Clark’s office. The same source said the Whitecaps’ 2016 contract is more favourable than the previous one.

Rachel Lewis, chief operating officer of the Delaware-incorporated Whitecaps, did not respond to an interview request. A copy of the censored contract below. 

Canadian Taxpayers Federation director Jordan Bateman said there is no excuse for a public-owned agency to withhold a contract from British Columbians, who paid $126 million to build the stadium in 1983 and $514 million for its renovation in 2011.

“Black is the colour, hiding is the game,” said Bateman, to the tune of the team’s ‘White is the Colour’ theme song. “The sneaking suspicion is if they don’t want to share it, chances are there’s something in it that they want to hide from the public. And what that means is probably bad news for the taxpayers who are likely on the hook for more money for this private sports enterprise.”

Clark and veteran Liberal campaigner/Attorney General ministry lawyer

Bateman also said the timing is suspicious, because PavCo’s shareholders are also voters in the May 9 provincial election.

“This is typical of the games that government FOI folks are playing now, trying to drag things out past the election,” he said. “If they can punt it past May 9, that’s considered a win for them and their political masters.”

Last year, PavCo admitted to theBreaker that it spent almost $35,000 of taxpayers’ funds to hire outside lawyers in seven of its failed FOI disputes, including one over the real attendance counts for Whitecaps and Lions games. The documents that the OIPC ordered to be released proved that the Whitecaps and Lions had overstated their attendance by a combined 500,000 fans over a four-year span

PavCo lost $4.165 million in 2015-2016 and forecast another $8.2 million in red ink for the year ended March 31, 2017. Next year’s projected deficit is $15.07 million. 

Information released under a separate FOI request showed PavCo charged the Whitecaps $339,618 in fiscal 2016 rent and the Lions $219,273. Besides ticket sales, both teams rely on revenue from media contracts with TSN, which does not black-out home game telecasts in the Vancouver market.

The April 2015-released Lions contract showed the team is charged no rent on the first $9 million of net ticket sales, but it pays royalties of 10% to 20% on successive increments of $1 million.

Clark is a rabid Whitecaps’ fan and longtime friend of principal owner Greg Kerfoot, the secretive tech billionaire-cum-real estate investor. Last summer, Clark moved into a $3.7 million Dunbar house that is registered in the name of Kerfoot business associate Nevin Sangha. Clark frequently hosts Liberal campaign planning meetings at the house and Tweeted a photo of her inside the house, sporting a Lions’ jersey last fall.

Between 2005 and 2016, Kerfoot donated $80,000 to the Liberals.

In 2012, the Clark cabinet approved spending $14.5 million on the Whitecaps’ University of B.C. training centre. The government refused to publish the business case for the subsidy. At the time, Clark represented the Vancouver-Point Grey riding.

UPDATE (April 30): On April 4, OIPC ordered PavCo to provide it an unredacted copy of the contract. On April 28, OIPC informed theBreaker that it had assigned investigator Wade Raaflaub to the case. 

BCPC – 499 by BobMackin on Scribd

Bob Mackin The Crown corporation that the BC Liberal

Bob Mackin

Premier Christy Clark drives a Buick Enclave sport utility vehicle supplied by a BC Liberal Party donor’s auto dealership.

But you wouldn’t know that by looking at the public version of her annual conflict of interest disclosure. 

Clark’s 2016 public disclosure statement, filed last November, said she received a leader’s allowance from her party, but no gifts or benefits. Not even the Buick.

The form Clark submitted to Conflict of Interest Commissioner Paul Fraser is officially confidential, but a summary is published once a year through the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly. 

Clark’s 2016 form omits Buick

The annual forms that MLAs are required by law to submit annually to Fraser include a section that says MLAs must disclose personal benefits connected directly or indirectly with the performance of their official duties “immediately, if the value of the gift or benefit exceeds $250.”

Dueck Auto Group CEO Moray Keith told theBreaker that Clark’s vehicle is leased for her by the party.

The party admitted in 2016 that it paid Clark a $50,000 annual stipend, over and above her $195,000 salary as premier and MLA for Westside-Kelowna. In January, she announced that she would no longer take the stipend, but would instead be reimbursed by the party for expenses. 

In a 2012 interview with The Tyee, Clark said she did not know the amount of her party stipend, but called it a “car allowance.” 

“I do a lot of driving,” Clark told Andrew MacLeod. “I do a lot of driving for party events and those kinds of things.”

Clark is usually chauffeured by RCMP bodyguards in a full-size Chevrolet SUV to and from the $3.7 million Dunbar house in which she is a tenant.

Liberal spokesman Emile Scheffel did not respond to requests for comment.

“Just because B.C. has probably the weakest conflict of interest legislation for MLAs in the country is not an excuse for not being compliant,” IntegrityBC’s Dermod Travis told theBreaker. “The premier, who has consistently promised us the most open and transparent government in Canada, should not just stop where the law requires, but set a standard so that there are no suspicions of any particular preferential treatment being given to a party donor, whether it’s a cash donation or a donation in kind.”

Meanwhile, Keith said he is donating the use of four vehicles from Dueck GM to cabinet ministers Peter Fassbender and Andrew Wilkinson and rookie candidate James Lombardi for the duration of the election campaign. 

Vancouver-Quilchena’s Wilkinson and Vancouver-Point Grey’s Lombardi have both Tweeted photos of the advertising-wrapped Chevy Volts they are driving. Neither mentioned Dueck in their Tweets, but the dealership’s decal was visible in Lombardi’s photo. 

“We’ve got some friends who are Liberals, carrying the Liberal flag,” Keith, a Liberal-appointed B.C. Lottery Corp. director, said. “I like their economic policies, I like the fact that we’ve got the best economy in the country.”

Keith said Dueck’s loans of cars and trucks to candidates are worth $750 to $1,000 each. “We give them a note and they turn around and put it on their election form for what we value it at.”

They are probably not the only candidates driving donated cars on the road to May 9.

Blair Qualey, president of the New Car Dealers Association of B.C., said his organization will, if asked, connect candidates and charities to dealers in their area. 

“We get asked for support from all sorts of folks, we leave it up to the dealer to do what they want in their own ridings,” Qualey said. “We have dealers that do business in strong NDP ridings. We encourage our members to be active in their own communities.”

From 2005 to 2016, Keith and his Dueck Auto Group donated $143,811.47 to the Liberals.

The New Car Dealers, which counts Keith as a member of its board of directors, are among the biggest supporters of the Liberals. Between 2005 and 2016, they donated $1,274,879.58.

In February, the BC Liberal government announced another $40 million in public funding for the New Car Dealers to dole out $2,500 to $6,000 subsidies for buyers of electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles worth up to $77,000. The Liberals are promoting electric vehicles to help justify BC Hydro’s $9 billion Site C dam development. 

Qualey said the association administers the program based on cost-recovery, “so customers don’t have to chase a bureaucrat in Victoria to find where their $5,000 is. They get it at the point of sale.”

For the year-ended March 31, 2016, the New Car Dealers received $5.87 million in transfers from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which is responsible for BC Hydro. 

What the rules say

B.C. has no laws regulating the size or source of donations to provincial or municipal political parties or candidates. Elections BC spokesman Andrew Watson said there are rules around how candidates and parties report donations of goods and services.

Dueck owner Moray Keith (Mackin)

“For goods and services, the value of the contribution is equal to the market value which is defined by the Election Act as the lowest price charged for an equivalent amount of equivalent property or services in the market area at the relevant time,” Watson said. 

“If a vehicle is provided for free of charge to a campaign, the value of using that vehicle is a permitted political contribution. The value of using the vehicle during the campaign period, as well as any additional costs incurred to add signage, would be an election expense subject to the limit.”

For the 2013 election, the Liberals told Elections BC that they received $8,096,474.55 in contributions of money and $206,660.97 in goods, services and discounts (including contributions through loans and debts). The NDP, meanwhile, reported taking in $9,126,970.95 in money and $202,842.29 in-kind.

During the Vancouver civic election of 2014, leaked documents from CUPE Local 1004 indicated that it paid $10,000 to workers who took time off to volunteer on political campaigns endorsed by the union. The union’s B.C. and national offices matched the political action fund, dollar-for-dollar. 

New Car Dealers’ Qualey (Mackin)

“Under section 186(2)(a) [of the Election Act], if an employer provides compensation to an individual for their services on a campaign, the value of their services is a permitted political contribution made by the employer,” Watson said. “The value of their services may also be an election expense subject to the expense limit depending on the nature of the services used during the campaign period.”

On the topic of campaign financing laws, Qualey said “ultimately it’s up to the people of B.C. to decide what’s good for them. At the moment we don’t see any problems with the way it is now.”

One of the association’s two registered lobbyists, Mark Jiles, was mentioned in a Globe and Mail story last month about lobbyists breaking one of the few campaign finance rules by donating in their names and being reimbursed by their clients. Qualey said he has “no question, no concern that there’s been anything done untoward” by Jiles.

Ex-Liberal MLA Doug Horne is the association’s other lobbyist. 

On March 10, Elections BC handed its investigation of lobbyists’ donations to the RCMP. Two weeks later, on March 24, the BC Liberals said they would refund $93,000 in illegal donations. That was the same day Attorney General Suzanne Anton participated in a $1,000-a-plate Surrey fundraiser for Citizens Services Minister and ex-RCMP officer Amrik Virk. 

The Criminal Justice Branch retained special prosecutor David Butcher on March 29 to assist the Mounties. 

The party said in January that it grossed $12.4 million in 2016 donations, but has stubbornly resisted calls by the NDP, Greens and independent Vicki Huntington to ban corporate and union donations.

Bob Mackin Premier Christy Clark drives a Buick

Bob Mackin

The taxpayer-owned Transportation Investment Corporation deliberately withheld safety documents about the $3 billion-plus Port Mann/Highway 1 Project from theBreaker

Bureaucratic bumbling at TI Corp meant a Freedom of Information request for the required safety audit of the Dec. 1, 2012-opened Port Mann toll bridge was denied. 

The denial was the basis for a Feb. 11 story. Five days later, TI Corp spokesman Greg Johnson claimed that documents did exist, but he said they weren’t sent to theBreaker because they were created before the Sept. 1, 2012 to March 1, 2013 range for the FOI request. 

theBreaker demanded the documents and an explanation. It took until March 24 for Johnson to finally send an Aug. 1, 2012 report, with apologies. 

“The record should have been sent to you as part of your original request,” Johnson wrote. “It wasn’t included because of a too literal interpretation of the dates you specified. I recognize now that wasn’t in the spirit of the [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy] Act and we’ll take a look at processes here at TI Corp to make sure we’re assisting as best we can in future.”

Winter storms in December 2012 and December 2016 caused accumulation of ice and snow on the bridge’s cables and towers, some of which fell and smashed the windshields of moving vehicles below. 

A source with knowledge of major bridge projects suggested theBreaker find out whether a standard, government-mandated safety audit had considered the risk of so-called “ice bombs” while construction workers finished the bridge. 

Government FOI contractor Hooper

The records show that it did not. 

The mandatory safety audit is about the project in general, rather than the bridge specifically. 

Three engineering experts from Canadian Highways Institute Inc. carried out an audit that covered “the geometrics and laning, typical sections, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and barrier types, signing and pavement markings, which may affect road user safety.”

The scope of the audit, which sought to find potential safety hazards, did not include the cables and towers. John Morrall, Gerald Smith and Robert Dewar’s letter also came with a disclaimer: “no guarantee is made that every deficiency has been identified.” 

Further, it said that if all the suggestions in the report were addressed, it would not confirm the highway as “safe”; rather, the suggestions should improve the level of safety.

Hooper changes her tune

Behind the scenes

When Johnson finally sent the audit, TI Corp’s outsourced information and privacy manager, Bev Hooper, sent theBreaker an email just two minutes later with a $30 invoice to see an estimated 300 pages of internal correspondence about the file. After the Feb. 10 denial, theBreaker asked to see how TI Corp processed and handled the original request. 

theBreaker refused to pay, because government offices and public agencies are not supposed to charge for records created and stored electronically. Hooper’s company eventually sent the 286 pages of partly censored internal correspondence by email, at no charge, on March 29. 

One of the pages shows that Hooper had recommended releasing the report without any redactions. 

“These responsive records do not contain sensitive information that would be harmful to TI Corp.,” Hooper wrote on Jan. 18. “Recommend the records be released in their entirety.” 

Some time between Jan. 18 and Feb. 7, however, someone decided not to follow that recommendation. Hooper was in regular communication with TI Corp officials, including Johnson. 

Hooper’s original Feb. 7 proposed response letter said “…we have completed a thorough search of our records and have not located any records that are responsive to your request within the timeframe noted above. If you wish to revise the timeframe, we will reopen your request at that time.” 

Instead, theBreaker received a Feb. 10 letter that said: “Please be advised that we have completed a thorough search of our records and have not located any records that are responsive to your request.”

It is not clear why the change was made, because many of the emails are censored under an exception that covers advice and recommendations. 

A sign-off form names Hooper, and five TI Corp executives who decide what gets released, including CEO Irene Kerr and vice-president of tolling, Max Logan. Logan is married to Kim Chan Logan, a Telus lobbyist who is running for the BC Liberals against NDP incumbent Mabel Elmore in Vancouver Kensington.

An online FOI manual for public workers says that public bodies, such as TI Corp, are bound by a legislated duty to assist FOI applicants, “to make every reasonable effort to assist applicants and to respond openly, accurately, completely and without delay.”

Rulings by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner have said public bodies must handle the wording of requests liberally, rather than literally, and clarify requests that may be vaguely worded. “The duty to assist obliges the head of the public body to defer to the applicant’s wishes.”

“The access ‘partnership’ between public bodies and applicants covers both the formal rights and duties under the Act and the informal contacts during the request process. Employees, members and officials of public bodies must work with applicants in a partnership to process every request: both parties have an interest in the efficient, timely processing of requests. Informal contacts between both parties should extend well beyond the formal duties imposed by the Act and regulations.”

TI Corp is also the Crown corporation in charge of the controversial, $3.5 billion-plus Massey Tunnel Replacement Project. Late last year, Premier Christy Clark appointed her former chief of staff, retired Highways Deputy Minister Dan Doyle, as TI Corp chair. 

SMN 2473 Rev 00 – P0 – HW Road Safety Audit Highway 1 Accelerated Tollin… by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin The taxpayer-owned Transportation Investment Corporation deliberately

Bob Mackin 

Moray Keith (Mackin)

That the B.C. Lions are for sale is not news, but owner David Braley’s video on the Lions’ website has Canadian Football League fans talking. 

Ontario auto parts magnate Braley bought the team in 1997. The former Hamilton Tiger-Cats boss also owned the Toronto Argonauts from 2010 to 2015. The 75-year-old set no sale deadline, only to say that he does not want to own the Leos when he’s 95. 

Braley did not say who is vying to take-over the 1954-established club, which has suffered an attendance slump at B.C. Place Stadium over the last three years. The actual 17,533 attendance for last November’s West semi-final win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was a record low for a Lions’ home playoff game.

A source leaked a list of the suitors for the six-time Grey Cup champs to theBreaker

  • Luigi Aquilini – Aquilini Investment Group
  • Roberto Bosa – Bosa Ventures
  • Alex G. Tsakumis – Trigate Properties Group
  • Moray Keith – Dueck Auto Group
  • Mark Woodall – Special Risk Insurance Managers
  • David Sidoo – East/West Petroleum 

David Sidoo

University of B.C. Thunderbirds booster Sidoo played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1983 to 1987, retired as a Lion in 1988 and embarked on a career as an investment banker. 

The Aquilini family owns the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena. It also has extensive farming, real estate and industrial holdings. 

Eldest son Francesco Aquilini counts reigning Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady as a friend and has dreams of owning a National Football League franchise someday. 

Alex G. Tsakumis

Developer Bosa is a prominent Lions sponsor with development holdings in Canada and the U.S. Insurance executive Woodall is also a Lions’ booster. 

Tsakumis was a multimedia commentator on politics, but three years ago returned to a family company with an extensive real estate portfolio spanning two provinces and five states. 

Keith’s Dueck GM is Canada’s biggest car dealership. He is also a driving force behind the Lions’ Waterboys’ business booster group, which met for breakfast at the Vancouver International Autoshow on March 29.

“Other than confirming I’ve had very cordial conversations with Mr. Braley, I can’t provide you with anything further at this point,” Tsakumis said to theBreaker. “Anyone should be privileged to own a sports asset like the B.C. Lions.”

Roberto Bosa

“I just adore the Lions, a wonderful community asset,” Keith told theBreaker. “Whoever is lucky enough to be the owner of the Lions, this isn’t something you’re going to make a lot of money on, this is something you’ve got to have a passion for.”

Last year, Braley’s price tag was rumoured to be around $40 million, but has since come down to $20 million. 

“What’s the right number on the team? I don’t know,” Keith said. “If you do it as a business proposition it’s going to be a lot lower than it is if you buy it on a valuation that’s done from your heart.” 

Lions’ training camp begins May 25 in Kamloops. Regular season kicks-off June 24 at B.C. Place with a visit from the Edmonton Eskimos. 

Bob Mackin  [caption id="attachment_4355" align="alignright" width="221"] Moray Keith