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Bob Mackin

The week after Squamish’s Quest University announced it would close indefinitely at the end of April, a New York college related to the same Vancouver education company faces a similar uncertain future.

The King’s College (TKC)

The King’s College (TKC), a private Christian liberal arts college in New York City, announced in May 2021 that Primacorp Ventures Inc. would provide student recruitment, marketing and fundraising services.

The basics of the service agreement are similar to the one Primacorp made with the board of Quest in late 2020, when the company spent $43 million to buy the campus and surrounding lands in order to rescue the Squamish university out of court protection from creditors. 

Early this year, however, TKC announced it needed $2.6 million to finish its academic year. 

TKC’s board includes a Quest University director, former Jim Pattison Group executive Rodney Bergen, and its interim president is Stockwell Day, the former Conservative Party cabinet minister.

Day said by email that he was asked to step-in as interim president to assist with restructuring and is exploring a variety of options for the future.

“Scores of small liberal arts colleges in the U.S. and Canada are certainly not immune to the financial woes of these times which are causing layoffs or closures across so many industries,” Day said. 

On Feb. 24, Inside Higher Ed reported that TKC has fewer than 350 students (Quest has 135) and that Day pitched an idea for the 6,000 graduates to each donate $500 to keep TKC going.

By Feb. 15, however, only $178,000 had been raised. 

On Wednesday, Day told a hastily called meeting of TKC personnel that Primacorp chair Peter Chung would put up $2 million that he hoped to recoup from federal pandemic relief funds. 

China’s Vancouver envoy Tong Xiaoling (right) with former international trade minister Stockwell Day on Dec. 11, 2018 (Mackin)

Two sources with knowledge of the meeting, but who are not authorized to speak publicly, said participants were also told that graduation would go ahead in May, with staff being paid until May and faculty would be paid until July. Non-graduating students would be helped to transfer elsewhere. 

On March 3, TKC sent a memo to students and parents at 6:16 p.m. Eastern time, that said no decision had been made whether to close the college.

“We are pursuing every opportunity to keep King’s open and thriving, but at this point, we still haven’t secured an affiliation with another educational institution or raised enough funds to ensure that we are able to do that,” said the email from Day and four other executives.

The memo included a list of 10 schools to which students could transfer, if TKC closes. Five are in New York and two on the West Coast, Providence Christian College in Pasadena, Calif., and Seattle Pacific University. TKC has invited representatives of those institutions to send representatives to the TKC campus during the week of March 20.

“We will fight on for the next chapter of King’s and will leave no stone unturned. Thus, at this time there is no deadline we are setting as we keep all options open.”

In a Feb. 28 story on Religion Unplugged, executive editor and TKC journalism professor Paul Glader reported that TKC originally informed faculty of layoffs and cost-cutting last November. In January, TKC said it needed to find a mega-donor, merger with another institution or face closure.

Primacorp’s Peter Chung (Primacorp)

Primacorp had hoped to profit from TKC’s online education programs and planned to offer a “global rotation” program to require students at the New York campus to study for a year abroad, in the Middle East or South Korea. 

Glader’s story also noted the significance of a residential building, a former hotel, that TKC bought for $19.2 million in 2018 and is looking to sell. 

“The full picture of debts on that property is not clear to outside observers,” Glader wrote. “It’s also not clear who stands to profit from a sale.”

Real estate also figures in the Quest saga. On Feb. 24, the day after the Quest board’s announcement, NAI Commercial listed the 55-acre Quest University lands and buildings for sale. The university is not included and Quest claimed it did not know the property would be listed. 

Asking price is only available for bidders who sign a non-disclosure agreement. The land was assessed last year at $15.08 million and buildings $54.17 million.

Primacorp bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments, including the CDI College chain, and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S.

In July 2021, Chung reportedly paid $42 million for the Belmont Estate, the 22,000 square foot Northwest Point Grey mansion formerly owned by philanthropists Joe and Rosalie Segal.

Requests to interview Chung have not been fulfilled. 

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Bob Mackin The week after Squamish’s Quest University

Business, News

Bob Mackin

A special prosecutor who was secretly appointed almost a year ago to consider charging Richmond money laundering suspect Paul King Jin has concluded there is no substantial likelihood or reasonable prospect of conviction.

Paul King Jin (BCLC/Cullen Commission)

The B.C. Prosecution Service made the announcement the afternoon of March 1, shortly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby completed a healthcare funding news conference. It released a letter that Eby wrote in November 2021, while he was Attorney General, directing Assistant Deputy Attorney General Peter Juk to appoint a special prosecutor. 

Victoria criminal lawyer Chris Considine was retained in March 2022 and his clear statement,  also released Wednesday, gave reasons for his decision. 

“I have come to the difficult conclusion that I will not be approving charges arising out of the E-Nationalize investigation. Given the wording of the [Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act], the absence of a link between [Jin’s] cash and true criminal activity, as distinct from unlicensed activity, is the principal obstacle to a successful prosecution,” Considine wrote. 

“Regrettably, the challenge of proving a viable predicate offence, given the wording of the current legislation, combined with the complexity of an enormous data set in a foreign language, have conspired to make the prospects for conviction poor, despite the best efforts of many dedicated officers.” 

The B.C. government isn’t finished with Jin. Last summer, the Director of Civil Forfeiture filed a fourth lawsuit against Jin, seeking to seize real estate allegedly obtained via proceeds of crime. 

Eby’s direction to Juk mentioned that Crown counsel had rejected the charges recommended by the Joint Illegal Gaming Investigations Team (JIGIT) of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU). The anti-organized crime squad said Jin should be charged with participating in activities of a criminal organization, possession of currency and bank drafts obtained by the commission of an indictable offence and laundering currency and bank drafts, and knowing or believing that all or part of that property was obtained by the commission of a designated offence. 

While Crown counsel believed there was a possible path to prosecuting Jin, it decided there was not a substantial likelihood of conviction and the public interest did not require prosecution because the length and expense of prosecution. 

Eby’s letter explained that CFSEU appealed the Crown’s charge assessment decision to Juk, who concluded he should not interfere with or overturn the Crown’s decision. Juk briefed Eby, who then used his authority as Attorney General under the Crown Counsel Act to direct Juk to find a special prosecutor.

Chris Considine (Considine and Co.)

“Money laundering poses a threat to financial integrity in British Columbia and nationally. If there is a viable path to prosecuting Mr. Jin for money laundering or related offences and no prosecution is undertaken, public confidence in the justice system could be damaged,” Eby wrote. “If there is a viable path to a prosecution, it is my opinion that there is a strong public interest in conducting a prosecution.”

Considine’s clear statement said investigators identified 10 events, in which Jin moved $2.4 million between February 2017 and May 2017, a time when his alleged money laundering “was most robust.” They traced the chain of communications and transfer of funds to demonstrate that cash Jin obtained was the result of offshore transfer of funds. 

“The investigation revealed that between February 4 and May 19, 2017, [Jin] received approximately $5.4 million in bulk cash from [persons] A and B; provided over $6 million in cash, bank drafts or casino chips to clients; and arranged for the deposit of approximately $7.2 million into the Chinese bank accounts associated to A and B,” said Considine’s statement.

Investigators proposed eight charges and Considine said he found allegations of possession of the proceeds of crime and money laundering the most significant, but gaps in Canadian law would have made prosecution difficult to establish that the money in question was actually dirty money. 

“While it is possible to identify on paper a theoretical legal path to conviction, my instincts tell me a prosecution is likely to founder. The public interest would not be well served by embarking on an expensive and lengthy prosecution that comes to naught.”

A similar investigation, which also involved Jin, was called E-Pirate and began in February 2015. Caixuan Qin and Jian Jun Zhu, the two principals of a Richmond underground bank called Silver International, were set to stand trial, but the charges against them were stayed in November 2018 after errant disclosure of a police informant’s name.

David Eby, left, Carole James, Maureen Maloney and Peter German in 2019 (BC Gov)

Zhu was murdered in a Richmond sushi restaurant in September 2020 while seated next to Jin. Jin survived his injuries. Yuexi “Alex” Lei and Richard Charles Reed were charged with first-degree murder. 

In his final report on money laundering in B.C., released last June by Eby, Commissioner Austin Cullen called E-Nationalize a “groundbreaking investigation into a sophisticated money-laundering operation” and he spent extensive time in the report analyzing evidence about Jin. The public inquiry into money laundering in B.C. examined the links between casinos, real estate and drugs, a phenomenon that an Australian criminologist dubbed “the Vancouver model.”

Jin’s lawyer, Greg DelBigio, was granted participant status to question witnesses at the public inquiry. Jin, however, was not called to testify. 

Considine recommended federal legislative changes to crack down on unlicensed money services businesses. He noted that it is criminal to not obtain a licence, but the law does not explicitly criminalize the operation of an unlicensed money services business. 

Considine also said JIGIT did not have access to legal advice from two senior Crown counsel during their investigation and would benefit from a closer relationship with Crown. 

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Bob Mackin A special prosecutor who was secretly

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

The Crown corporation that operates B.C. Place Stadium and the Vancouver Convention Centre is expecting to lose almost $60 million over the next four years.

Inside B.C. Place Stadium (Mackin)

The B.C. Pavilion Corporation (PavCo) service plan, released simultaneously with the NDP government’s provincial budget on Tuesday, forecasts $12.05 million in losses for the fiscal year to end March 31. More than 70% of the total is attributed to B.C. Place Stadium. 

Next year’s loss is estimated at $17.32 million. 

B.C. Place forecasts hitting the 771,000 mark in annual attendance by the end of the current fiscal year, but dip to 656,000 next year. 

Delegate days at Vancouver Convention Centre, based on confirmed and tentative bookings, are forecast at 372,000 for delegates outside Metro Vancouver and 272,000 outside B.C. Those numbers are expected to rise substantially in 2023-2024, as the pandemic recovery accelerates, to 590,000 and 448,000, respectively. 

  • B.C. Lottery Corp. is forecasting record $1.62 billion net income in 2022-2023, the first full fiscal year of normalized gambling operations in what BCLC calls a “post-pandemic environment.” 

The lotteries and casinos Crown corporation’s pre-pandemic record was almost $1.42 billion in 2018-2019. It is forecasting $1.58 billion next year.

BCLC’s service plan said it is banking on revenue boosts from the Gateway-operated new Cascades Casino in Delta, Lotto 6/49 enhancements, and the expansion of its PlayNow.com sports and other betting site to Saskatchewan.

The new fiscal year is the target for completion the replacement of 3,500 lottery terminals and systems across the province, a $48 million project with $11 million left to complete. 

“The capital costs of this project increased by $5 million compared to prior year, primarily due to lingering pandemic related global supply chain challenges,” said the BCLC report. 

  • Liquor Distribution Branch forecasts almost $1.18 billion net income by March 31 and $1.15 billion next year. 

Site C dam under construction (BC Hydro)

“In fiscal year 2023/24 and future years, beverage alcohol sales dollar increases will be an average of 2.2 per cent primarily due to a small growth of volume in litres sold and higher costs,” the LDB report said. 

Meanwhile, LDB assumes increases in marijuana sales will not have a significant impact on liquor sales. More private pot retailers will enter the marketplace, product selection will increase and direct delivery will increase access to products.

  • Insurance Corporation of B.C. is forecasting a net loss of $298 million for the current fiscal year, a sharp switch from the $327 million in the black that it had expected for the year. 

“The forecasted net income for 2022/23 is $625 million lower than plan, which is mainly due to investment losses that are driven by global market volatility as inflation and interest rates increase,” said the ICBC report. 

ICBC is expecting to break even in 2023-2024, then be back in black at $450 million in 2024-2025.

  • BC Hydro is budgeting $712 million net income every year through 2025-2026.

Total revenues of $8.014 billion this year, dipping to $7.95 billion next year.

The electric company expects a decision in spring 2023 from its August 2021 rates application to the B.C. Utilities Commission. The report cautions the regulator’s decision may change revenue and expense projections. 

Seven capital projects worth a combined $451 million are targeted to be in-service during 2023. 

The G.M. Shrum control system upgrade and street light replacement program were budgeted at $75 million each. The latter involves converting 95,000 BC Hydro high pressure sodium and mercury vapour street lights to LED.

BC Hydro’s biggest project, the Site C dam, remains targeted for 2025 service at a 2021-approved budget of $16 billion. As of Dec. 31, BC Hydro had spent $10.46 billion. 

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Bob Mackin  The Crown corporation that operates B.C.

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Bob Mackin 

Vancouver city hall says taxpayers are on the hook for more than $66,000 due to the Barge on the Beach. But bureaucrats are seeking reimbursement.

Barge deconstruction on July 13 (Mackin)

The 84-metre-long bin barge that ran aground at Sunset Beach in a Nov. 15, 2021 windstorm, known officially as STM-5000, became a local pop culture icon for the first few months of its stay. An early attempt to tow it away failed and expert reports showed it was an environmental hazard. 

Crews from Vancouver Pile Driving took apart the barge, piece-by-piece, during a three-and-a-half month period last summer and fall in project estimated at $2.4 million. 

They finished the work Nov. 17, 2022 by making a final check of the seabed and disassembled the last remnants of scaffolding. Vancouver Pile Driving gave its final weekly update on Dec. 12. 

According to a statement from the city’s communications department on Monday, $66,112.23 in costs have been submitted for reimbursement from the vessel owner Sentry Marine Towing Ltd. and insurer Coast Claims Insurance. 

The total includes $58,264 billed by contractor Securiguard for round-the-clock protection from November 2021 to January 2022 and $7,848.23 for Vancouver Police on Nov. 15-16, 2021. 

Meanwhile, there will be no further clean-up work on the beach related to the Barge removal.

The Barge on the Beach (Mackin)

“The Park Board reviewed the assessments that were completed following the removal of the barge and were satisfied with the existing condition of the shoreline post-deconstruction. No remediation work is required,” said the statement 

A post-deconstruction habitat survey had been planned for May 2023.

Documents obtained via freedom of information showed that the barge wasn’t supposed to remain for the anniversary of its arrival. A late-April version of the contractor’s schedule estimated deconstruction and removal would be over by mid-July. Approval to use provincially owned land, negotiations for a licensing agreement between the city, Sentry and Coast Claims and discussions about the weight and type of site barriers all caused delays. 

Safety barriers were erected June 30 and deconstruction finally began July 25. 

A hazardous materials survey by Orca Health and Safety found breaches of the hull in at least three places. Testing found lead throughout the hull and bulwarks and diesel oil and hydraulic fluids. Copper and zinc were presumed in the hull underwater. No asbestos, volatile organic compounds or PCBs were found, but materials that were detected needed to be removed or contained prior to demolition.

“The presence of lead in the vessel’s paint systems is considered to pose a moderate to high risk to workers during breaking,” said the Orca report.

The barge was originally built in 1966 by Zidell Explorations Inc. in Portland, Ore., and known as Foss 275. It became STM-5000 after it was rebuilt and converted into a bin barge in 1987.

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Bob Mackin  Vancouver city hall says taxpayers are

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Bob Mackin

After Quest University’s president told a reporter that its landlord was aware of its troubles, the Squamish university says it was caught by surprise when Primacorp Ventures Inc. put the campus and surrounding lands for sale.

Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C. (Quest)

NAI Commercial published a flyer for the 55-acre property on Friday morning, less than a day after Quest announced it would close indefinitely at the end of April for financial reasons.

“The chair of the Quest University board of governors wishes to definitively state that the board’s decision to suspend regular academic operations after completion of the spring term in April 2023 was in no way related to any real estate offerings or transactions that its landlord may be involved in,” read a statement from the university on Feb. 25. 

“Upon contacting the agent, we learned that the posting went live sometime after our announcement on Feb. 23. In that discussion we also learned that the university lands have been on offer through NAI Commercial since some point in late 2022.”

Quest president Art Coren had told the Squamish Chief on Feb. 24 morning that Primacorp was “aware of where we’re at, and we’re counting on them to help us through an orderly and dignified windup.”

Quest University president Art Coren (Quest)

The asking price is only available to serious bidders who sign a non-disclosure agreement. The land was assessed last year at $15.08 million and buildings $54.17 million. The Quest campus and sportsplex occupy 23 acres. The remaining land could be redeveloped for market and non-market housing and commercial uses.

The university is adamant that it is suspending academic operations, but not ceasing to exist. Neither is it for sale, despite the headline on the NAI Commercial flyer. “Quest is still a university whether it resides in the Garibaldi Highlands, down by Oceanfront, or smack in the middle of Brackendale. We are much more than a piece of land.”

Quest sought court protection from creditors in January 2020 after its biggest lender, the Vanchorverve Foundation, demanded repayment of $23.4 million. Vanchorverve is one of dozens of charities registered by Vancouver lawyer Blake Bromley. 

In December 2020, Primacorp paid $43 million for the land and university buildings to rescue Quest. The deal included an agreement for Primacorp to provide Quest student recruitment, marketing and fundraising services. Primacorp vice-president of marketing Melissa Davis said by email that Primacorp has completed its $20 million agreement with Quest, but she did not disclose the date that it ended.

Primacorp, under chair Peter Chung, bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S. Requests to interview Chung have not been fulfilled.

Peter Chung (Primacorp)

The board that oversees operations of the private liberal arts and science university announced Feb. 23 that it plans to restructure finances and operations, but did not provide an estimated timeline. Quest said it had been seeking additional funding to continue beyond April, but “the board concluded that it had no alternative but to make the responsible decision it has at this time.” The board pledged to refund tuition owing and help students transfer elsewhere. 

“The board’s first priority is to protect our current and prospective students,” said the statement. “It is not prepared to continue offering our innovative programming if the university cannot confidently deliver the full 2023/24 academic year.”

Coren, who has not responded to interview requests, joined Quest as president in June 2022 after selection by a committee involving members of the Quest board, faculty, students and alumni. In 2012, he was hired to run the private University Canada West (UCW) when Chung’s company, then known as Eminata, was owner. 

He told the Professionals in International Education newsletter in 2017 that he joined UCW “basically as a rescue mission. They had gone through a lot of problems in the press in the previous ownership and we came in to do a turnaround.”

In April 2013, Coren and Chung were part of the Eminata delegation to Guangdong province in China for an agreement to establish an international Kindergarten to Grade 12 program at Taishan City Education Bureau. Coren’s Quest bio states that he holds a visiting professorship at Guangdong University of Foreign students. 

Quest opened in 2007 and graduated 1,000 students as of 2022. It receives no funding from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, which said Feb. 27 that there are only 135 students eligible to graduate in April or transfer. The Ministry said it will make students whole if Quest doesn’t and encourages students to reach out to the Degree Quality Assessment Board Secretariat with any questions or concerns. 

The Quest website says it charges Canadians $23,000 and non-Canadians $38,000 for annual  tuition. Room, board, travel and other fees are estimated at $15,000.  

Quest is governed by the provincial Sea to Sky University Act, which includes a section about winding up and dissolution. If the university were to close permanently, instead of the announced suspension of operations, all funds and property remaining after payment to employees, cover debts, and fund student access to transcripts must be distributed to “qualified donees” designated by the board, as defined in the federal Income Tax Act. 

—with a file from Steven Chua

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Bob Mackin After Quest University’s president told a

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Bob Mackin

The fourth-place finisher in last fall’s race for the Vancouver mayoralty, who enjoyed success organizing political campaigns before the 2017 end of B.C.’s big money era, received an illegal $50,000 loan and is now struggling to return the money.

Christy Clark (left) and Mark Marissen – divorced but always a political couple (Silvester Law/Instagram)

Mark Marissen was the leader of Progress Vancouver and had received the loan from Jason McLean in February 2022 “to finance the day-to-day administration of Progress Vancouver’s elector organization office intended to operate on a continuing basis outside campaign periods,” according to an Elections BC prohibited campaign loan form. 

It was due for repayment on the Oct. 15 election day, subject to a 5% interest rate.

Jason McLean is CEO of the privately held McLean Group, which owns real estate, construction, film production, IT and communications, and flight charter companies. He is a former Vancouver Board of Trade chair and former Vancouver Police Board member who worked as an aide in the office of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He declined comment. 

The Elections BC guide for elector organizations states that a loan received from an eligible individual must be counted towards the contribution limit for that individual in the calendar year the loan was received. Individual donations to parties and candidates in 2022 were capped at $1,250. The guide also said that if a financial agent becomes aware that it was accepted contrary to the law, the loan must be returned or repaid within 30 days. Elections BC has the power to issue fines for accepting or making a prohibited loan. 

After a reporter sought comment from Marissen, financial agent AnnMarie Aase forwarded a statement from Marissen, the principal of lobbying and strategic communications firm Burrard Strategy.

Marissen admitted Progress Vancouver was unaware of the NDP government’s amendments to campaign financing laws via the March 2021 Local Elections Statutes Amendment Act, “As it pertains to the effect of deeming all loans to an elector organization to be loans for election expenses and subject to the prescribed limit on loans from non-financial institutions.”

David McLean (left) and Jason McLean (McLean Group)

He also said the party received wrong advice from an unnamed lawyer in January 2022, who said there was no jurisdictional limit, dollar limit, or limit based on individual versus corporate status to fund the day-to-day operations of a party office outside of campaign or election periods. 

“Progress Vancouver became aware of the full extent of the amendments having come into effect only after it had paid bills for the purposes set out for the party as explained above,” Marissen said. “It hoped to be able to return Mr. McLean’s loan through campaign contributions, but has not been successful to date in doing so. Progress Vancouver continues to solicit permitted donations and intends to repay Mr. McLean.”

McLean made three donations totalling $3,239 to Progress Vancouver last year. Other family members donated $1,239 each, including Andrea, Melanie, Brenda and David McLean. 

David McLean was a major BC Liberal donor who backed Gordon Campbell and later Christy Clark in their rise to power. He was also the chair of CN Rail when it privatized BC Rail after the tainted 2003 bidding process. Only BC Liberal aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk were ever charged. They pleaded guilty during their 2010 breach of trust trial in exchange for taxpayers picking up their $6.2 million legal tab.

Marissen received 5,830 votes in a Vancouver civic election dominated by Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party. None of Marissen’s six candidates for city council or Metro Vancouver’s electoral area A were elected. Since the election, he registered to lobby the NDP government on behalf of Surrey city hall to close down the Surrey Police Service and keep the RCMP as the local police force. Neither Mayor Brenda Locke nor Marissen have disclosed his contract value.

Progress Vancouver raised $256,097.79 (including the loan) and spent $265,673.53, according to its month-late filing with Elections BC, for which it was fined $500. 

Marissen’s ex-wife Clark endorsed his campaign and appeared on a robocall. She made donations totalling $2,224. Their son, Hamish Marissen Clark, is also listed for a $1,000 contribution.

Hector Bremner

Marissen was supported financially by numerous figures from the BC Liberals 2001 to 2017 dynasty: Clark’s ex-deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad ($1,250), ex-chief of staff Ken Boessenkool ($1,239), campaign mastermind and lobbyist Patrick Kinsella ($1,239), former cabinet ministers Olga Ilich ($2,500) and Suzanne Anton ($400), and Clark biographer Judi Tyabji ($1,000).

Hector Bremner, who ran for mayor in 2018 under Marissen’s Yes Vancouver banner, gave $100, veteran federal Liberal Party activists David Gruber ($2,250) and Bill Cunningham ($500), and Dirk Brinkman, husband of Vancouver Quadra Liberal MP Joyce Murray ($975). 

British Columbia was famously deemed the “Wild West of Canadian Political Cash” in a 2017 New York Times investigation because it had no limits on the source or size of political donations. The NDP banned corporate and union donations after it came to power in 2017 with the support of the Green Party. Annual limits were set for individuals to contribute to provincial and municipal parties and candidates, and donors must be a resident of B.C. and a citizen or permanent resident of Canada. 

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Bob Mackin The fourth-place finisher in last fall’s

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For the week of Feb. 26, 2023: 

The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival is back for a 26th season.

On this edition of thePodcast, meet one of its headliners, Squamish, B.C. adventure racer Mark Sky. 

Last July, Sky and Swede Malin Ek spent 17 days completing a 575-kilometre hiking, cycling, climbing and kayaking journey they call the Sea to Sky Infinity Loop. It took them to Deep Cove, Cypress, Garibaldi, Black Tusk and the Tantalus Range. 

“During the COVID times, when we couldn’t travel anywhere, we were like, yeah we should really do something here,” Sky told host Bob Mackin.

Sky and Ek are featured on March 2’s Adventures in Canada night at Kay Meek Arts Centre in West Vancouver. Hear a preview on this week’s podcast. 

Plus, hear former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu’s reaction to the bombshell report by Canada’s spy agency about the Chinese government’s meddling in the 2021 federal election that cost Chiu his seat in Parliament. 

Plus Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim headlines.

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Now on Google Podcasts!

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For the week of Feb. 26, 2023:  The

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Bob Mackin

Less than 24 hours after its board announced indefinite closure when the academic year ends in April, Quest University’s buildings and surrounding land are for sale.

“Operating university with extensive development potential,” says the Feb. 24-published flyer through NAI Commercial Associate Vice-President Marshall MacLeod.

Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C. (Quest)

MacLeod said the asking price is confidential and subject to a non-disclosure agreement for a serious bidder. 

B.C. Assessment Authority pegged the land at $15.08 million and buildings $54.168 million in 2022, for a total $69.256 million. 

The campus and sportsplex occupy 23 out of approximately 55 acres.

“Currently, a single legal title (lot 1), once subdivided, the remaining land will provide for an estimated 38 acres of gross development land for a number of identified uses which include market and non-market housing, commercial development, university uses, public elementary school and park dedication,” said the NAI Commercial flyer. 

MacLeod said the sale had been in the works for a while. The underlying information for the digital flyer said it was originally created Oct. 5, 2022. 

Primacorp Ventures Inc. paid $43 million for the land and university buildings to rescue Quest University out of court protection from creditors in December 2020. Quest sought protection in January of that year after its biggest lender, the Vanchorverve Foundation, demanded repayment of $23.4 million. Vanchorverve is one of dozens of charities registered by Vancouver lawyer Blake Bromley.

Primacorp recently discontinued its agreement to provide comprehensive student recruitment, marketing and fundraising services to keep Quest going.

The board that oversees operations of the private university announced Thursday that it plans to restructure finances and operations, but did not provide an estimated timeline. Quest said it had been seeking additional funding to continue beyond April, but “the board concluded that it had no alternative but to make the responsible decision it has at this time.”

Quest University president Art Coren (Quest)

“The board’s first priority is to protect our current and prospective students,” said the statement. “It is not prepared to continue offering our innovative programming if the university cannot confidently deliver the full 2023/24 academic year.”

Primacorp, under chair Peter Chung, bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S. Requests to interview Chung have not been fulfilled. 

Quest president Art Coren has not responded to repeated interview requests. It is understood that staff layoffs are already underway. 

In November 2020, then-Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott expressed “grave concern” over Primacorp’s takeover.

In her prescient statement, Elliott said the deal with for-profit Primacorp created “an uphill runway that will make it difficult for it to be viable.”

As of 2022, more than 1,000 students had graduated from Quest. It had an estimated 200 students to start this year. The Quest website says it charges Canadians $23,000 and non-Canadians $38,000 for annual  tuition. Room, board, travel and other fees are estimated at $15,000.  

B.C.’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills said Friday that it will make students whole if Quest University doesn’t, after the Squamish university announced a day earlier that it will close indefinitely when its academic year ends in April. 

The private liberal arts and science university that opened in 2007 receives no funding from the ministry, but the province’s role is to ensure programming quality and student protection. 

“The Ministry holds a financial security from Quest University to secure student tuition refunds, if necessary,” a statement from a representative of Minister Selina Robinson. 

The financial security ensures that if students paid for education they did not receive, that they are provided a refund. Quest pledged that refunds will be forthcoming and that Students not graduating in April will receive one-on-one counselling to transfer elsewhere. 

“The Ministry will be available to support students as this transition continues.”

Meanwhile, District of Squamish said in a statement of its own that it is “saddened and disappointed” with Quest’s decision. The district admitted it had been secretly briefed by the board and knew the university was in dire straits. 

Since a June 2000 memorandum of understanding, the district waived property taxes for the university and spent $5 million on municipal services infrastructure.

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Bob Mackin Less than 24 hours after its

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Bob Mackin

Almost three months since a rush hour snowstorm stranded hundreds, if not thousands, of commuters overnight on bridges and feeder routes, a New Westminster city councillor is disappointed that the idea of a regional snow summit didn’t gain traction. 

Coun. Daniel Fontaine and Surrey Coun. Linda Annis proposed a high-level, multiparty meeting about the Nov. 29-30 debacle.

New Westminster City Councillor Daniel Fontaine (Zoom)

There were more dumps in December and fierce February flurries are forecast Saturday night, Feb. 25. Environment Canada has advised that 10 to 30 centimetres of snow will fall across Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Sea to Sky.

Fontaine speculates there are likely internal reviews about brining, salting, sanding and plowing in various jurisdictions, “but it’s all out of public sight.”

“What we could have done better, or areas that we could improve, that was the main thrust and the main purpose behind the summit,” Fontaine said. “Bringing everybody together to discover what happened, and if there are ways for us to prevent it from from happening again.”

Documents obtained via Freedom of Information about the end of November storm show key arms of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and TransLink were not working as a team. 

A draft Nov. 29 memo from TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn outlined TransLink’s plans, while appealing for the region’s mayors to muster resources to deal with as much as 25 centimetres of snow. 

(TransLink)

“To ensure our transit vehicles can travel safely on the roads in the winter weather, I kindly ask that your engineering teams continue to prioritize the clearing and treatment of transit routes, especially major roads, bridges, and boulevards that could create bottlenecks for commuters of all modes. TransLink will be focused on rapid identification of trouble spots and will communicate with your staff as needed,” Quinn wrote. 

TransLink was calling in extra staff, deploying special anti-icing trucks for trolley wires, replacing articulated buses with standard 40-foot-long buses, running special de-icing cars on SkyTrain, preparing brass cutters to break ice on trolley wires and “snow socks” to install on bus tires for hilly routes in Vancouver, Burnaby and the North Shore. 

TransLink held a mid-afternoon conference call with more than two dozen managers Nov. 28 to gear-up for the next day. The situation was dire by mid-evening Nov. 29. 

“All municipalities are having clearing issues – Surrey is critical area. Heavy crowds at Surrey Central. City of Surrey, all snow mitigation assets have been deployed. Heavy delays,” said notes from the 8 p.m. conference call.

Contractors were having issues with traffic and a transit supervisor had been dispatched because coaches were stuck on the Alex Fraser Bridge. 

The 6 a.m. conference call notes mentioned 176 stranded buses, 30 of which were abandoned. 

“Team has a detailed list of bus locations and if there are passengers/drivers on board.”

“Escalated Concern: Passengers stuck on bus since 8 p.m. last night — everyone is safe and working to get them. Focus on recovery of operators and passengers.”

There had been 30 accidents, with one “pedestrian contact,” but no report of an employee injury. More than 90 operators were unable to come to work. There was an update during the call, that two buses stranded overnight with passengers had been returned. 

TransLink is best-known for bus, rapid transit, commuter train and SeaBus divisions, but it also oversees the 2,600 lane-kilometre major road network that connects local roads with provincial highways, four vehicle bridges (Knight, Pattullo, Golden Ears and Westham Island) and the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge. 

Yet the highest-profile problem areas were provincial — Alex Fraser, Port Mann and Queensborough bridges — and provincial staff had nearly 12 hours to react. 

“Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult. Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow,” read the forecast in Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure snow and ice program manager Steve Robertson’s email box at 5:31 a.m. Nov. 29.

Port Mann Bridge snow clearing technicians (TranBC)

Snow and ice teams were mobilized before 9:30 a.m. to monitor the Port Mann and Alex Fraser. Maintenance contractor crews and rope access technicians were sent later. Seven ministry staff and four from contractor Mainroad met at 11:30 a.m. to plot strategy. 

But it wasn’t enough, the weather had the upper hand. Next morning, Robertson provided a statistics report to staff. 

The snowpack between 2 p.m. and 6 a.m. was 20 cm, but actual snowfall amounts were higher as the snowpack was settling while the snow was falling. 

“With the high precipitation rates we saw, I would expect 25-30 cm fell in some areas,” Robertson wrote.

Between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., it came down at a rate of 3-4 cm per hour, increasing to 5-6 cm per hour and then 7-11 cm between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. The accumulations continued until 10:30 p.m.

Port Mann temperatures started at -2.5 Celsius and ended at 0.5 Celsius when precipitation stopped in the morning. High winds, throughout the first three-quarters of the event, were steady from the east at 30-40 km-h, gusting to 60 km-h between 2 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

“This blowing snow greatly affected the roads by reducing visibility and depositing snow drifts on the roads,” Robertson wrote.

Meanwhile, the NDP government’s freedom of information office has decided to delay the release of internal correspondence about the pre-Christmas storm response in the Lower Mainland and the Christmas Eve bus crash that killed four people on the Okanagan Connector to March 21 and March 28, respectively.

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Bob Mackin Almost three months since a rush

Business, News

Bob Mackin 

Trouble has returned to Quest University. 

The private Squamish liberal arts and sciences university was under court protection from creditors in 2020 before a New Westminster company threw it a lifeline. Three years later, the board of governors announced Thursday that it voted to suspend classes indefinitely following completion of the current academic year in April.

Quest University president Art Coren (Quest)

The board made the move public at 5 p.m. Feb. 23, after meetings with staff and faculty. 

“This action is being taken so the board and the executive can focus on restructuring finances and operations,” said the Quest statement. “The university will continue current operations through the spring and then undertake an evaluation as to when it may be able to resume future enrolments and full academic programming.”

The announcement comes after Quest President Art Coren and Vice President Academic Jeff Warren and several other senior members of staff and faculty ignored repeated phone calls and emails from a reporter for more than a week. Board chair Arthur Willms also did not respond.

The news release said “several factors” contributed to the decision, but the factors were not detailed. 

Glacier Media reported Feb. 22 that Quest landlord Primacorp Ventures had discontinued providing the student recruitment, marketing, fundraising and other support services that it committed in the October 2020 agreement to acquire the land and buildings. 

Primacorp, under chair Peter Chung, bills itself as Canada’s largest provider of private post-secondary education with 15,000 annual enrolments and has subsidiaries in seniors’ housing, commercial real estate and self storage in Canada and the U.S. Requests to interview Chung have not been fulfilled. 

Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C. (Quest)

Thursday’s statement said Quest had been seeking additional funding to continue beyond April, but “the board concluded that it had no alternative but to make the responsible decision it has at this time.”

“The board’s first priority is to protect our current and prospective students. It is not prepared to continue offering our innovative programming if the university cannot confidently deliver the full 2023/24 academic year.”

The spring graduation will proceed on April 29 on campus. Students not yet eligible for graduation will receive one-on-one help to transition to other schools under transfer agreements, while prospective students who have paid application fees or enrolment deposits for September 2023 will receive refunds. 

The workforce at Quest, however, is in limbo. The statement said they would be advised “in the coming days” about their future. 

Quest opened in 2007 under former University of B.C. president David Strangway. As of 2022, more than 1,000 students had graduated from Quest. The Quest website says it charges Canadians $23,000 and non-Canadians $38,000 for annual  tuition. Room, board, travel and other fees are estimated at $15,000.  

In January 2020, Quest sought court protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act after the Vanchorverve Foundation, a charity registered by Vancouver lawyer Blake Bromley, demanded repayment of $23.4 million.

In November 2020, then Squamish Mayor Karen Elliott issued a public statement expressing “grave concern” over Primacorp’s takeover. The district had supported Quest since a June 2000 memorandum of understanding and later waived property taxes for the university and spent $5 million on municipal services infrastructure.

Elliott said the deal with for-profit Primacorp created “an uphill runway that will make it difficult for it to be viable.”

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Bob Mackin  Trouble has returned to Quest University.  The

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