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Bob Mackin

An employee of the company that managed the Winters Hotel said he did not know if there ever was a fire drill at the Gastown single-room occupancy hotel. 

Chauncey Carr, the director of supportive housing programs and tenant relations for Atira Property Management, testified Jan. 30 in Burnaby at the Coroner’s Inquest in the deaths of tenants Mary Ann Garlow, 63, and Dennis James Guay, 53. Their bodies were found in the rubble, after the devastating April 11, 2022 blaze.

B.C. Coroners Service

“In hindsight, I didn’t realize how dangerous the Winters was, it’s a 113-year-old building,” Carr testified. “By modern standards, I don’t know if those plans would have ever been approved with the open atrium style, with the building materials that were used. It was an old fire panel system.”

Carr said that he would take a weekly walk through the building and check fire extinguishers. 

“The only thing that ever really caught my eye was the breakaway glass not being on the extinguisher cases, but there was no other fire safety stuff that really caused any alarm bells for myself,” he said. 

Carr said break-ins, including people climbing through fire escape doors, and hoarding in rooms were issues. He said would only look inside a room if a door was open, because he was focused on common areas. 

Several months before April 2022, building management had closed fire escape doors with chains in order to prevent break-ins, but he saw to it that the chains were removed.

Carr said he did not recall any evacuation instructions being posted inside rooms and the only “tools” to deal with fire hazards inside units were do not occupy orders and eviction notices.

“We often would just try to work with residents if hoarding got particularly bad, then we can call the fire department for a DNO [do not occupy], but that was kind of an option of last resort.”

Carr was called to the Winters on April 8, 2022 after a fire. He arrived as fire crews were leaving and was given a copy of a notice of violation. He gave it to building manager Gina Vanemberg. Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) ordered management to immediately hire a qualified technician to service the fire alarm and sprinkler and provide 24-hour fire watch until the system could be reset and fully functional. 

“I helped her find other rooms for residents. She called in the restoration company and I told her to call the fire safety company to reset the panel and refill the sprinklers,” Carr testified. 

On the morning of April 11, 2022, Carr was called to the Winters because of another fire. This time, it was out of control.

“I was basically in a panic, I tried to go inside to help evacuate the building, but the fire department didn’t let me,” Carr testified. “So I started working with my colleagues and finding a place for people who had to be evacuated to go to and to find everyone from the building.”

He was asked if Atira had a system in place in case of a mass-evacuation, such as a roll call. 

“I don’t know,” he said. 

Despite the VFRS order, the sprinklers were not working when unattended candles caused the fire that engulfed the building. 

The inquest, before Presiding Coroner John Knox and a jury, continues Wednesday. The job of the coroner’s jury is to find facts, not fault, and make recommendations to help prevent a similar tragedy. 

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Bob Mackin An employee of the company that

Bob Mackin 

A U.S. grand jury indictment unsealed Jan. 29 alleges a full-patch Hells Angel from B.C. used a defunct Vancouver company’s encrypted phone service to plot murders for a drug lord connected to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

Damion Patrick Ryan (VPD)

Damion Patrick John Ryan, 43, is charged, along with fellow Canadian Adam Richard Pearson, 29, and Iranian Naji Sharifi Zindashti, 49, for conspiracy to use interstate commerce in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot between December 2020 and March 2021.

The three men were also sanctioned Monday by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. 

The U.S. District Court filing said the trio and an Iran-based co-conspirator used the end-to-end encrypted Sky ECC mobile communications service to share photographs of the victims and maps identifying their locations. They also allegedly used the clandestine platform to recruit personnel to assist in the killings, discuss logistics of the murders and negotiate payment for associated expenses. 

U.S. authorities shut down SkyECC and its Vancouver parent company, SkyGlobal, in March 2021 and charged two men with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. 

According to the indictment, Ryan and Zindashti communicated in December 2020 and January 2021 about various topics. The co-conspirator tasked Ryan to form a team of gunmen to travel to Maryland to commit the murders.

Ryan allegedly messaged Pearson on Sky ECC about a job in Maryland, telling him that he needed at least two, and likely three, people, including a driver. During negotiations about money, Pearson allegedly told Ryan that he would encourage recruits to “shoot [the victim] in the head a lot [to] make example.” 

The indictment said Zindashti and Ryan agreed to $350,000, plus $20,000 for travel expenses. The co-conspirator sent him photos of a man and woman and maps. In March 2021, the co-conspirator allegedly arranged a $20,000 payment to Ryan for travel expenses associated with the murder plot. 

All three are charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire. Pearson is also charged with possession of a firearm by a fugitive from justice and possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully in the U.S. 

Ryan is already in custody after his February 2023 arrest in Ottawa on illegal firearms and ammunition possession and trafficking charges following a February 2022 raid of a home in Ottawa. 

Naji Sharifi Zindashti (FBI)

Ryan is a full patch member of a Hells Angels chapter in Greece, but also associated with the Wolfpack gang in B.C. One of the Wolfpack members, Rabih Alkhalil, escaped from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in July 2022 while on trial for a 2012 murder. Alkhalil was convicted in absentia but remains at large. 

In May 2021, Vancouver Police Department included Ryan in their “top six” public warning poster. 

Ryan was the target of a failed April 2015 shooting in the food court at Vancouver International Airport. Hitman Knowah Ferguson had been promised $200,000, but was convicted of attempted murder and conspiracy and sentenced to 11 years. 

Ryan and Pearson were sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, along with Iranians Nihat Abdulkadir Asan, Reza Hamidiravari, Ekrem Abdulkerym Oztunc and Shahram Ali Reza Tamarzadeh Zavieh Jakki.

Hamidiravari was identified as an officer in the Ministry of Intelligence and Security who oversees Zindashti’s MOIS-directed operations. 

SkyECC was marketed by Vancouver-based SkyGlobal as a protected method to share secure audio messages and images and self-destructing messages. But U.S. authorities in San Diego charged West Vancouverite CEO Jean-Francois Eap and distributor Thomas Herdman in March 2021 with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for selling encrypted phones to transnational drug criminals. SkyGlobal and its SkyECC service were immediately shut down, but the case against Eap and Herdman has yet to be tried. 

Eap said in March 2021 that he did not condone illegal activity and said he would work to clear his name. 

During the fall trial of disgraced former RCMP civilian intelligence officer Cameron Ortis, Eap was identified as an associate of Vincent Ramos. Ramos was CEO of Richmond’s Phantom Secure, which sold encrypted BlackBerry smartphones to criminals. Ramos was arrested in 2018, convicted in 2019 and sentenced to nine years in a U.S. prison. 

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Bob Mackin  A U.S. grand jury indictment unsealed

For the week of Jan. 28, 2024:

One year down, two to go, for British Columbia’s hard drug decriminalization experiment. 

A Simon Fraser University clinical psychologist is not surprised that the death toll from toxic drug overdoses in B.C. hit a record 2,511 in 2023. 

Dr. Julian Somers of the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction predicted a year go that the public health emergency would worsen. 

“We’ve been spending more incrementally each year,” Somers said. “The things we’re spending on — pharmaceuticals and hospital beds, buildings where people are congregated together with consumption sites — those have been shown empirically not to result in meaningful change. So it’s more than a theoretical prediction. The evidence indicates that that’s not the way to get out of this crisis.”

Somers is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast.

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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For the week of Jan. 28, 2024: One

Bob Mackin 

When Vancouver’s city manager apologized at the end of November for his memo about the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, new complaints arose. 

“I am sorry to anyone who felt that I downplayed this or that it may have opened a door to Islamophobia in our workplace,” Paul Mochrie wrote Nov. 28 about his “Response to Terrorist Attacks against Israel” memo.

Paul Mochrie (Vancouver Economic Commission)

Mochrie maintained he did not intend to overlook the suffering of Palestinians when he sent the 166-word message that offered sympathies to the Jewish community, urged colleagues to support each other and reach out to counsellors, if necessary. 

Some members of staff concerned with the rise of antisemitism disagreed with the apology, according to email obtained under freedom of information. An employee, whose name and title were censored, pointed to anti-Israel protests near and far.  

“We have not seen widespread riots and protests in Canada where similarly violent slogans against Muslims are being shouted,” said the Nov. 28 reply. “I’m concerned that your e-mail further stigmatizes and minimizes the unique violence Jewish people face today – many no longer wearing visible symbols of their faith. We should be able to talk about antisemitism without mentioning islamophobia, and vice versa.”

Said another on Nov. 30: “The Oct 7th attack had nothing to do with Palestinian suffering and everything to do with Jewish hate, which I thought your note respectfully addressed. Knowing after your Oct 10th note, members of this workforce felt that you needed to mention Palestinian suffering at the same time incites fear that people I work with hold a bias against Jews. Although I have thankfully not experienced any hate in the workplace, I don’t feel comfortable knowing I have colleagues who hold antisemitic values.” 

Mochrie’s original memo drew eight email complaints. One of the first responses on Oct. 10 said civilians in Gaza are not all members of Hamas, they have been living in very difficult conditions for years and were suddenly subject to shelling. 

“By only recognizing the attacks on Israel, you are also erasing the heritage of a large group of Canadians and Vancouverites of Palestinian descent whose indigenous lands were violently stolen from them,” said the email. “As a City of Truth and Reconciliation, we cannot cherry pick which colonization is okay and which is not.”

Another called Mochrie’s statement dehumanizing and made the workplace uncomfortable and potentially unsafe. General manager of community services Sandra Singh intervened Oct. 13, to “recognize the heartbreaking human toll the current conflict in Israel and Gaza has had and continues to have – a devastating and heart-breaking impact on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.”

The complainant was not satisfied, calling Singh’s statement an “appeasement of my concerns with Paul’s statement.”

Another, on Oct. 13, suggested Mochrie could have handled it differently. “For example, we can be horrified by violence while also being critical of the conditions that led to them.”

Within an Oct. 12 compilation of comments from several workers was this: “Perhaps if the city was to take sides on such a complex humanitarian crisis, it’s better not to say anything at all.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Ken Sim was on the receiving end of criticism from a local Muslim leader on Wednesday at the ceremony to proclaim Jan. 29 as the Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia in Vancouver. It will be the seventh anniversary of the rampage shooting murder of six people at a Quebec City mosque.

“I think we can learn a lot, embracing the culture and the Muslim community and the preachings. I think it’s absolutely fabulous,” Sim said. “I speak for our entire council when we say, we love the community and we are here for you.”

Imam Mufti Shujaath, however, said city officials did not show enough sympathy to his community after Oct. 7.

“If we cannot expect this much from you, then who else we should go to, and who else should we turn to?” Shujaath said. “Because that is what really bothers us the most.”

On Tuesday, Sim and city council hosted Holocaust survivor Prof. Peter Suedfeld and Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver CEO Ezra Shanken to proclaim Jan. 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day in the city.

“May next year be a year of furthering of peace and the opportunity for love to win above hate,” Shanken said at the end of the ceremony. 

One of the ABC majority’s first moves in office in November 2022 was to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. City hall was lit Oct. 8 in the blue and white of the Israeli flag, to which Sim declared: “the City of Vancouver will always stand with the people of Israel.” 

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Bob Mackin  When Vancouver’s city manager apologized at

Bob Mackin 

The Mayor’s Budget Task Force that delivered Vancouver city council a blueprint to improve finances kept minutes for one meeting, according to the city’s freedom of information office.

Mayor’s Budget Task Force chair Randy Pratt (City of Vancouver)

Randy Pratt, the MLA Canada real estate president who chaired the volunteer group, presented the 36-page report at city council’s Jan. 23 meeting. Mayor Ken Sim moved to strike a committee to implement recommendations that are aimed at increasing revenue while cutting costs and easing the tax burden. 

Sim announced the blue-ribbon panel last April 3. It included Pratt and six other chartered professional accountants and financial analysts plus four advisors: former Musqueam Indian band councillor Wade Grant, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade CEO Bridgitte Anderson, Infrastructure BC CEO Mark Liedemann and Joy MacPhail, the chair of BC Ferries and N’chkay Development Corp. They were assisted by 20 student researchers from the University of B.C., Simon Fraser University and Langara College. 

Pratt estimated they worked between 40 and 300 hours each over the course of nine months and the group conducted 300 to 400 interviews. The task force needed an extension beyond its original October deadline. It did not hold a public hearing.

The only minutes released, for the period of April 3-Nov. 26, 2023, were for a meeting on April 24 in the Mayor’s Ceremonial Office at city hall where Sim welcomed the task force members, observers and guests. Trevor Ford, now his chief of staff, reviewed the mandate and the related council motion. 

Patrice Impey, the city’s chief financial officer, and Colin Knight, the financial planning and analysis director, gave an overview of the city’s finances, emphasizing the city’s AAA credit rating and its limitations.

“Budget dynamic of half of property taxes collected are distributed to other levels of government over which little control,” said the bullet points. “Key challenges are infrastructure renewal, non-traditional sources (housing and childcare typically funded by other levels of government) and capital deficit.”

Task force members discussed resources, such as researchers, a meeting secretary and copy/presentation writers. They agreed to weekly Zoom meetings and monthly in-person meetings with observers, in addition to interviews with Impey, the city auditor general Michael Macdonnell, retired general manager of business planning Ken Bayne, council liaisons Lenny Zhou and Brian Montague and city manager Paul Mochrie. 

Under the heading of workflows, they were to identify 10 key priorities and consider operational, structural and cultural issues, along with outsourcing and benchmarking with other municipalities and governments. Though work was just beginning, they were already pondering the final product. 

“Observers to provide direction and test guidance of ‘how report will land’ with city and all stakeholders as well as seeing process/report through the lens of reconciliation,” the minutes said. 

Pratt did not explain why city hall released only those minutes from April 24.

“There were a number of meetings at city hall early in the process as I got volunteers recruited/committed and volunteer/[non-disclosure agreements] agreements signed. Those meetings would have had minutes,” Pratt said by email. “Once we were constituted, we then began our meetings, work, interviews and research offsite, mostly though Zoom calls to be efficient as we each had dozens of such meetings and no minutes were kept.”

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Bob Mackin  The Mayor’s Budget Task Force that

Bob Mackin 

The development partnership of three First Nations and a federal Crown corporation are one step closer to transforming 90 acres of West Point Grey into a  high density, car light community after Vancouver city council unanimously voted in favour of their plan on Jan. 24. 

The Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities officially approved the MST Development and Canada Lands Company (CLC) Jericho Lands policy statement. The 179-page guide, developed over the past five years, describes the 25-year, four-phase project to build housing and amenities for 24,000 people on Jericho Hill and Jericho Garrison.

Jericho Lands concept (MST Development)

The city’s interim director of planning, Matt Shillito, recommended approval so that staff could prepare an official development plan. Construction on the first, eight-year phase — pending technical studies and rezoning applications — could begin in 2027.

Only Coun. Brian Montague (ABC) was absent from the meeting, where both amendments passed unanimously. Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung’s motion called on MST and CLC to consider the potential for attainable leasehold home ownership. Fellow ABC Coun. Lisa Dominato’s motion asked the landowners to explore federal and provincial support to increase the percentage of below market rentals, increase the use of mass timber in construction and to relocate the existing barracks for reuse or recycling. 

Several area residents who had been involved in the volunteer Jericho Lands Working Group spoke against the policy statement. Their top concerns included the proposed towers of up to 49 storeys and groundwater. 

“We’ve heard that the proposal being debated today is a framework to allow progress along with the project,” said Murray Hendren, a retired engineer and director of the West Point Grey Residents Association. “But I maintain it isn’t. It has the appearance only of a political statement.” 

Susan Fisher said the project won’t be environmentally sustainable, because the cluster of towers and the proposed SkyTrain station require concrete and steel.

“Very little input from the working group was allowed to influence the proponents’ plan,” Fisher said. “The proposal was developed in isolation from perhaps even in contradiction to concerns that were expressed throughout the community.”

Devon Hussack, another working group member, was among the minority that spoke in support of MST and CLC’s vision. Hussack said it offers hope to seniors and University of B.C. students seeking an affordable home in the city.  

“I truly believe this will become the latest piece of Vancouver planning policy to win international recognition,” Hussack said. 

Coun. Adriane Carr (Green) dismissed the concerns about building height 

“Towers are not this antithesis to community, the West End is a perfect example of how it really works,” Carr said. “This project is, at heart, in my mind, a project of reconciliation, and it is, I believe, grounded in the values of the vision of the Musqueam. Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh [First Nations].”

Earlier, staff acknowledged two variables: The proposed SkyTrain extension, known as UBCx, and groundwater. 

Shillito called a Jericho Lands station on UBCx the “crucial underpinning to the to the project,” but neither the extension nor the specific route have been approved or funded. 

“We have, though, out of an abundance of caution, introduced a break clause into the policy statement,” Shillito said. “Such that after the first phase of development, if UBCx is not to proceed or is to be is delayed by many, many years and decades, then we would revisit the site plan for the remaining phases, and make sure that the project doesn’t exceed the capacity of the site.”

Jimmy Zammar, the city’s director of urban watersheds, sewers and drainage, said one of many required technical studies is a multi-season, year-long hydrogeological analysis arranged by CLC. 

“That will inform this design of the future development and the rezoning,” Zammar said. “The applicant would have to take into account the findings and will have to comply with city policies, including the groundwater bulletin, around discharge of groundwater into the sewer system and around adverse impacts to the environment, within the site and downstream from the site.”

Coun. Mike Klassen (ABC), who chaired the meeting, hoped that Kirby-Yung and Dominato’s amendments would help soften some of the opposition. 

‘With big change comes uncertainty, and I think we heard some of that uncertainty in the voices, in the comments, and certainly the hundreds of emails that we received in recent weeks,” Klassen said. “We do take all that to heart.”

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Bob Mackin  The development partnership of three First

Bob Mackin

Top Metro Vancouver officials turned over their devices before Christmas, as part of the ongoing North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant legal battle. 

“No phones have been ‘seized’ — the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVSDD) is undertaking document/records collection, including from cellphones, which is a routine part of litigation,” said Metro Vancouver spokesperson Jennifer Saltman.

“This document/record collection process is routine. There has not been a court order.”

Construction site signs from North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant (Mackin)

Two years ago, the division of Metro Vancouver terminated the contract with Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP. The Spanish infrastructure giant was hired in 2017 to design, build and finance the secondary sewage treatment plant on the old BC Rail station site at the foot of Pemberton Avenue in North Vancouver. 

The B.C. and federal governments granted $405 million to the project and Metro Vancouver contracted Acciona for $525 million. The price tag was announced at $700 million in 2018, with completion scheduled by late 2020. But District of North Vancouver slapped a stop work order on the site for three months in 2019 during Acciona’s feud with subcontractor Tetra Tech. COVID-19 caused another three-month delay in 2020. 

The plant was upgraded to tertiary treatment, more design and construction delays ensued and cost estimates ballooned. In March 2021, Metro Vancouver pegged the budget at $1.058 billion with a 2024 completion target. By September of 2021, Metro Vancouver learned that Acciona had laid-off most of its project staff, prompting the GVSDD board to declare Acciona in default the next month.

Acciona claimed more than $250 million when it sued for breach of the project agreement in March 2022. Metro Vancouver countersued for $500 million in damages, costs and expenses.

A case planning conference is scheduled for Feb. 26 at the Vancouver Law Courts. 

Last September, Glacier Media reported that the project cost could climb as high as $4 billion. At the end of that month, Metro Vancouver chair George Harvie struck a task force to review options to complete the project, with a mid-2024 target to report findings and recommendations. 

The task force went behind closed doors when it met Nov. 22 and Dec. 15 for the purpose of “the receipt of advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose,” according to agendas.

Its next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 15. 

The project’s January and February 2024 newsletter said consultant AECOM’s plant design is 90 percent complete. “Design reviews in 2022 identified that the plant’s design was not as advanced as had been reported by the previous contractor at the time of their termination, and moving the design forward has been a key focus of the project team’s work over the past year.”

Construction manager PCL is permitted to conduct work on-site between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The pump station under the Lions Gate Bridge is complete and conveyance pipe system partially complete. The existing Lions Gate Wastewater Treatment Plant will be decommissioned when the new one is finished. 

Last May, B.C. Supreme Court granted Acciona’s application to question Metro Vancouver chief administrative officer Jerry Dobrovolny under oath about his December 2022 and March 2023 affidavits.

GVSDD court filings in late 2022 said that Acciona learned one of its employees, Anika Calder, took photographs of a confidential report to the board recommending it terminate Acciona and that she shared the images with at least four colleagues. Calder had been visiting her father, Coquitlam city manager Peter Steblin, who used GVSDD chair and Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart’s log-in credentials to access the report. Steblin retired in early 2023. 

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Bob Mackin Top Metro Vancouver officials turned over

Bob Mackin 

The Vancouver green building products company under court protection owes nearly half a million dollars for building leases to an arm of a provincial Crown corporation. 

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Stephens appointed KSV Restructuring on Jan. 11 as monitor for Nexii Building Solutions Inc. (NBSI), the group that owes creditors more than $112 million. On Jan. 23, Stephens extended protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act to April 30, so that it could find a buyer.

Nexii Building Products’ Squamish plant (Nexii/X)

KSV’s Jan. 18 monitor report said NBSI owes a total $914,800 for leases in downtown Vancouver, Squamish and Moose Jaw, Sask.

BC Railway Co. subsidiary BCR Properties Ltd. is the landlord of NBSI’s Squamish manufacturing plant and adjacent research and development facility, where NBSI owes $396,200 and $86,800, respectively. 

The company also owes $351,000 for its Vancouver office and $80,800 for the Moose Jaw plant.

Stephens approved the sale process to be carried out by Origin Merchant Partners with KSV’s assistance and oversight. March 7 is the bid deadline and closing is scheduled for no later than April 30. 

The sale will require approval from the B.C. court and, possibly, a court in Delaware, where NBSI has also filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. 

Stephens also approved a key employee retention order, after NBSI agreed to provide compensation to certain key employees of Nexii and subsidiary Omicron Canada Inc.

The affidavit from acting CEO William Tucker said several senior executives departed between August and December, including CEO Stephen Sidwell, manufacturing executive vice-president Brian Carter, investor relations vice-president Todd Buchanan and finance vice-president Bonnie Dawe.

As of Dec. 20, NBSI employed 142 people and its Omicron subsidiaries 160. NBSI and KSV drew up a key employee retention plan “to incentivize key employees of the Nexii Group to remain with their respective employers and support the completion of the sale process.”

The court’s amended and restated order, that extended the stay of proceedings to April 30, authorized NBSI to borrow up to US$4.3 million from Powerscourt Investments XXV LP, Trinity Capital Inc. and Horizon Technology Finance Corporation.

NBSI’s Jan. 10 petition to the court said it owes the three senior secured lenders USD$79 million and another $6 million to equipment lessors, trade creditors and landlords. Assets include equipment, accounts receivable, contracts and intellectual property worth a total book value of $69 million.

NBSI markets the proprietary Nexiite panelling system, a low-carbon concrete alternative produced at its factory in Squamish for customers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Starbucks Coffee Company and AECOM. In September 2021, Nexii declared itself the fastest to reach “unicorn” status in Canada, meaning $1 billion valuation. 

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Bob Mackin  The Vancouver green building products company

Bob Mackin 

The three secured creditors for companies behind a delayed Squamish ski resort have made a stalking horse bid of more than $80 million. 

Aquilini Development LP, Garibaldi Resort Management Co. Ltd. and 1413994 B.C. Ltd. offered $80.41 million for Garibaldi at Squamish Inc. (GAS Inc.) and Garibaldi at Squamish LP (GAS LP), according to a Jan. 15 term sheet.

The bid includes $73.45 million of GAS debt to the three companies and $5.93 million interest.

Artist’s conception of the delayed ski resort on Brohm Ridge near Squamish (Garibaldi at Squamish)

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Walker agreed to their proposal Jan. 23 when he gave the green light for the sale and investment solicitation process.

Court-appointed receiver Ernst and Young (EY) began marketing the project Jan. 24 with a closing date no later than April 1. The stalking horse bid sets a floor price for competing bids, but will need court approval if it is deemed the winner. 

GAS Inc. was created in 2001 to convert 2,800 hectares of previously logged forest on Brohm Ridge, north of Squamish, into a ski, snowboard and mountain biking resort with related accommodations and amenities. GAS does not own any physical assets. Its primary asset is an interim agreement with the province that gives GAS the right to purse construction and development. It generates no income, instead relying on third-party funding.

GAS Inc. defaulted on $65 million owing to the three Aquilini companies, prompting the September receivership petition, approved by the court in December. 

“The funding to this point has primarily supported the development of the resort master plan, advancement of the conditions precedent to the [Environmental Assessment Certificate] and various technical studies to support the development of the resort infrastructure,” said EY’s report to the court. 

The 2016-granted EAC was extended in 2021 with a deadline to begin construction in January 2026. Work has not begun and there is no allowance for another extension, meaning it would require a new application. 

The project, on Squamish Nation territory, faces 40 pre-construction conditions, eight of which are deemed urgent. They include old growth management, archaeology plan, Brohm River management plan and a dam for a snowmaking reservoir. Work to satisfy the conditions needs to begin in January or February and will cost $5.5 million within the next 12 months. 

When it was approved in 2016, the project was estimated at $3.5 billion with a 30-year, four-phase build resulting in 126 ski and snowboard runs, fed by 21 lifts and accommodation in 5,233 hotel, condo, townhouse and detached units. 

The project, however, has been hampered by disagreements between factions connected to the Aquilini and Gaglardi families. 

“The receiver understands that for some time there has been a lack of consensus amongst Garibaldi’s directors over the direction of the company and the future of the project,” the report said. “This lack of consensus hindered Garibaldi’s ability to raise the funds necessary to support ongoing operations, including the funds necessary to ensure the EAC conditions are satisfied to permit compliance with the EAC deadline.”

The two unsecured creditors are Northland Properties Ltd. and Garibaldi Resorts (2002) Ltd., who are owed $6.37 million and $13.8 million, respectively. 

Northland Properties owns Revelstoke Mountain Resort and Grouse Mountain. Founder and chairman Bob Gaglardi is also president of Garibaldi Resorts (2002) Ltd., the company whose secretary is Aquilini Investment Group founder Luigi Aquilini. 

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Bob Mackin  The three secured creditors for companies

For the week of Jan. 21, 2024:

The world’s first major elections of 2024 happened Jan. 13 in Taiwan. Lai Ching-te was elected president, but his Democratic Progressive Party lost control of the legislature. 

The result obviously didn’t please Xi Jinping and China.

Courtney Donovan Smith (Facebook)

What’s next? 

This week’s guest on thePodcast is New Westminster, B.C.-born Courtney Donovan Smith, joining host Bob Mackin from Taichung, Taiwan with analysis. 

Smith is a regular contributor to the Taiwan News, correspondent with ICRT FM 100 Radio News and co-publisher of Compass Magazine.  

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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

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

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For the week of Jan. 21, 2024: The