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Bob Mackin The B.C. Liberal government planned to

NPA’s Ball wants to play in Vancouver and Victoria

Bob Mackin

NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball is throwing her hat in the ring for the BC Liberal nomination in Vancouver-Fairview, the swing riding held by the NDP’s George Heyman.

NPA Count. Elizabeth Ball

Heyman, the ex-BCGEU boss, upset Liberal Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid in 2013.

Ball is facing Gabe Garfinkel, who was Premier Christy Clark’s aide until he quit in November 2013 to become a lobbyist for Chevron and Kinder Morgan.

Ball, a Fairview resident for 30 years, said she wants to bring her arts and culture advocacy to Victoria.

“I would fully expect the premier would win and the Liberals would win, otherwise I wouldn’t be running with them,” Ball said.

Ball won election to city council in 2005, under NPA Mayor Sam Sullivan, and again in 2011 and 2014 as part of the NPA minority. She has more than 20 months left in her term on city council. Before the 2014 election, the BC Liberals gave municipal politicians a gift by extending their terms to four years.

Lobbyist Gabe Garfinkel

The next Vancouver civic election is Oct. 20, 2018, but Ball wouldn’t have to resign her seat on council. Provincial lawmakers are allowed to hold both offices in B.C., as long as they fulfil their duties. For the time being, Ball believes she can juggle both city council meetings and public hearings as well as campaigning for the nomination.

“It’s only two weeks until [February] 19th when the nomination meeting is, and following that two months until the election,” Ball said. “I will be able to complete my work for the city.”

Before, during and after the 2013 provincial election, double-duty became an issue in various municipalities. Municipal politicians can hold their seats until the calendar year of a local general election and resign without forcing a by-election.

Coquitlam city councillors Linda Reimer (BC Liberal) and Selina Robinson (NDP) quit after winning seats in the 2013 provincial election. City council voted to deny them leave until Jan. 1, 2014, so a by-election was held.

Surrey BC Liberal Marvin Hunt resigned from Surrey city council in February 2014, after donating his salary back to the city. Peter Fassbender was Langley City Mayor when he won the Surrey-Fleetwood seat for the BC Liberals in 2013. His former city council opted against replacing him for the remainder of the term. He took leave of absence until Jan. 1, 2014 and quit.

Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy kept taking his pay after winning the Liberal seat in West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky. He finally resigned in January 2014. The double-dipper was taking his $24,000-a-year mayor’s salary, $101,859 MLA salary and $15,300 bonus as the undersecretary to the Transport Minister.

Penticton Mayor Dan Ashton, who was elected a Liberal MLA, spent $32,000 to pay for a by-election.

January 30, 2017

Bob Mackin NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball is throwing

On Jan. 26, Clark posted a photo of herself shopping for silk clothes to wear at a Year of the Rooster event. The name of the store was not identified. A video was added Jan. 27.

Year of the Snake-born Clark is “Governor Jane” for Year of the Rooster

Bob Mackin

Going into the 2017 election campaign, the B.C. Liberals are slamming NDP leader John Horgan for saying he wants to be all things to all people.

Clark, aka Jane Hui Zhi, at a party event to launch her WeChat account.

But Horgan was simply expressing what politicians of all stripes are always trying to do. And the B.C. Liberals know it well, because their leader is also guilty.

Remember when Premier Christy Clark proclaimed, at a 2012 Philippines Independence Day in Vancouver picnic, that “In my heart, I am Filipina”?

Now she is something completely different in the Chinese government-censored cyberspace.

In November, an account was opened for Clark on the WeChat social media network under the name “Jane Hui Zhi, Governor of British Columbia.”

Jane is similar to Joan, Clark’s middle name. Hui Zhi is simpler for Mandarin-speakers to say than pronouncing her given name and surname, which contain an R and an L, respectively. She also used that Chinese name when Lunar New Year coincided with the first Family Day long weekend in 2013 — the pre-election Chinese New Year long weekend that began the Year of the Snake. Clark, coincidentally, was born in 1965, also a Year of the Snake on the Chinese zodiac.

Premier Christy Clark’s WeChat account. She uses the name Jane Hui Zhi for her Chinese followers.

Clark held a photo op (what else?) to launch the account on Dec. 7 at Bubble World in Richmond (where else?), with International Trade Minister Teresa Wat (the Richmond MLA who lives in Burnaby), Attorney General Suzanne Anton and Wendy Yuan, Clark’s longtime friend and Liberal loyalist.

Her WeChat intro, translated to English, says: “I am Jane Hui, mother, B.C. Liberal Party leader and B.C. Governor. The Chinese community is an important and valuable part of British Columbia and I am delighted to be able to communicate through the MicroPlus public platform. In the days to come, I will share with you how the Liberals today are committed to economic development, helping middle-class families and creating good jobs. Thank-you so much for keeping in touch.”

By going on WeChat so late in 2016, it may signal an attempt by the Clark clique to reconnect with the Chinese community, rather than a simple, pre-election strategy. In 2016, Clark slapped a 15% foreign buyers’ tax on residential real estate in Metro Vancouver (except Tsawwassen First Nation land) and announced ICBC would soon discontinue the insuring of luxury cars worth more than $150,000. Billions of dollars of Chinese money has fuelled Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market and made Vancouver the luxury car sales capital of North America.

It is no secret that Liberal fundraisers have targeted the Chinese community and, owing to B.C.’s laughable laws, the party is free to accept donations from citizens of any country, including the People’s Republic of China.

The unaudited report of donations for 2016 shows that on July 27 alone, they raised $35,600 from the following entities and individuals: Respon Wealth Management Corp Inc ($10,000); Xiang Qian Qi and Jimmy J. Liang ($5,000 each); Xin Jian Peng ($4,000); Zhi Ming Chen, Dian Qi Wang, Li Jun Wu and Frobisher International Ent Ltd. ($2,000 each); Guoqiang Wu ($1,600); Ban Dao (Oakridge) Seafood Restaurant Inc. ($1,000); and Zhe Jun Shen and Xiong Wei ($500 each).

Clark and Wat hosted a fundraiser Nov. 28 at the River Rock Casino Resort, which is popular among Chinese immigrants and tourists alike.

The party has not issued the list of attendees for the $388-a-plate event; that is expected to come with its Elections B.C. filings. Oddly, there are only eight entries of $388 during all of 2016 on the unaudited list. On Nov. 28, however, there were these donors: Larry Lien Kuan Yen and Jason Wang ($10,000 each); Zhongnan Zhang, Linda Cheung and Lei Pan ($5,000 each). On Nov. 30, these donors: Peter Liu ($6,500), Zhong Ping Lang, Yi An Sun, Dennis Chan, Kenneth K. Fung and Larry Lien Kuan Yen ($5,000 each); Peter Chan ($1,500); Kim Kum Chow ($1,164); Raymond To ($1,000); Yang Zhi Ping ($776); Shengwen Zeng ($500); and Xiao Feng Tang ($400).

Nov. 30 was the same day that controversial Chinese state-owned conglomerate China Poly Group opened an art gallery in downtown Vancouver and sponsored the China Philharmonic’s concert at the Chan Centre. Poly Culture’s office is on the same floor as Wat’s Richmond constituency office.

The versatile instant messaging WeChat app is one of the world’s most-popular. It is also used as a digital wallet by an estimated 300 million people to send money to and from China with the click of a button. It even has a hongbao, or red envelope, function, for sending money gifts. But, as far as we can tell, Clark is only using it for her non-stop campaign messaging.

She is not the first big-name B.C. politician on Chinese state-censored social media. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson launched a page on the Sina Weibo system in 2012. Robertson’s surname is translated into Chinese to become “Luo Pinxin,” which sounds vaguely (very vaguely), like Robertson. The Weibo page was initially overrun by fake, or zombie, accounts after Robertson’s staff sought the endorsement of Vancouver-based Chinese pop singer Wanting Qu to boost his profile. They hatched a secret romance during the 2014 civic election campaign, after Robertson split from his wife Amy.

Qu’s mother, Qu Zhang Mingjie, is accused by Chinese officials of running a real estate corruption scheme in Harbin, China.

January 27, 2017

Bob Mackin Going into the 2017 election campaign,

What happened when a reporter wanted to interview the finance minister at a BC Liberal fundraiser

Mike de Jong fills his face at BC Liberal fundraiser.

Bob Mackin

The B.C. Liberals cash for access scandal drags on.

The party has refused to reform campaign financing laws in British Columbia, which gained it unwanted attention in the New York Times on Jan. 13. B.C. does not regulate the size or the source of donations. The party tried to put out the fire by releasing its 2016 donors’ list that afternoon, but that only added to its problems when it showed two thirds of the nearly $12.5 million raised came from corporations.

While we wait for the audited version to be released by Elections BC this spring, Premier Christy Clark continues to attend big bucks, small group fundraisers. She hosted one at Kelowna’s Mission Hill Winery for 20 people who paid $5,000 each on Jan. 26, but the party won’t say who attended. Castanet reported that attendees were shuttled into the fundraising venue in vans with tinted windows. Clark was unapologetic the morning after when reporters tracked her down in Kelowna. She also continued to peddle the myth that the Liberals are now disclosing donors in “real time” (it’s actually on a 10-day delay system) and that the NDP wants parties subsidized (they already are, indirectly, via tax credits for donors).

That $100,000 dinner at booze tycoon Anthony von Mandl’s winery was 11 months after the party raised $1.65 million in one day. Most of that came from a real estate tycoons’ dinner that a source told me happened on Feb. 23 at the Wall Centre Hotel, where Clark and Deputy Premier Rich Coleman were special guests.

The Wall Centre is also the venue that Finance Minister Mike de Jong and Kim Chan Logan, the Telus lobbyist running for the Liberals in Vancouver-Kensington, charged $250-per-person for a cocktail party on Oct. 12, 2016.

I wanted to ask de Jong why the fall session of the Legislature had been cancelled and why the party continued raising funds after Coleman told party members on Sept. 20, 2016 that the Liberals were “fully funded” for the 2017 campaign. I captured images of de Jong heartily sampling the catered goods among donors, including ex-Finance Minister Kevin Falcon of Anthem Properties. I was escorted out of the hotel.

January 27, 2017

[caption id="attachment_4130" align="alignright" width="356"] Mike de Jong

Liberals set to blow $51 million on B.C. booze warehouse

Bob Mackin

The B.C. Liberal government is poised to spend $51 million on another warehouse for the Liquor Distribution Branch, theBreaker has learned.

But neither LDB Minister Coralee Oakes nor LDB general manager Blain Lawson wanted to talk about the so-called Interim Distribution Centre Project and their spokesman is refusing to answer theBreaker’s questions.

Booze Minister Oakes: won’t say okie-doke to theBreaker (BC Gov)

Shared Services BC published a notice of intent Jan. 16 to lease a 400,000-square foot warehouse near major highways and public transit routes for at least five years. The notice says vendors have until Jan. 30 to contest the sole-sourced deal. The name of the chosen landlord and the location of the warehouse are both missing from the notice. The new warehouse would be functional next year.

“The province has explored several options, including the possibility of an interim warehousing solution,” Oakes’ spokesman Bill Anderson told theBreaker in a prepared statement. “Pursuing an interim solution provides the LDB with capacity to meet the needs of its customers and British Columbians in a way that provides value to taxpayers.

“The details of the lease have not yet been finalized — we will disclose details regarding the location when we are able to do so.”

By not naming the landlord, the government is breaking from standard practice. Statements of intent posted to the government’s B.C. Bid website normally include the name of the contractor and B.C. government procurement policies stress transparency.

NDP critic David Eby called the secrecy “unacceptable.”

“In an atmosphere where everybody is asking questions about the connection between [B.C. Liberal Party] donors and major government decisions, the fact they won’t tell the public who the landlord is and where the location is raises far more questions,” Eby told theBreaker. “It leads to reaching the conclusion this is another example of the government trying to benefit a friend. If it were all above board, they’d be happy to tell us where they were going.”

Anderson refused to say what became of last year’s LDB plan to find 35 acres of land on which to build a new warehouse of up to 1 million square feet. Under the Vancouver Distribution Centre Relocation Project, the Crown liquor company contemplated buying or leasing a site for at least 60 years. LDB originally wanted to find a new site by mid-April 2016, but later told bidders that it wanted to begin construction by June 1, 2017 for occupancy in 2019.

A source told theBreaker that LDB was looking at five options for a new warehouse, but Treasury Board rejected the business case and wanted to explore other options — which may include eventual privatization of LDB. Anderson denied the government is considering privatization for LDB or its chain of 196 stores.

A search for a new warehouse became necessary after the 2014 sale of the LDB’s aging East Broadway headquarters for $37 million to Aquilini Investment Group and three First Nations for redevelopment.

The Aquilini family and its companies have donated almost $1.43 million to the BC Liberals since 2005. LDB agreed to lease-back the 220,000 square foot warehouse and originally planned to leave by 2017.

The area near the LDB headquarters is the focus of a pre-Chinese new year land rush. Real estate signs have recently mushroomed outside dozens of single-family residences for potential land assembly deals.

The government used a new B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union contract in 2012 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.

January 25, 2017

Bob Mackin The B.C. Liberal government is poised to

BC Liberals were “fully funded” for election ’17 last September

Bob Mackin

Rich Coleman (left) told party members on Sept. 20, 2016 that the 2017 re-election campaign was “fully funded.”

(UPDATED April 8): The BC Liberals raised an eye-popping $13,124,805 in 2016, according to their annual report, published April 5 by Elections BC. Almost half of the Liberals’ lucre came from corporations.

A key date in 2016 was Sept. 20. That’s when Deputy Premier and Re-Election Campaign Co-Chair Rich Coleman headlined a Granville Island Hotel fundraiser with party faithful who forked out $40 each to attend the Pamela Martin emceed BC Liberal Women’s Network affair.

A recording of the speech was leaked to me and it contained this surprising revelation from the Fort Langley-Aldergrove bloviator: “We’re fully funded for a campaign.”

Coleman didn’t disclose any numbers, but he boasted “things are in great shape.”

Elections BC’s April-updated database shows that the party had raised $8,271,893.75 as of Sept. 20, 2016. By comparison, in 2013, the party had $8.3 million of donations and $3 million in loans from four banks in its election war chest. The Liberals wound-up spending $11.7 million to get re-elected.

“We have never been in the financial position that we are,” Coleman proclaimed.

Clearly, the BC Liberals are exploiting the lack of campaign financing laws. Any amount from any source, even offshore, is welcome. Tax deduction receipts are issued, meaning there is an indirect subsidy by taxpayers.

Listen to Coleman for yourself below.

That got me thinking. Why does party fundraising continue unabated? It is quite an achievement to be “fully funded” for an election campaign seven-and-a-half months before the May 9 election day. Why not, y’know, focus full-time on governing and not worry about campaigning until closer to the official April 11 launch?

Why all these fundraisers and why are some of the tickets so steep?

$5,000 to be platinum sponsor of Burnaby Lougheed candidate Steve Darling’s Wine and Roses fundraiser with Transportation Minister Todd Stone at a Burnaby casino;
$150 for Mary Polak’s Feb. 10 fundraiser at Langley casino;
$250 for Jordan Sturdy’s Feb. 8 fundraiser at Capilano Golf and Country Club with Mary Polak;
$5,000 for sponsorship of Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Marc Dalton’s Feb. 8 fundraiser with Finance Minister Mike de Jong;
$1,000 for a VIP reception with Premier Christy Clark on Feb. 7 at Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia’s hotel;
$250 for Community, Sport and Culture Minister Peter Fassbender’s Feb. 2 wingding at Aria Banquet Hall;
$500 for a VIP seat at Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson’s table on Feb. 1;
$2,500 to be one of 20 people at a Jan. 27 dinner with Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick;
$5,000 to be one of 20 people at a Mission Hill Winery dinner with Premier Christy Clark and Letnick on Jan. 26;
$350 to drink scotch and eat haggis with Speaker Linda Reid on Jan. 25 at Mayfair Lakes in Richmond;
$350 for a Dec. 6 evening with North Island candidate Dallas Smith, Energy Minister Bill Bennett and Education Minister Mike Bernier at the posh Terminal City Club;
$1,000 for dinner with Skeena candidate Ellis Ross at the swanky Vancouver Club on Nov. 30;
$388 for International Trade Minister Teresa Wat’s “winter celebration” at a Richmond casino with Premier Christy Clark on Nov. 28;
$1,000 at an undisclosed West Vancouver location with Naomi Yamamoto on Nov. 16;
$100 to meet Children and Families Minister Stephanie Cadieux on Oct. 26 at an undisclosed location;
$175 to meet Fassbender on Oct. 20 at Royal Colwood Golf Club;

Fundraising takes up a lot of Coleman’s time. He flew to Vancouver from Victoria on Feb. 23 last year to attend a mysterious Wall Centre private dinner with the real estate tycoons who chipped-in to a $1.65 million windfall for the party.

Could Coleman and co. be helping allies with a third-party anti-NDP campaign, like John Winter, Frank Pasacreta and Jim Laurence’s Future Prosperity Inc.?

Or is the party already building a nest egg for the election after the next, in 2021?

January 24, 2017

Bob Mackin [caption id="attachment_4113" align="alignright" width="454"] Rich Coleman

How did CBC’s Trump Inauguration crystal ball fare?

Bob Mackin

On March 11, 2016, four months before Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for President, CBC’s Fifth Estate aired the documentary about Donald the Disruptor, called “The Rise and Rage of Donald Trump: The Fire Breather.”

It began with a glimpse into the future, of what a Donald Trump Inauguration ceremony might look like.

Trump won the nomination. He went on to win the Electoral College over Hillary Clinton. He was sworn-in as 45th President as the world watched on Jan. 20.

So how did the Fifth Estate and its crystal ball fare? It didn’t anticipate the red-capped Trump supporters and it got the colour of Trump’s tie wrong. It also didn’t anticipate the relatively low attendance, compared with other Inauguration Days, as noted on @EmptySeatsPics. Notwithstanding, the producers did pretty well overall.

Compare some of the key images from that documentary and CBC’s coverage of the historic Jan. 20 ceremony below.

And then watch award-winning investigative reporter Bob McKeown’s documentary.

What will the next four years hold for the Excited States of America and the rest of the world?

Stay tuned. It’s going to be a rollercoaster ride.

CBC Inauguration Day coverage

CBC Fifth Estate

CBC Inauguration Day coverage

CBC Fifth Estate

CBC Inauguration Day coverage above; Fifth Estate 2016 documentary below.

January 20, 2017

Bob Mackin On March 11, 2016, four months

February fortune: A closer look at the day the BC Liberals hit the motherlode

Bob Mackin

On one day last February, the BC Liberal Party raked-in enough dough to cover its head office payroll and perks for all of 2016.

That is according to an analysis by theBreaker.news of the party’s unaudited Jan. 13 list of donations.

The province’s ruling party reported that it raised $1,648,565 from 179 donors on Feb. 26, 2016, the biggest one-day bonanza for the year. The total was slightly more than the $1,623,001 spent on salaries and benefits in 2014, and just $137,000 less than the $1,785,475 expense in 2015.

BC Liberal donor Peter Redekop (left) and Premier Christy Clark opened the Mennonite Heritage Museum in July 2016. (BC Gov)

The party said it raised a total $12,474,088 in 2016. More than 64% came from corporations.

The Feb. 26, 2016 haul was thanks primarily to eight individuals and entities that kicked-in a whopping $1.1 million:

$200,000 x 2=$400,000: John Redekop Construction and his cousin Peter Wall’s 2300 Kingsway Residences.
$100,000 x 7=$700,000: Peter Redekop, Peter Wall’s PWO Investments and Wall nephew Bruno’s BJW Investment; Townline Homes owner Rick Ilich; Rossano De Cotiis’s RPMG Holdings; Berts Electric; and Seaspan ULC.

Those high rollers are no stranger to writing big cheques to the BC Liberals. Six months before the last election, some of them also injected six-figures into the BC Liberal kitty.

Peter Redekop — whose donations since 2005 now stand unofficially at $609,800 — gave $150,000 on Nov. 8, 2012. His brother John Redekop ponied up the same amount on the same day as a similar windfall from other real estate and construction concerns.

Also contributing to the party’s Nov. 8, 2012 haul of $833,728 were: Rob Macdonald ($101,200); Intertech Construction Managers/ITC Management/ITC Services ($75,000); Townline Homes ($55,000); Holborn Developments/TA Management and Dayhu Investments ($50,000 each) and Francesco Aquilini ($23,375). The Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel donated $4,700.

Peter Wall and Bruno Wall each gave $150,000 on Nov. 23, 2012, when the Liberals counted another $829,780 in donations. Along with the $300,000 from the Walls came $40,000 from Hassan Khosroshawhi and $20,000 from Colin Bosa.

A representative for John Redekop told theBreaker that he was unable to do an interview because he is aging and has poor hearing. Questions posed to Redekop through the intermediary about the reasons for, and context of, the $200,000 donation were not answered. None of the others responded to interview requests from theBreaker.

Dining for dollars at a supper like no other

Among the other donors listed by the BC Liberals under Feb. 26, 2016 are: ITC Management Inc. ($40,000) and ITC Services Corp. ($20,000); Polygon owner Michael Audain’s No. 201 Seabright Holdings Ltd. ($30,000); West Fraser Mills ($22,500); RJR Farms Ltd. ($5,000); Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Ltd. ($2,200); and Redekop Farms ($1,250).

British Columbia has no law limiting the size or the source of political donations to provincial parties and their candidates. Donations are tax deductible.

The New York Times reported Jan. 13 that much of what goes on in British Columbia from a political fundraising standpoint would be illegal elsewhere in Canada.

Look next door for an example. When it came to power in 2015, Alberta’s NDP government almost immediately banned corporate and union donations. Only Alberta residents can donate and their contributions are capped at $4,000 per year to any combination of parties, riding associations, candidates and leadership contestants.

A source close to the BC Liberals told theBreaker that Feb. 23, not Feb. 26, is the real date for those hefty donations from the real estate tycoons.

A small group of loyal BC Liberal property titans was invited to a private Tuesday night dinner at the Wall Centre Hotel co-ordinated by veteran BC Liberal backroom strategist/lobbyist Patrick Kinsella. It was understood that they would dig deep and make large contributions to the party. Premier Christy Clark and Deputy Premier Rich Coleman were scheduled to make appearances.

Clark’s calendar shows she was in Vancouver on Feb. 23 and her last work appointment was a conference call that ended 3 p.m. She flew via Helijet to Victoria the next morning at 7:50 a.m. Coleman’s calendar said he was on the same Feb. 24 flight.

Coleman had flown into Vancouver from Victoria on the 4:55 p.m. Feb. 23 Helijet flight from Victoria. There was no nighttime engagement visible in his calendar.

Freedom of information staff working on behalf of Coleman’s Natural Gas Development ministry would not release documents about Coleman’s round trip. They claimed it was personal, even though Coleman mentioned the Helijet flights in his official ministerial calendar.

Requests by theBreaker for comment from Clark and Coleman’s spokespeople went unfulfilled.

“It really is time for the BC Liberal Party to practice what the Premier preached when she sought the leadership, which was to run the most open and transparent government in Canada,” said IntegrityBC’s Dermod Travis. “By leaving all of these questions unanswered it leaves the public in a position where they have nothing else to believe other than what the evidence points to.”

Martyn Brown, who was chief of staff for former BC Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell, told Vaughn Palmer on Shaw TV in 2016 that big political donations get results.

“For the Liberals, the housing industry, construction industry, real estate, the liquor industry, energy industry, certainly the mining industry, big forest industry – all gave exceptional amounts of money, and they got exceptional attention,” Brown said.

The party’s official Elections BC return is due March 31 and is expected to be made public shortly after.

Election day is May 9.

January 19, 2017

1 Comment

Bob Mackin On one day last February, the

From one banana republic to another: BC Liberal Reid on South America junket

Bob Mackin

A government official from a figurative banana republic visited her counterpart in a literal banana republic.

News outlets in Guyana reported Jan. 18 on the visit by British Columbia Speaker Linda Reid, the BC Liberal MLA for Richmond-East. Reid and Guyana National Assembly speaker Barton Scotland signed an “interparliamentary co-operation” partnership on Jan. 17.

BC Liberal Reid’s Guyana visit hits the front page. (Guyana Times)

The British Columbia-Guyana agreement talks about improving “understanding of the functions of both institutions, particularly in the fields of legislation, culture, economics, health, science and technology, and generally reinforce greater friendship, goodwill and mutual understanding of traditions, customs, procedures and practices of each House.”

It is the equivalent of a sister-city arrangement that opens the door for more British Columbia government officials to visit Guyana and vice versa. “The costs of such meetings would be shared to the extent that each jurisdiction has the resources to do so,” the agreement says. “Where this is not possible, each Group will seek funding from a donor agency.”

Reid traveled to the birthplace of colonial B.C. governor James Douglas with B.C. Deputy Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd and Hansard Director Rob Sutherland. They departed Jan. 18 from Guyana, where temperatures were forecast to reach 29 Celsius under the sun. (Back home in Reid’s riding, the forecast high was a rainy 10 Celsius).

The excursion cost B.C. taxpayers an estimated $10,000.

Reid did not respond for comment, but Ryan-Lloyd told theBreaker on Jan. 19 that she estimated the cost of her airfare and accommodation at the Marriott would be around $3,000. “I believe it was the same for my two companions,” Ryan-Lloyd said.

The three-person delegation left Vancouver Jan. 15, arrived in Georgetown the next morning and returned Jan. 18. The trio’s hosts picked up the cost of most meals, Ryan-Lloyd said. A complete expense report will be published under the Legislature’s quarterly disclosures.

Ryan-Lloyd said Canadian provincial Legislatures have been encouraged to twin with Commonwealth nations, particularly in the Caribbean, to help raise parliamentary standards. Guyana is the only English-primary South American jurisdiction and its 65-seat Legislature is comparable to British Columbia’s 85-seat house.

More than half of Guyana’s exports are raw gold, followed by rice and paddy, bauxite, sugar and shrimp and prawns, according to Statistics Guyana. Canada is fifth on the South American nation’s imports list, but tops the exports list. Through October 2016, Guyana estimated it sent nearly US$350 million of products north to Canada.

Word of Reid’s visit to the nation of 750,000 comes just days after an embarrassing New York Times story about B.C.’s lack of laws regulating the size, frequency and source of political donations. Premier Christy Clark receives a $50,000 bonus from her party for attending big ticket fundraisers every year, on top of her $195,000 public salary. Democracy Watch alleges she is in conflict of interest, but conflict of interest commissioner Paul Fraser says no. Fraser’s son is Clark friend and government communications deputy minister John Paul Fraser.

A Transparency International report in 2016 criticized federal and provincial officials for failing to protect British Columbians from real estate-related money laundering and tax evasion. No Reason to Hide: Unmasking the Anonymous Owners of Canadian Companies and Trusts said more rigorous identity checks are done for individuals getting library cards than for those setting up companies or buying real estate.

Guyana has the same ranking on Transparency International’s annual list of corrupt countries as Azerbaijan, Russia and Sierra Leone, according to a report in the Starbroek News in January 2016.

In 2014, Transparency International’s local office called for local government elections to be held. There had not been any since 1994 “although the law requires them to be held every three years.” Local elections were finally held in March 2016.

Last May, President David Granger was quoted in a Demerera Waves news report saying: “I urge you, all Guyanese, to be vigilant not only against the abuse of power by the government but also by the abuse of trust by the private sector.”

In March 2014, Reid was embarrassed into repaying $5,528.16 for business class flights to South Africa taken by her husband, who joined Reid for a parliamentary conference in August and September 2013. The couple enjoyed a safari while on the junket.

At the time, I asked repeatedly to see proof of Reid’s repayment. She never responded. Career politician Reid is seeking a seventh term in the May 9 provincial election.

Assistant Deputy Speaker Raj Chouhan, an NDP lawmaker, also went on the trip and repaid $2,200 for his wife’s flight.

Reid was widely criticized in 2014 for blowing $120,000 on various frills, including a $48,000 desk with a touch screen computer and a $700 snack case.

January 18, 2017

Bob Mackin A government official from a figurative

House that she used to live in, where the assessment is off the chart

Bob Mackin

Step right up, step right up! Christy and Richie’s Second Mortgage Emporium is now open for business! The not-so-sublime subprimes! Affordability the worst? Come see BC First!

The widely panned B.C. Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership began taking applications on Jan. 16 from those seeking help to buy their first house.

The BC Liberal government is refusing to release the business case for now and is audaciously threatening to charge freedom of information requesters money to see whether a cost-benefit analysis was actually conducted for the $700 million-plus vote-buying program.

Coleman marked the occasion with a photo op at a mortgage store in the Vancouver-Fairview NDP riding, but Clark wasn’t there. Afraid to answer the inevitable questions about the unflattering New York Times report on banana republic-style political fundraising in B.C., perhaps?

Clark instead marked the occasion by Tweeting and Facebooking a photograph of the first house she owned with Mark Marissen (it wasn’t all hers), back when they were a political power couple. The San Remo Drive house in Port Moody hosted many of the couple’s notorious toga parties back in the day and was home of Marissen’s Burrard Communications lobbying company before it moved downtown. It was also one of the places where the RCMP showed up after the 2003 Legislature raid, because Mounties were probing the events surrounding the corrupt privatization of BC Rail.

Clark moved to Vancouver before her failed 2005 bid to win the NPA nomination for mayor and settled in a house south of Vancouver city hall. It was recently assessed at $2.24 million (up from $1.73 million a year earlier), but Clark no longer calls it home.

Her current abode in Dunbar has the name Nevin Sangha on the title. Sangha is a close business associate of Clark friend/Vancouver Whitecaps’ owner Greg Kerfoot. The Major League Soccer club plays at public-owned B.C. Place Stadium and trains at a University of B.C. facility that scored a $12 million taxpayer subsidy from the B.C. Liberal cabinet.

Real estate agent Tanya Oliver (a Clark leadership campaign volunteer in 2011) caused more than 30-seconds of commotion on Facebook after she brokered the April 2016 sale for $3.688 million — $200,000 over asking. The assessment of the Blueshore-mortgaged house skyrocketed almost 37% from $2.505 million to $3.426 million, year-over-year.

Clark’s spokespeople claim she pays between $5,500 and $6,500 a month in rent.

Last year, Clark and brother Bruce bought their Galiano Island vacation property out of a trust. It is now worth $720,000.

Back to that humble Port Moody house that inspired Clark’s Blue Monday moment of nostalgia.

According to PropertyInsight.ca, Clark and Marissen sold it May 19, 2004 for $380,000, up from the $250,000 paid Dec. 22, 1996. In 1991, the year the BC Liberals became the opposition to the governing NDP, it was worth $202,000.

What is it worth now?

BC Assessment shows the San Remo two-storey sold in January 2015 for $688,000 and the valuation jumped, year-over-year, from $718,000 to $975,000. A whopping $257,000 (or 35.8%) increase.

If the house hit the market today, it would be far out of reach for any first-time buyer approved under Clark and Coleman’s BC HOME Partnership gimmick.

That’s because the ceiling for applicants is $750,000.

January 16, 2017