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Miscellany

Bob Mackin

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

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

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

Clark and Parliamentary Secretary Bill Blair. (BC Gov)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PSS-2016-64808 records by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin Remember that week last November when

Miscellany

Bob Mackin

In midday on March 1, Premier Christy Clark and members of her caucus left the Legislature — while they’re paid by British Columbians to govern — for a campaign photo op at a Victoria construction site with members of the Local 97. (The campaign for the May 9 election isn’t scheduled to officially begin until April 11.)

Doug Parton, the business manager of the 1,800-member union, threw Local 97’s support behind Clark and the Liberals. Clark stood by with a smile under her hardhat as Parton called-out NDP leader John Horgan for siding with Metro Vancouver mayors, who would rather have a subway in Vancouver and light rail in Surrey than a $3.5 billion bridge replace the tunnel from Richmond to Delta.

“In our budget, we’ve got about 24-and-a-half-billion dollars, including Site C, devoted to infrastructure development,” Clark said. “Ironworkers are gonna be a big part of making sure that happens.”

So, how did this union endorsement of a corporate party come about? How much have the BC Liberals promised Local 97?

theBreaker emailed Local 97 president Cecil Damery on March 2 hoping to find out. No reply, so theBreaker called Damery on March 3.

Here is how it went.

theBreaker: “I was hoping to find out more about how the endorsement came about?”

Damery: “No. We’re not going to comment to newspapers.”

theBreaker: “I was wondering if there was a vote done by the general membership or if it was the executive committee that made the decision?

Damery: “That’s none of your business. Are you a member here?”

theBreaker: “No. I’m a reporter.”

Damery: “No. I said no comment.”

theBreaker: “When did you start talking to the BC Liberals? When was the decision made?”

Damery: “Is that any of your business?”

theBreaker: “It’s a reasonable question.”

Damery: “No comment.” (click)

In 2014, during the Vancouver civic election campaign, a recording of a meeting by the civic outside workers’ union was leaked to me.

At the meeting, four Vision Vancouver candidates, including two city councillors, made their case for votes and donations from the 1,600-member CUPE Local 1004. If re-elected, they promised not to contract-out work. Later in the meeting, the three-dozen or so union members in attendance voted to donate $34,000 to Vision, which would automatically be matched by CUPE’s B.C. and national headquarters. The ensuing controversy became one of the dominant issues of the election. 

Ironically, in 1997, the BC Liberals successfully defended themselves against a defamation lawsuit by Local 97.

The party was in opposition, under leader Gordon Campbell, when it issued a news release in May 1994 headlined “B.C. Liberals Reveal Another NDP Kick Back Scheme” in reference to donations to the NDP by unionized workers on the Island Highway project.

“The official opposition (indeed, any member of an opposition party) and its leader have both a duty and an interest to investigate and expose any impropriety or irregularity in the management of government monies by the government of the day, and to communicate their findings to the electorate. The electorate has a corresponding interest in receiving such information,” wrote Justice B.D. Macdonald in his verdict.

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Bob Mackin In midday on March 1, Premier Christy

News

Bob Mackin

Only three of 70 email messages to Premier Christy Clark obtained by theBreaker were in favour of her pre-election scheme to help first-time home buyers.

Two of those messages came from people who regretted they were ineligible and the third from the enthusiastic CEO of the B.C. Real Estate Association.

Clark often referred to notes. (BC Gov)

Clark giddy at photo op. (BC Gov)

“Congratulations and thank you,” wrote Robert Laing in a Dec. 15 letter, with an attached news release. “The BC HOME Partnership is a constructive, tangible measure that will directly benefit many first time homebuyers.”

The rest of the email from Dec. 15 to 19, 2016, released under freedom of information, was harshly critical of the three-year, $700 million program that offers five-year, interest free loans up to $37,500 to first-time buyers. Personal names were censored by the government.

Many correspondents said the program would cause them to vote against the Liberals in the May 9 election and several branded it a vote-buying scheme that could backfire and further harm British Columbians seeking their first house.

“I am a 5th generation Victoria [resident] on one side of my family and a 4th generation on the other side and I’ll never be able to afford to buy a house anywhere on the Island never mind Victoria, but Christy, oh Christy, you can’t buy my vote,” read a Dec. 15, 5:10 p.m. email.

Wrote another on Dec. 16, at 2:11 p.m.: “Are you buying votes in advance of the next election? It would seem so. Given your government’s mismanagement of the incestuous real estate industry and blind eye to corrupt foreign investment in B.C.’s housing industry, you should be ashamed and apologize to the B.C. electorate for your abysmal failing in this regard!”

“You take reserves from ICBC and BC Hydro to create a pre-election surplus then spend it on free (for 5 years) down payments for first time home buyers,” said one received at 10:51 a.m. Dec. 16. “So you push house prices higher and increase debt on those already overburdened with it. Then you raise BC Hydro and ICBC rates (really a tax) and jack up MSP premium for seniors!! I can’t wait until May!”

Several threatened to vote NDP.

“I have always been a Liberal/Social Credit voter. The program makes me consider whether I can vote Liberal in the next election,” said a Dec. 19, 10:49 a.m. message. “The person who has been making the most intelligent sense regarding real estate is David Eby. The NDP critic. It is a sad state when I am agreeing with an NDP person. Sigh.”

And another, from Dec. 19, 3:38 p.m.: “I am very disappointed and I don’t know what I will do in May. I can’t imagine voting for the NDP but that is where I am headed.”

Others observed that the program undermined the progress Clark made with the market-cooling, 15% foreign buyers’ tax, announced last July.

“As fiscal conservatives, the government should minimize government intervention except where most needed. The last place tax dollars need to do is helping more people jump into our bloated housing market… it is not a sin to rent,” said a Dec. 15, 9:03 p.m. email.

“We have kids dying because they are aging out of foster care, a massive drug addiction problem, traffic congestion which can be alleviated by transit/highway development, understaffed/funded provincial parks and despite your government’s good efforts, a large provincial debt outstanding.”

Several writers said the new program would benefit Liberal friends and insiders, first and foremost.

“The market was correcting, the best thing you could have done for us first time buyers was to simply leave it alone. Your decision today has solidified the fact that I will not be voting Liberal in 2017,” according to a Dec. 15, 10:09 p.m. writer. “You have made me feel like your developer friends (Rennie — someone who gains incredible amounts of wealth when the housing market is high) are more important than the young people in this province.”

“FINTRAC did not do its job and neither did the CRA. The realtors have had a field day — while turning blind eyes to fraud — including your good friend and large contributor, Mr. Rennie,” said the message received at 8:11 p.m. Dec. 15.

Others believed it would do nothing to stem the flow of foreign money that is powering the real estate market.

“Shame on you, you have lost my vote with this policy. I hope you reverse it and focus on increasing to limit and eliminate foreign funds coming into the B.C. region,” according to one received Dec. 16 at 3:32 p.m.

The government claimed in a Feb. 4 news release that it handed out $1.1 million in loans after receiving 340 applications since the program opened Jan. 16. Some 67 buyers, it said, had already reached a contract.

The government is refusing to release the cost-benefit analysis and business case for the program. BC Housing is the Crown corporation managing the BC HOME Partnership, but its CEO, Shane Ramsay, said in response to an FOI request that he does not have such records.

Read the email to Clark below. 

Bc Home Email OOP-2016-65275 by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin Only three of 70 email messages

Miscellany

Bob Mackin

The BC Liberal government can continue to keep a 13-page document about the business case and cost-benefit analysis for the Massey Tunnel Replacement Project secret, an adjudicator has ruled. 

Celia Francis of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner decided Feb. 21 that the contents of the documents contain advice and recommendations, therefore the government need not release it. 

Thus ends a three-and-a-half-year quest to learn more about how the Liberals decided to embark on the $3.5 billion project to build a 10-lane bridge from Richmond to Delta by 2022. 

Architect’s rendering of $3.5B bridge over Deas I. (BC Gov)

Premier Christy Clark announced the bridge Sept. 20, 2013 at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver. theBreaker applied for the cost-benefit analysis and business case, but was sent a $126 invoice by the government in November 2013 that said it would take nine hours to find and process 60 pages about the project. Under OIPC pressure, the government released heavily censored documents in mid-2014. A written inquiry ensued last fall, leading to the decision this month. 

The government originally pleaded the documents were covered by sections in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act protecting cabinet documents and fear of harm to government finances. It dropped the latter, and substituted the advice or recommendations defence. 

The adjudicator wrote in her Feb. 21, 2017 decision that the information withheld consists of “options, expert opinions, implications and policy considerations regarding the funding and scheduling of several ministries’ capital projects, as follows: Treasury Board Staff’s analysis of the Ministry of Transportation’s proposed funding changes in its Capital Plan Submission, including factors TB Staff considered; TB staff’s comments on the implications and considerations for certain options for carrying out several ministries’ projects; Proposals, budget estimates, assumptions and considerations regarding the Ministry of Transportation’s projects.”

Because the adjudicator accepted the advice or recommendations defence, she did not consider the cabinet confidences plea. 

Since the FOI request was filed, the cost of the bridge rose to $3.5 billion before Christmas 2015. The price is subject to change for a variety of factors, because of tendering and issues about the depth of sand and silt. 

B.C.’s environment ministry gave its approval Feb. 9. On Feb. 24, the federal government refused a request to study the project by Metro Vancouver mayors opposed to the bridge.

The cruel irony is that all this activity comes during February, Black History Month. 

The Massey Tunnel goes under and through — and the bridge would be built atop — Deas Island. Its namesake, John Sullivan Deas, was a pioneer salmon canner from South Carolina. 

The tinsmith moved north from San Francisco to Victoria in 1862 and then Yale before discovering an opportunity in the Lower Fraser River on an island between today’s Richmond and Delta. 

According to H. Keith Ralston in “John Sullivan Deas: A Black Entrepreneur in British Columbia Salmon Canning”: 

In April 1873, Deas pre-empted on the island which now bears his name and there proceeded to erect a cannery which was likely ready to operate in the season of 1873. (His contemporary statements about the scale of his operations in 1873 and 1874 tend to confirm this, and later accounts date the foundation of the cannery to 1873.) Any case before the 1874 season about seven acres had been dyked on the north end of the low-lying marshy island and a complex of buildings had been built. Two large structures housed the cannery and its associated warehousing space, and a third was a dwelling house, possibly a bunkhouse. There were also a number of smaller buildings. Since fish collection as well as shipping the product depended on the river frontage, the whole was completed by a substantial wharf.

John S. Deas label (Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site)

As anyone in the fishing industry knows, some years are better than others. But competition came. Three in 1878, including one in nearby Ladner. 

Deas’ application for federal approval to lease drifts near his cannery was turned down. 

Wrote Ralston:

In a dispute over school taxes in the summer of 1877, he is alleged to have said that he would pay only if the money were returned for a teacher and a school on Deas Island. Maybe he and his wife were worried about educational opportunities for their growing family — the elder children were into their teens. Possibly his health was beginning to fail; tinsmithing was a notoriously unhealthy trade, and the rooming house looks like an attempt to provide his wife with an income. It could be that it was the start of a move to what he saw as the better opportunities on the Columbia River. 

Deas returned to the U.S. and died in 1880 at age 42 in Portland.

 

Order F17-07 by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin The BC Liberal government can

Miscellany

Bob Mackin

The BC Liberals are spying on the NDP, looking for “gotcha!” video fodder in the run-up to the May 9 provincial election. 

The taxpayer-funded Government Caucus Communications department, which keeps track of where opposition politicians are appearing, has published at least two clips so far.

NDP critic David Eby turned the tables in Question Period on Feb. 27 when he said a government employee, posing as a Young New Democrat, attended the Richmond NDP-hosted “Housing Our Future: A Youth Political Forum on Housing and Education” at Minoru community centre on Feb. 25. 

“She said she was interested in ‘post-secondary education and housing’. Those are her words,’’ Eby told the Legislature. “She then secretly recorded these youths, using a cell phone she tried to hide on her lap. When we posed for a group picture, she pretended to take a phone call and left the room to avoid being photographed. How ironic.”

In an odd coincidence, former B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director Eby directed his question at a former president of the BCCLA, the Liberal government’s communications minister Andrew Wilkinson. 

Eby alleged that the staffer breached the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. He asked Wilkinson whether the video would be destroyed and the youths who attended be sent a privacy breach notice. 

Wilkinson called them “wild allegations” and invited Eby to file a complaint.

“Of course, we can tell that we’re getting close to the big day in May, when it will be determined by the people of British Columbia what the future of the government of British Columbia will be,” Wilkinson said. “So we can expect that these kinds of events may occur, where individuals perhaps do things that are debatable.”

The Question Period bell rang before Eby could ask a followup. 

Eby later told theBreaker by phone that the government employee was Caroline Bleay, a government caucus researcher who had registered for the event under her name for the Facebook-advertised event. 

He said he assumes he is being recorded by political foes at any event he attends. In this case, he said, Bleay did not disclose her affiliation or ask for consent from any of the youths, whose faces and voices she would have recorded.  

“The worry that I have is a young person curious about politics, they want to hear what the NDP has to say on issues they care about, they now have to grapple with the fact they might be secretly videotaped by a staff member of their own government for unknown purposes,” Eby said. “Does it mean that if they decide to apply for a government job that suddenly there’ll be a record that pops up that says they attended an official opposition event and asked questions that seemed critical of the government? 

“We know about governments around the world that engage in this conduct.” 

Bleay did not respond to an email or a phone message left with the BC Liberal caucus office. 

Her LinkedIn profile says she has worked for the government caucus since January 2016, after a stint with Ashcroft Terminal in 2015. In summer 2013, Bleay was an intern with Kinder Morgan in its public relations and communications department. 

Liberal hidden video of NDP’s Rob Fleming.

The Liberals Tweeted a link last November to a YouTube video on the BCGovCaucus page called “John Horgan Unedited.” More recently, they Tweeted a clip of Rob Fleming’s appearance at the Richmond-Steveston riding association’s acclamation meeting for candidate Kelly Greene on Feb. 19. The clip included a cash register sound effect, like the one used by Stephen Harper at his game show-style campaign stops in the waning days of the federal Conservatives’ failed 2015 re-election campaign. 

BC Liberals and their allies have used dubious video tactics in the past. 

During the 2009 provincial election, the Province’s Mike Smyth wrote a column about how government caucus staffer Kyle Surovy was showing up at NDP leader Carole James’ news conferences, posing as a TV cameraman. Surovy is now one of Premier Christy Clark’s videographers.

Vision Vancouver sent videographers, including Mark Vonesch and Zack Embree, to NPA news conferences during the 2014 Vancouver civic election to gather content for attack ads. The Vision videographers did not identify themselves as party workers and pretended to be with the news media.

One of many things that the Liberals and Vision share is the same spin doctor, Don Millar. 

The government caucus knows where NDP and Green politicians are on a daily basis. Among the email that Clark’s ex-press secretary, Sam Oliphant, did not delete when he quit a year ago was the gem below. Taxpayers’ money is spent to compile a schedule for internal use, called Opposition Watch, which theBreaker obtained under freedom of information.

Liberal Caucus Opposition Watch by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin The BC Liberals are spying on

News

Bob Mackin

When she was in opposition, Christy Clark slammed the NDP government for a post-budget “propaganda” campaign worth less than half the one she launched Feb. 24.

“People don’t want the government to spend 700 grand of their money so they can find out how to access services; people want this government to spend their money so that those services are there for them to access, that’s what British Columbians want,” the future Premier Clark chided Finance Minister Joy MacPhail in Question Period on April 1, 1999. “Can the minister tell us this: how many hospital beds, how many firefighters, how many police officers will not be on the street because she’s spending $600,000 on her advertising campaign?”

You can watch archival footage of Clark in action at this link here.

Scene from budget-themed B.C. government ad.

Fast forward to 2017. Clark and her BC Liberals are running for re-election and spending $1.87 million of taxpayers’ money to sell their Feb. 21-tabled budget to voters. The new 30-second ads highlight the scheduled Jan. 1, 2018 reduction of Medical Services Plan fees for 2 million people. On screen, it claims “MSP Premium Elimination Plan Starts With 50% Cut,” but the government has released no date for phase two or the ultimate deadline.

The plan is merely aspirational and subject to change. But the cost of the ad campaign is substantial: $1.87 million would pay the salaries of 32 new court sheriffs for a year. Two separate cases against accused drug dealers were thrown out of Victoria Provincial Court in less than a week because of a shortage of court sheriffs.

The government already hiked this year’s government ad budget from $7.8 million to $15 million in early December. The Liberals raised $12.5 million last year toward the party’s blanket ad campaign in April and early May in an attempt to win a fifth consecutive term. Donations are partially tax deductible. Their machine is so well-stocked that Deputy Premier Rich Coleman boasted at a party gathering last September that the Liberals were “fully funded” for the 2017 campaign. Clark’s strategy is similar to 2013, when she spent $16.6 million of taxpayers’ funds on advertising her BC Jobs Plan before the election and won a surprise majority. 

Advanced Education ministry spokesman Rodney Porter said the new ads are scheduled to run until March 31, which is the end of the fiscal year. The campaign for the May 9 election officially begins April 11. The frequency of the ads and the expenditure is subject to change. 

“TV and online media buying is a live process in which weighting and targeting is recalibrated based on performance and uptake,” Porter said via email.

The contractors are the same four that have collaborated on the government’s November 2015-launched “Our Opportunity Is Here” campaign.

Vizeum (media buying), St. Bernadine Mission (production), Kimbo Design (online) and Response Advertising (ethnic) were designated as preferred suppliers after a 2013 tender when Clark associate Athana Mentzelopoulos was deputy minster of government communications. Clark associate John Paul Fraser is the government’s current propaganda chief.

Jobs for Friends

Two of the companies are led by longtime Clark supporters, Jatinder Rai and Kim Pickett, whose association with Clark dates back to her failed 2005 bid for the Vancouver NPA mayoral nomination. 

Rai’s Response Advertising billed taxpayers $1.1 million for the year ended March 31, 2016. Clark named Rai a director of B.C. Pavilion Corporation last fall and reappointed him to the Medal of Good Citizenship Selection Committee. In 2010, Rai co-chaired the federal Liberal election readiness committee in B.C. with Andrew Wilkinson, who is now the minister responsible for government advertising. 

Kimbo’s Pickett

Response’s Rai

Pickett runs Kimbo Design and billed taxpayers $4.1 million last fiscal year. Pickett designed Clark’s 2011 leadership campaign logo and the 2013 Today’s BC Liberals branding. Kimbo’s billings have mushroomed, from $666,905 in 2013-2014 to $2.27 million in 2014-2015. 

Both Response and Kimbo have gone to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to resist efforts by theBreaker to obtain their invoices under Freedom of Information.

Vizeum billed $3.05 million for last the fiscal year and then another $2.88 million in April 2016, for a 13-month total of $5.93 million. St. Bernadine Mission billed $1.3 million. 

Overall, the government spent $12.45 million on information and publications, what it calls advertising, in 2015-2016, more than double the $5.67 million spent a year earlier.

The media outlet reaping the most revenue for the first 2015-2016 phase of the campaign was Pink Shirt Day-sponsor Global TV. Vizeum invoices obtained by theBreaker show it used $585,929.89 of taxpayers’ money to buy 570 ads between November 2015 and March 2016 on Global, an average of $1,027.95 per ad.

By comparison, the government spent more per 30-second ad on Global than it paid to a single welfare recipient ($610) or a person with disabilities ($983) over a 30-day period. The frozen-since-2007 monthly welfare rate stays at $610 in the 2017-2018 budget, but the disability payments rise $50 to $1,033 beginning April 1. 

Officially, government guidelines state that “public funds must not be used to purchase advertising in support of a political party.” Clark’s strategy differs from predecessor Gordon Campbell, who banned non-essential government advertising for four months prior to winning re-election in 2009. Premier Campbell ordered Deputy Ministers to allow only statutory, emergency or public health and safety ads during the moratorium. Crown corporations were not covered by the ban. 

A similar four-month pre-election moratorium is contained in the NDP’s Feb. 16-tabled Banning Publicly-Funded Campaign Advertisements bill. Private members bills rarely pass, but this bill was part of a suite of 14 planks in the NDP’s democratic reform platform. The NDP proposes following Ontario’s lead and trusting the Auditor General to veto advertising deemed partisan. 

Since 2015, the “Our Opportunity Is Here” ads have touted social services, tax breaks, the Site C dam and LNG, all in an effort to convince the public to re-elect the Liberals this May 9.

An LNG ad that claimed $20 billion had been invested in the B.C. industry was withdrawn after a citizen’s pre-Christmas complaint to the Advertising Standards Council of Canada. Internal government correspondence claims the figure is actually more than $21.5 billion, but $9.45 billion of that is actually the sum of mergers and acquisitions by companies located in foreign jurisdictions.

 

Vizeum media buying invoices GCP-2016-61837 by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin When she was in opposition, Christy

News

Bob Mackin

That photograph, obtained by theBreaker under freedom of information, is as much of a letter of understanding with Woodfibre LNG’s owner that Deputy Premier Rich Coleman is willing to show you before the May 9 provincial election.

Sukanto Tanoto (left) and Rich Coleman, holding documents the government refuses to release.

After the BC Liberals cancelled the fall 2016 sitting of the Legislature, Coleman — the co-chair of the BC Liberal re-election committee — went on an Oct. 16 to 21 junket to Southeast Asia. It included stops in Kuala Lumpur, to meet Petronas executives, and Singapore, to meet Indonesia-born, Royal Golden Eagle Group owner Sukanto Tanoto.

On Oct. 18, British Columbia’s natural gas minister posed for photographs with the billionaire behind the planned $1.6 billion Howe Sound LNG export plant. They also dined in luxury at the Corner House in Singapore. Coincidentally, the exclusive restaurant boasts a Whispering Corner.

Tanoto’s B.C.-based vice-president, Byng Giraud, joined Coleman and Premier Christy Clark for a hard hat photo op on Nov. 4 to announce the project would proceed after qualifying for subsidized electricity rates. That was the same day the BC Liberal convention began in Vancouver. No coincidence. 

On Oct. 13, Coleman and Bill Bennett, the energy minister responsible for BC Hydro, spoke to the Cabinet Working Group on Woodfibre LNG. What they said is a secret. A footnote on their speaking notes says it is “protected by solicitor client privilege.” The government is the client and has the power to waive privilege. But it didn’t. 

Coleman and Tanoto dined at the Corner House in Singapore, which boasts a “Whispering Corner.”

Those censored documents were released after theBreaker asked to see copies of the government’s business case and cost-benefit analysis for the eDrive program, which gives a discount to LNG plants that use BC Hydro electricity. An appeal has been filed with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Coleman and Bennett’s deputy ministers went back and forth with Giraud and his boss, Pacific Oil and Gas president Ratnesh Bedi, for almost two weeks on the letter of understanding and appendices that Coleman and Tanoto eventually signed. 

Brian Hansen’s Oct. 5 letter to Bedi offers a clue, mentioning attached documents such as current versions of the electricity supply and load interconnection agreements with Woodfibre LNG and a link to redacted FortisBC Energy electricity supply and load interconnection agreements for its Tilbury LNG plant from June 2016. 

The government also released a censored cabinet submission from last Nov. 1 about the eDrive program. Three days later, both eDrive and Woodfibre LNG’s decision to proceed were announced. Mayor Patricia Heintzman was not invited to the news conference at the former pulp and paper mill site. Chief Ian Campbell of the Squamish Nation stayed away. 

The new eDrive rate is a $30 discount off the original $83.02 per megawatt-hour power rate the government had set for LNG plants. Eoin Finn of Woodfibre LNG foe My Sea to Sky estimated the eDrive rate would result in a $34 million-a-year subsidy to the plant, worth $860 million over 25 years. 

Woodfibre LNG donated $79,500 to the BC Liberals from 2014 to 2016, including $5,000 just 11 days after the eDrive announcement. Giraud gave $48,964.36 since 2006. Two of Giraud’s 2016 Liberal donations ($10,225, Sept. 30 and $3,050, Nov. 30) bookended the period that included Coleman’s meeting with Tanoto and the eDrive decision. Natural gas supplier FortisBC and its predecessor, Terasen, donated $327,487.79 between 2005 and 2016. 

Clark and Giraud, Nov. 4 (BC Gov)

In March 2016, the federal Liberal government gave conditional environmental approval for the plant. The company hired KBR for design, engineering, procurement and construction. As of Feb. 23, no job opportunities were posted on the Woodfibre LNG website. 

An Oct. 6, 2016 briefing note for Coleman said design optimization had been completed and the next design phase would take eight to nine months. 

“Woodfibre is not anticipating that it will enter into the permitting phase until early 2017, when they plan to submit their LNG facility permit application to the BC Oil and Gas Commission,” the briefing note said. 

Giraud inked a 25-year supply deal in May 2016 with Guangzhou Gas Group beginning in 2020. The Chinese company has an option to buy up to 10% of the plant. The FortisBC pipeline to feed natural gas from Eagle Mountain to Woodfibre was conditionally approved in August 2016. 

Woodfibre LNG asked the federal government Feb. 7 to extend its 25-year export licence to 40 years. Earlier that same week, it filed for an amendment to change from seawater cooling to the Squamish Nation-preferred air cooling. 

Clark’s ambitious 2013 plan to build an LNG industry hit a snag with the global oil and gas glut. She originally vowed three plants would be built by 2020, but Woodfibre LNG could be the only one.

NGD 2017 70048 Coleman Tanoto by BobMackin on Scribd

Egm 2016 64736 Edrive Foi by BobMackin on Scribd

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Bob Mackin That photograph, obtained by theBreaker under

Opinion

Bob Mackin

It’s that time of year again, for pink shirt-wearing, selfie-taking, speech-making, flash-mobbing and feel-gooding. Maybe even some politicking and grip-and-grinning with oversized, not legal tender novelty cheques. A provincial election is coming.

Feb. 22 is the annual Bullying Awareness Day, formerly Anti-Bullying Day. Not sure why they rebranded it, but they want us to #MakeNice this year. 

Who could possibly argue against the basis of the message — to be kind to each other and to stop bullies? 

British Columbians should, however, question the pink-garbed, messenger-in-chief and whether she is really devoted to the cause of anti-bullying. 

Premier Christy Clark rode the pink wave to the premier’s office six years ago and she is using it again to get re-elected this May. Take a closer look and you’ll notice that it has always been more about her brand recognition. 

Clark and friend Dave Teixeira (Twitter)

Clark left politics before the 2005 provincial election and failed a bid to be the NPA mayoral nominee for that year’s civic election. In August 2007, longtime Liberal strategy guru Patrick Kinsella helped open doors for Clark to become a CKNW talkshow host. He knew that she wanted to return to politics and had ambitions for a high office. She needed a platform to build her profile and got it for three years during the early afternoon time slot on AM 980. Talk radio in B.C. has been a launching pad or a landing pad for politicians, from Chuck Cook to John Reynolds to Dave Barrett. For Clark, it was a relaunching pad.

Clark imported Pink Shirt Day to B.C. after learning of a Nova Scotia high school protest. A Grade 9 student had been bullied for wearing a pink shirt. His friends responded by coming to school, proudly wearing pink shirts. The bully was silenced.

Clark made it her pet cause. Former Deputy Premier Clark convinced Premier Gordon Campbell to proclaim Feb. 27, 2008 as B.C.’s first Anti-Bullying Day. He even gave her credit. It gave Clark immeasurable recognition and respect that she parlayed into that successful run for the party leadership, which culminated in the Feb. 26, 2011 win over Kevin Falcon.

She began using taxpayer resources in 2012 to promote Pink Shirt Day every year on the final Wednesday of February. Her former media employer is still involved as the sponsor of the pink shirt sales. Its Orphans Fund charity said it doled out $375,000 in T-shirt sales proceeds for various anti-bullying projects last year.

The campaign has always focused more on schools than workplaces. That is a colossal missed opportunity. The one workplace that Clark has direct control over, the Government of British Columbia, remains a bastion of bullying.  

The longest-serving female head of government in Canada promised to bring motherly qualities to the job. Yet, consensus-building and collaboration are missing from our government. It still functions on right-versus-left, adversarial party lines. We’re more than 15% through the 21st century with enough history behind us to know better. A polarized political environment has been good for the bank accounts of lobbyists and spinners, but not really for the rest of us.  

Clark at Pt. Grey secondary in 2013. (BC Gov)

In Victoria, under Clark, there is an obsession with non-stop campaigning and non-stop fundraising. Fear and greed are the weapons. Truth is not adored, but secrecy is.

Reporters who don’t regurgitate press releases are shunned. Documents are destroyed or not created at all. Children die in government care, but no one loses their job or gets arrested. Lawyers cash-in while schoolchildren did without, until the Supreme Court of Canada told the government to hire more teachers. The fall sitting of the Legislature gets cancelled; the governing party chose to campaign and fundraise, rather than clap, desk-thump and endure sharp questions from the opposition. The conflict on display in the Legislature can be entertaining at times. It is, as Frank Zappa said, the showbiz wing of industry. But it really should not be. 

In this environment, agreeing with an opponent is discouraged and considered a sign of weakness. Citizens are under the illusion that they pay the bills and call the tune. But the tune-calling is restricted to only one day every four years.  

The premier, who decides who in her caucus gets better jobs and bigger paycheques, is the boss for the remaining 1,450 (or so) days. Everybody knows the game. Step out of line and no cabinet post and perks for you.

Sean Holman’s 2013 documentary, Whipped: The Secret World of Party Discipline, shows how government MLAs end up being more loyal to their leader than the people that they are supposed to serve in their communities. And opposition members, no matter how reasoned they are, are second-class citizens. Even in the hyper-partisan U.S., it is not uncommon for Republicans and Democrats to co-author a bill. But not in B.C. Not in the 21st century.

According to Imagine-X.ca, only 1.8% of votes by BC MLAs from 2013 to 2016 were cast out of party lines — that’s just two votes. 

“Liberal-initiated votes always passed, everyone else’s always failed. Votes only pass when supported by the Liberals,” said the Imagine X website.

Party discipline is a type of bullying. And it, too, has to stop. 

If the premier herself lived up to her anti-bullying message, she would not have lied and so lamely apologized to the NDP for the false accusation of hacking. She would have already passed democratic reform laws to stop the unlimited fundraising, expand rules regulating lobbyists and beef-up the conflict of interest laws. She would have found another conflict of interest commissioner who is not related to the longtime friend she made deputy minister of the government advertising and PR department. She might even have allowed free votes in the Legislature and encouraged her caucus to reach across the aisle and regularly listen to opposition ideas. 

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

And we would have been told everything by now about the health firings scandal. Instead, we ask why eight innocent people were given pink slips? Why did one of them, Roderick MacIsaac, take his own life?

Some of those survivors got apologies and their jobs back. None of the wrongful firing lawsuits made it to court. The Ombudsman is investigating, but it’s not the public inquiry those affected had demanded. The victims and MacIsaac’s sister hope and pray that they will learn more before the election.

The Liberals have spent millions of tax dollars since 2012 to cover-up the biggest bullying scandal in a government workplace and they even lied about the existence of a police investigation. They would rather it all went away, instead of learning from what went on, to prevent a repeat someday.

So when I saw that 2017’s Pink Shirt Day was coming on Feb. 22, I also looked closely at the much-published photograph of MacIsaac. He is wearing a grey shirt. 

I can’t wear pink like the premier because I’m concerned about the bullying that exists under her watch, in our government. You might even call her bully-in-chief.

So, I’m wearing a grey shirt on Feb. 22. Will you join me? 

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Bob Mackin It’s that time of year again,

News

Bob Mackin

The BC Liberal government waited until the afternoon before handing-down the 2017-2018 budget to quietly reveal the location for the new Liquor Distribution Branch warehouse. 

Site of the new Liquor Distribution Branch warehouse in 2018 (CBRE)

It plans to move from Broadway and Rupert in East Vancouver in spring 2018 to 7003 72nd Ave. in Delta’s Tilbury district, according to a Feb. 20 news release. 

The  warehouse is owned by 0977221 B.C. Ltd., a numbered company held by GWL Realty Advisors. The 412,000-square foot building was offered for sublease by Gurch Ollek and Jason Kiselbach of CBRE. GWL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Great-West Life Assurance Company, bought the warehouse in 2013 for $62.75 million from Beedie Group. Last year, the warehouse on 21 acres near the South Fraser Perimeter Road was assessed at $55.61 million last year. 

The B.C. government and the insurance giant are growing ever-closer. GWL Realty Advisors is one of three primary managers of B.C. Investment Management Corporation’s $18 billion real estate portfolio, which was rebranded as QuadReal in 2016. On Feb. 20, Craig James, the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, sent a memo at 9:28 a.m. to advise MLAs and their staff that Great-West Life would become their medical and dental plan provider on April 1, after the Pacific Blue Cross contract expiry. 

The capital budget for what is officially called the Interim Distribution Centre Project rose $6 million since theBreaker revealed the plan in January after a notice of the no-bid contract was posted on BC Bid without the location or name of the landlord. The government says it will cost $57.1 million for the move, new systems and equipment, but the news release does not show the cost of leasing the warehouse for 10 years plus two, five-year options. CBRE was asking $8.20 per square foot (per annum), which would be almost $3.38 million-a-year, plus $1.2 million in annual taxes and operating costs. 

Site of the new Liquor Distribution Branch warehouse in 2018 (CBRE)

The move is a major about-face. LDB had been looking last spring for 35 acres of land on which to build a new warehouse of up to 1 million square feet. LDB wanted to buy the site or lease it for at least 60 years and have it ready for occupancy in 2019. The move will happen a year earlier, but to a warehouse much smaller than originally desired.

Here is why: A source told theBreaker last fall that the interim option was taken because Treasury Board wants to take a second-look at privatizing LDB, should the BC Liberals win the May 9 election. 

In 2012, the government used a new B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union contract as the foil to cancel a controversial attempt to privatize the LDB warehouse. The government had no business case and faced allegations of bid-rigging. Leaked documents showed how proponent Exel Logistics, in its own words, tried to use its lobbyists’ connections with then-liquor minister Rich Coleman to acquire LDB.

The aging East Broadway site sold for $37 million in 2014 to prominent BC Liberal donor Aquilini Investment Group and three First Nations for redevelopment. The contract has still not been made public, nor has LDB revealed how much it pays to lease-back the 220,000 square foot warehouse. 

More to come…

 

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Bob Mackin The BC Liberal government waited until

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