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Bob Mackin 

A two-day B.C. Supreme Court extradition hearing for a former Mexican general, who is wanted for alleged theft of hydrocarbons, was suddenly adjourned Nov. 14 before it could start.

B.C.-arrested Eduardo Leon Trauwitz

“There were some developments that transpired late last week,” federal prosecutor Amanjyot Sanghera explained to Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes.

Sanghera revealed that a new supplemental record of the case against Eduardo Leon Trauwitz arrived via diplomatic channels from the Mexican government. He said he sent it immediately to Trauwitz’s lawyers on Thursday.  

“It’s not a pithy document, it contains approximately 15 pages of evidence,” Sanghera said. “Some of that evidence is from new witnesses, other portions of the evidence are from witnesses that have been previously named in the records of the case that have been disclosed so far, and provides further evidence. Some of it duplicative, but some of it new as well.”

The Mexican government wants Canada to return Trauwitz, 56, to face trial on organized crime and fuel theft charges. It alleges that Trauwitz, while working as head of security for state oil company Pemex, facilitated theft of 1.87 billion litres of hydrocarbons from clandestine taps in Pemex pipelines. 

In May 2019, Trauwitz fled to B.C., instead of appearing in a Mexican court, and applied for Canadian refugee status. He was arrested in December 2021 and freed on bail conditions in March 2022. 

Holmes adjourned the extradition hearing until Feb. 21 and it could last more than two days. 

“Given the volume of this information, which is actually lengthier than the original, in my view, it might be advisable to have an extra day,” Trauwitz’s lawyer, Tom Arbogast, suggested to Holmes.

The new evidence against Trauwitz arrived almost a month after Holmes allowed Trauwitz’s lawyers to present new evidence that could cast doubt on the Mexican government’s case. 

The new defence evidence included a notarized statement from August of this year by a former Pemex worker concerned that his version of events had been distorted and words put in his mouth. Moises Angel Merlin Sibaja originally told prosecutors in 2017 and 2019 that he was threatened with firing if he did not follow orders from Trauwtiz and four others. 

Holmes deemed some, but not all, of Sibaja’s statement admissible to the extradition hearing.

Arbogast told the court in December 2021 that his client had been the victim of a politically motivated prosecution by Mexican authorities. Instead of being a thief, he claimed that Trauwitz worked to stop thieves. 

Last May, the court approved Trauwitz’s move from Surrey to the Burquitlam area of Coquitlam. 

Trauwitz’s original bail conditions included a $20,000 surety, requirement to live with his daughter, an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, around the clock wearing of an electronic monitoring device and regular reporting to a probation officer.

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Bob Mackin  A two-day B.C. Supreme Court extradition

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Bob Mackin 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first family vacation after announcing separation from Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau included a round trip aboard a Royal Canadian Air Force jet that cost $74,178 to operate.

Inside a Bombardier Challenger jet.

Documents released by the Department of National Defence, under the access to information law, show the Aug. 10-19 itinerary for the Bombardier CC-144D Challenger and its 11.7 hours of flight time. 

The former couple and their three children flew from Ottawa to Tofino on the jet, which then spent eight days waiting with its crew in Victoria. The return flight from Tofino to Ottawa included a stopover in Edmonton, where the Prime Minister met with Yellowknife wildfire evacuees. 

Five others were on the passenger manifest, but their names were censored for security reasons. 

The cost to operate the Challenger is $6,340 per hour. Canadian Forces Base Trenton, home of the fleet used by top officials, invoiced Trudeau on Aug. 24 for $6,708.45, or $1,341.69 per passenger, based on the government policy on personal trips to charge the lowest price, commercial equivalent airfare.  

Trudeau’s Aug. 28 payment covered just over one hour of the jet’s flight time. 

The documents included a pre-trip email from someone whose name and title were censored, pressing a Trenton official to provide the airfare cost estimate.

“I work with (censored) and I’m following up with you in regards to the quote we have been awaiting for the family’s vacation to Tofino,” the Aug. 1 email said. 

“As you can imagine like in any other family, they are budgeting every time and getting the quote in advance allows them to better manage and plan finances. This invoice will need to be paid in August. I would like a conversation with you as to how we can facilitate this process together.”

The quote was provided two days later. 

Even at a net cost to taxpayers of $67,469.55 for the flights, the Tofino trip cost was too expensive at a time when many Canadians are struggling with higher fuel and food costs, said the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for the Prime Minister’s exorbitant vacations, especially when we already paid for a private vacation retreat of Harrington Lake for him,” Binda said.

The National Capital Commission maintains the PM’s official summer residence at Harrington Lake in Gatineau Park near Ottawa. Its website calls the 13 acres a “tranquil place to rest, reflect and confer in a secure, secluded and informal setting.”

Justin Trudeau (Mackin)

The Tofino trip was one of Trudeau’s five aboard a Challenger in August, costing taxpayers a total $197,174 for 31.1 hours of flight time. 

One of those trips was Aug. 24-26 when the 11.9 hours of flight time cost $75,446. Trudeau spoke at a Vancouver environmental conference, visited wildfire ravaged West Kelowna, met with the Premier of Northwest Territories and Mayor of Edmonton and headlined Liberal Party fundraisers in Vancouver and Edmonton.

“That’s a slap in the face,” Binda said. “That’s clearly using taxpayer funds for partisan purposes, which is wholly inappropriate.”

The August flight tab was $10,000 less than April, when Trudeau rode on flights that cost $207,000 and included an Easter weekend family trip to a Montana ski and snowboard resort.

Before the pandemic, records about Trudeau’s flights in July and August 2019 showed that the average hourly cost was $5,636 — meaning the cost to operate the jets has increased 12.5%. He flies aboard military jets for security reasons.

According to the SherpaReport, which follows the private jet industry, the Bombardier Challenger CC-144 jet uses 340 gallons per hour of fuel. That means jets burned 10,574 gallons, or more than 40,000 litres, of jet fuel to carry Trudeau and others in August. 

Trudeau arrived in Vancouver on Nov. 14 aboard a Challenger jet for a funding announcement at the Taiwanese-owned Molicel in Maple Ridge and a photo op at a grocery store. He is scheduled to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco from Nov. 15-17. 

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Bob Mackin  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first family

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For the week of Nov. 12, 2023:

From the “Left Coast” of Canada to the halls of academia in London, Eric Kaufmann is a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, where he has founded the new Centre for Heterodox Social Science. 

Kaufmann, who was raised in Vancouver, specializes in cultural politics, ethnicity, national identity, left-wing ideology and religion. Touchy topics in the age of cancel culture.

In the new year, he is launching a first of its kind course, called “Woke: the Origins, Dynamics and Implications of an Elite Ideology.”

He is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast, in the first part of a two-part feature.

Plus, headlines from the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Northwest. 

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For the week of Nov. 12, 2023:

Business, News

Bob Mackin

Vancouver city hall took its time to ban the WeChat app from civic devices.

WeChat/Tencent

Associate director of communications Angela MacKenzie said Nov. 8 that a review of the Technology Acceptable Use policy was over and “we will follow the lead of the Government of Canada regarding WeChat and Kaspersky apps for city-issued mobile devices. This will take effect as of next week.”

Pressed further, MacKenzie said the deadline was Nov. 15 — more than two weeks after Treasury Board president Anita Anand’s Oct. 30 order to delete the Chinese social media, messaging and payment app and Russian anti-virus programs from federal devices over privacy and security concerns. 

“Our analysis has shown that we have approximately 40 installs of WeChat and zero installs of Kaspersky app,” MacKenzie said. She refused to explain why it is taking so long to deal with so few devices.  

This is not the first time that Vancouver city hall has taken its time to follow the lead of the federal government on a cybersecurity issue. 

After Anand’s predecessor, Mona Fortier, announced a ban on the TikTok video app on Feb. 27, Vancouver City hall took more than two weeks to do the same. Of the 2,700 devices in its fleet, city hall counted 132 iPhones that contained TikTok. 

The city’s chief technology officer Tadhg Healy initially expressed reluctance, even after the NDP’s. Citizens’ Services minister Lisa Beare quickly followed the federal lead. The city’s decision to remove TikTok and block further downloads was finally announced March 14. 

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Citizens’ Services said that Kaspersky is not on any B.C. government-managed device and that WeChat has not been permitted on such devices for nearly four years. 

Vancouver city hall (CoV)

A reporter asked for a copy of the directive to delete WeChat. But a prepared statement, sent by public affairs officer Farah Tarannum, said employees were told verbally how to delete the app after a the chief information security officer hosted a March 16, 2020 conference call for security leads.

“The decision to ban the application was made out of an abundance of caution as an operational security decision. It was not the result of an actual or suspected privacy breach,”according to the ministry statement, which said there was a “low number” of devices containing WeChat. 

One of Canada’s top professors on datamining and cybersecurity said the federal ban was overdue. Benjamin Fung of McGill University’s School of Information Studies said WeChat is prone to Chinese Communist Party censorship and propaganda. The risk to users is threefold: privacy, security and trust. The app requests access to all files on a device, the camera and microphone, and nearby devices. 

“No matter if it is within China or outside of China, it is clear that the Chinese government and the Tencent company are monitoring all the communications,” Fung said. 

The Communications Security Establishment’s 2023-2024 National Cyber Threat Assessment warned that WeChat “has been used to spread misinformation, disinformation and malinformation and propaganda specific to the Chinese diaspora.” WeChat has figured in recent Global Affairs Canada warnings about foreign interference and targeting of politicians. It was also used during the 2021 federal election to spread disinformation to help defeat Steveston-Richmond East Conservative Kenny Chiu.

The B.C. government’s WeChat account was originally registered for personal use by Bruce Ralston when he was Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology in 2018, the same year that Premier John Horgan led a trade mission to China. Horgan announced a tourism promotion agreement with WeChat when he met with executives from its parent company Tencent. 

Ralston, the NDP government’s liaison to the B.C. diplomatic corps, transferred the account to the government in 2020 and it is managed by contractor Fan Rong Marketing Ltd.

Despite banning WeChat on government devices, the ministry considers WeChat to be “an important tool to share information about government programs, services, and information with people in their preferred language.” 

In mid-August, the B.C. government announced it had opened an account on the Weibo platform, to post messages in Chinese about public safety, emergency preparedness, cost of living, housing, education, health care and justice services. Third-party contractor Catalyst Agents was hired for the job. 

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Bob Mackin Vancouver city hall took its time

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Bob Mackin 

Municipal government watchdog Randy Helten thinks the NDP government’s so-called “naughty list” should not refer to the cities under pressure to build more housing, but for the NDP because it is keeping the methodology secret.

Ravi Kahlon (left) and David Eby in December 2022 (Flickr/BCGov)

On May 31, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon announced Abbotsford, Delta, Kamloops, District of North Vancouver, Oak Bay, Port Moody, District of Saanich, Vancouver, Victoria and West Vancouver would be required to increase housing supply. The five-year completion targets announced Sept. 26 range from 664 units for Oak Bay to 28,900 units for Vancouver. 

The original government news release claimed that economists and experts developed an “empirical index” for setting the density targets and they chose the 10 municipalities by “using an objective and data-based process.” A total 47 municipalities were considered. 

So CityHallWatch founder Helten started asking questions about the how and the who. When he didn’t get straight answers from the ministry’s communications office, he paid $10 to file an application under the freedom of information law and another $180 when bureaucrats estimated it would take an extra six hours to process. 

Helten held his nose and paid. The government missed the late August deadline. Finally, on Nov. 1, the same day the latest housing supply amendments were announced, Helten said he received two pages and a refund, because the government realized it didn’t need to charge so much. 

Helten was frustrated to receive a chart under the headline “Selection Index Weights and Scores – Cohort 1” that had been censored. The 10 municipalities had been chosen based on availability, affordability, urgent housing need and location. But their scores were all withheld under a section of the law that protects information about the substance of deliberations of cabinet, including advice, recommendations, policy considerations or draft legislation. 

The section, however, should not apply when a decision has been made public and the decision has been implemented.

“The fact that they delayed so long, I often ask myself, is it incompetence or intentional that they’re unable to give this information? In my mind, the conclusion is completely intentional, violating the FOI legislation,” Helten said. “The fact that they didn’t provide information I asked for just undermines the entire justification for both pieces of legislation.”

Helten did, however, learn who got a sneak peek of the top 10 list.

The other document shows that the week before the announcement, on May 25, staff from Kahlon’s office and officials in the ministry held a “stakeholder technical briefing” on the municipal selection index with representatives of the Homebuilders Association of Vancouver, Small Housing B.C., Canadian Homebuilders Association, Urban Development Institute and a vice-president with condo specialist Rennie Group.

Peter Waldkirch (LinkedIn)

They were joined by politically connected, pro-density activists aligned with the NDP and/or Abundant Housing Vancouver (AHV), including: 

  • Tom Davidoff, the University of B.C. real estate economist. His wife, Dulcy Anderson, ran unsuccessfully for city council with Kennedy Stewart and was Premier David Eby’s constituency assistant until becoming an aide to NDP education minister Rachna Singh; 
  • Danny Oleksiuk, a co-founder of AHV. The lawyer formerly with the B.C. General Employees’ Union endorsed Environment Minister George Heyman’s 2020 re-election campaign; 
  • Peter Waldkirch, an AHV activist who worked on the OneCity civic campaign last fall and lobbied the city and province to do away with public hearings for zoning applications; 
  • AHV member Jens Von Bergmann of the Mountain Math data consultancy; and 
  • Alex Hemingway, policy analyst with the left-wing Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank.

The ministry’s communications office said that the ministry developed the index and Davidoff provided input. 

“What I was looking for was to be assured that policy is based on very solid, broad consultation with respected experts in their field,” Helten said. “I’m looking for people who are experts and all of these people are political and supply-side, industry-associated activists, basically.”

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Bob Mackin  Municipal government watchdog Randy Helten thinks

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Bob Mackin 

A man originally from Abbotsford, who made national news in 2018 for beating up an autistic man, was murdered Nov. 8 in Toronto. 

Toronto Police Service (TPS) announced Nov. 9 that Parmvir Singh Chahil, 27, was shot in a parking garage and pronounced dead on the scene. A suspect fled in a newer model sport utility vehicle.

Parmvir Singh Chahil

Chahil’s most-recent residence was Windsor, Ont., according to TPS. 

Three years ago, Chahil and another man from B.C., Jaspaul Uppal, were sent to jail for nine months, ordered to be on probation for a year and banned from owning weapons for 10 years. They pleaded guilty in February 2020 to aggravated assault of an autistic man at a Mississauga, Ont. shopping centre in 2018. 

Ronjot Singh Dhami of Surrey also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. He was sentenced to time served and two years probation.

The trio was caught on surveillance video in Mississauga, Ont., in March 2018 kicking and punching a 29-year-old man who was seated at the bottom of stairs while he put on rollerblades. The victim suffered a broken nose and facial cuts in the vicious, six-second attack. 

In September 2015, Chahil was a resident of a house on Abbotsford’s Promontory Drive when innocent neighbour Ping Shun Ao, 75, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Police believed Chahil was the intended target.

A Twitter account, @Parmchahil, was active in July 2014 with two Tweets that taunted an Abbotsford Police Department constable, under the image of blood-spattered guns.

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Bob Mackin  A man originally from Abbotsford, who

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Bob Mackin 

Citing the B.C. NDP government’s meddling in Surrey civic politics, former mayor Bob Bose has quit the party in protest after almost 50 years of membership. 

Bose, who was mayor from 1988 to 1996, joined the party in 1974, when Dave Barrett was the premier. He had been privately debating whether to turn in his membership since Solicitor General Mike Farnworth overruled city council in July and ordered the Surrey Police Service to take over from the RCMP.

Bob Bose (Surrey Connect)

“I’m really sorry that I’ve been driven to this decision, because most of my friends are members of the New Democratic Party. I’ve been deeply engaged at the federal, provincial and municipal level as a new Democrat, but the treatment of Surrey has just been unacceptable,” said Bose, who also served as a city councillor from 1979 to 1985 and 2000 to 2008. 

“It’s very painful for me to do what I’ve done, but it’s the only way I can make a statement. Talking to members of the legislature or Farnworth, for that matter, has no effect, so I’m left with no option.” 

Despite being out of politics for a decade-and-a-half, Bose remained an outspoken critic of Doug McCallum, who defeated him in 1996 and staged a mayoral comeback in 2018. 

Bose points to McCallum’s 2018 “back-of-the-envelope campaign promise” to replace the RCMP with a new municipal force and the $8 million monthly cost while the SPS operates under RCMP command. 

Bose said his former party, under Premier David Eby, not only ignored the wishes of October 2022 Surrey voters, but has sought to intimidate McCallum’s successor, Brenda Locke. He pointed to Farnworth’s $500,000, two-year transition facilitator contract for ex-BC Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald “to come in as a heavyweight and pressure Brenda into conceding.” 

“Brenda is a tough cookie, she’s not going to be bullied,” Bose said. “She knows what’s at stake. She has, I think, a very good grasp on the issue and it’s not just about a campaign promise.”

On Oct. 26, the NDP majority passed Police Act amendments to force Surrey to exit the contract with the RCMP in favour of the SPS taking charge. That came only three days after Surrey city hall filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court, to ask a judge to quash the transition and order the government to respect civic jurisdiction. 

While Farnworth pledged $150 million over five years to make the switch, the court filling estimated Surrey taxpayers would be saddled with a $314 million unfunded shortfall over 10 years. 

Bose is also unhappy that the NDP is imposing new laws on municipal councils aimed at giving the province more power to fast-track housing development. That includes the end of public hearings for zoning applications if a proposal falls under the official community plan. 

“There’s a lot of tension building between municipalities and the province on those two files,” Bose said.

“Most provincial legislation governing local governments has always done in collaboration with the municipalities and I don’t I don’t recall any specific legislation that was not introduced without the informed consent.”

Bose said he spoke with the party president, Aaron Sumexheltza, when he quit. He did not get his wish to speak to the party’s executive director, Heather Stoutenberg, or have members of caucus notified of his decision.

“That was never followed through on. I’ve had no calls back from any member of the legislature,” he said. 

Sumexheltza has not immediately responded for comment. 

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Bob Mackin  Citing the B.C. NDP government’s meddling

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Bob Mackin

One of Vancouver’s biggest, most-dynamic developers is denying that it is experiencing financial trouble.

Westbank’s Ian Gillespie with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2015 (Westbank)

In an undated, unsigned, one-page statement that is circulating among real estate agents, Westbank suggested it would take legal action to protect its reputation against “malicious rumours circulating online surrounding the integrity of our company and success of our developments.”

“With all the real challenges the world is facing today, it is disappointing to see so much energy being wasted on fabricated speculation about our business,” said the statement, obtained by Glacier Media. “We thank our clients, realtors and partners for their continued partnership.”

Rumours had been circulating for several days prior to the Globe and Mail’s Nov. 6 report that EllisDon construction had left Westbank’s Mirvish Village site in Toronto and is suing for $8.7 million in unpaid bills. Three other companies, Global Precast, Flat Iron Building Group Inc. and BV Glazing Systems Ltd., have also filed multimillion-dollar claims, none of which has been proven in court.

In the statement, Westbank said it has closed approximately two-thirds of sales at Alberni by Kengo Kuma in Vancouver’s West End and awaits the imminent occupancy permit for the final tranche of units. It also said it is making progress on Oakridge Park with partner QuadReal, the real estate arm of the B.C. Investment Management Corp. public sector pension fund.

“Concrete continues to be poured on all [Oakridge] residential towers, while glazing installation has begun on the lower floors,” it said. “The team is making substantial progress on the food hall, parkade and shopping centre levels.” 

The statement, which does not appear on the Westbank website or its social media accounts, mentions Mirvish Village and Butterfly in Vancouver’s West End, but not Senakw, the Westbank partnership with the Squamish Nation’s Nch’kay Development Corp. The project on Squamish Nation reserve land beside the Burrard Bridge is benefitting from a $1.4 billion Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. loan announced more than a year ago by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

Neither Ian Duke, Westbank’s head of acquisitions and development, nor Ariele Peterson, the external relations manager, responded to repeated messages from a reporter.

Same for QuadReal and longtime Westbank financing partner Peterson Group.

Nicola Wealth Management had been rumoured as a lifeline for Westbank, but corporate relations manager Victoria Emslie denied involvement. 

Telus Garden (Telus)

“We’re not currently speaking to any of their people or recruiting any of their talent, nor are we involved in any of their development,” Emslie said.

The company Ian Gillespie founded in 1992 markets itself as a luxury residential and mixed-use developer, with satellite offices in Seattle, Toronto, Taipei, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. 

Some of its downtown Vancouver skyscrapers include Telus Garden, Rogers Tower, Fairmont Pacific Rim, Shangri-La and Vancouver House. It has forged a reputation for offbeat public art at or near its projects, such a giant, spinning chandelier under the Granville Bridge near Vancouver House and the body of a Boeing 747 between towers at 1200 Stewart in Seattle. 

The Westbank website lists seven San Jose projects in development or under construction.

While Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported year-over-year apartment sales were up 4.9 per cent in October, at a benchmark price of $770,200, interest rates and construction costs remain high. 

When the Bank of Canada kept the interest rate at 5 per cent on Oct. 25, Gov. Tiff Macklem acknowledged inflation had fallen since summer 2022, but it remained too high. 

Statistics Canada’s construction price index report for the third quarter said residential building costs had risen 6 per cent, year-over-year, across 11 major markets, including Vancouver. 

“Skilled labour shortages and the resulting increases in wage rates, availability of materials, and interest rate pressure were all reported as key factors impacting the construction sector,” said the StatsCan report.

In February, developer Coromandel was briefly under court protection due to a $700 million debt. 

—with a file from Claire Wilson

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Bob Mackin One of Vancouver’s biggest, most-dynamic developers

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Bob Mackin

A B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) tribunal has given approval to Creative Energy Senakw LP (CESLP) for a thermal energy system to heat and cool the first two phases of towers on Squamish Nation land beside the Burrard Bridge.

The Oct. 26 decision allows CESLP to build a power plant in a parkade to be constructed next to Chestnut Street, on the west of the Senakw site, for more than $30 million. CESLP will operate the low carbon electrified energy system for its only customer, developer Nch’kay West, with electric chillers and heat captured from Metro Vancouver sewage.

Chestnut entrance to the Senakw construction site (Mackin)

The BCUC tribunal was chaired by commissioner Carolann Brewer, a lawyer from the Smalqmix first nation, with commissioners Anna Fung and Blair Lockhart.

The system is expected to be in service by February 2025 and the seven residential towers are scheduled to be occupied between 2025 and 2027. CESLP originally applied Oct. 20, 2022 for the certificate of public convenience and necessity.

“The panel finds a need for low carbon heating and cooling for the Senakw development,” said the decision. “Further, of the low carbon technologies that CESLP evaluated including biomass and ocean heat recovery, the panel agrees with CESLP’s conclusion that sewer heat recovery is the most reasonable alternative to meet the developer’s requirement for a low carbon energy system.”

CESLP satisfied a key requirement of the application when it filed its agreement with Metro Vancouver on Sept. 18. 

“Under the terms of the sewage diversion agreement, there is no cost for the waste heat, subject only to heat policy changes by Metro Vancouver, in which case parties have three years to negotiate rates,” said the BCUC decision. “If no agreement is reached within that time either party can terminate the agreement.”

The agreement includes escape clauses for either party, subject to three years notice, during the first 20 years of the agreement.

“The panel finds that the Senakw [district energy system] is properly sized to meet forecast demand, and that it includes a justifiable level of redundancy for heating. In addition, the panel finds that CESLP has appropriately identified key risks and adequately addressed them, in particular the risks associated with construction costs and fuel availability,” said the decision.

CESLP’s design engineer, Stantec, retained consultant BTY Group to estimate the cost of project construction at $26.4 million in 2022 dollars or $30.026 million when the project is fully in operation and servicing phases one and two.

Residential Consumer Intervener Association (RCIA) was the sole intervener registered. Kits Point Residents Association (KPRA) and the Squamish Nation provided two letters of comment during the proceeding. The Squamish Nation disagreed with the BCUC decision to hold a hearing. KPRA said there had been a lack of public consultation — there was but one public meeting, on Oct. 3, 2022. KPRA also expressed various concerns about odour and noise from the plant, impacts on the neighbourhood and Vanier Park, and whether Metro Vancouver would receive fair compensation. 

The tribunal called KPRA’s concerns about neighbourhood impacts “rather unspecific.” It ruled that CESLP had addressed KPRA concerns on noise and odour because CESLP said the system was a closed loop and primarily underground. 

“Public engagement on the Senakw DES was included in the description of the Senakw development, and while KPRA has raised concerns in relation to engagement, the DES is clearly not the focal point for public concern,” the tribunal said.

In late September, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carla Forth dismissed the KPRA bid to quash the City of Vancouver’s 120-year agreement to service the Senakw project. The agreement had been negotiated and agreed behind closed doors, without public consultation. But Forth decided the agreement was valid, the city acted within the law and that no civic official acted in bad faith. 

The federally approved project is slated to contain 6,000 residential units by 2030. At the groundbreaking ceremony in September 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $1.4 billion loan through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to finance half the units in the first two phases. It is officially a partnership between Westbank Corp. and the Squamish Nation’s Nch’kay Development Corp. 

A 2019 expert report for Squamish Nation members estimated the project could bring as much as $12.7 billion cashflow for the band and developer. 

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Bob Mackin A B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) tribunal

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For the week of Nov. 5, 2023:

Finally, the Government of Canada has banned the use of WeChat on government devices.

Prof. Benjamin Fung (McGill/YouTube)

Two years since the 2021 federal election, in which Conservative Kenny Chiu was subject to disinformation and lost his Steveston-Richmond East seat. Five months after proof that another Conservative, Michael Chong, was targeted by a Chinese diplomat. 

Treasury Board president Anita Anand announced the ban of the Chinese social media, messaging and payment app on the same day she banned the use of Russian-made anti-virus products. 

One of Canada’s top professors on datamining and cybersecurity said the federal ban was overdue.

Benjamin Fung of McGill University’s School of Information Studies had been warning officials for years about how the Chinese Communist Party has manipulated WeChat for its goals. 

Fung is host Bob Mackin’s guest on this week’s edition of thePodcast. 

Plus, headlines from the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Northwest. 

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For the week of Nov. 5, 2023:

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