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Business, News, Sports

Bob Mackin

A judge has agreed to expand the class action lawsuit against Gymnastics Canada, Gymnastics B.C. and five other provincial member associations. 

On Aug. 21, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carla Forth allowed representative plaintiff Amelia Cline to amend the claim to include the associations in the four Atlantic provinces, plus the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories.

Gymnastics Canada

In the original May 2022 filing, Cline named Gymnastics Canada and its subsidiaries in Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. She alleged gymnasts, including herself, had suffered physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse while under the care and control of the provincial organization in their jurisdiction and Gymnastics Canada.

Gymnastics Canada, according to Cline, created a culture and environment where abuse could occur and the organization also failed to take appropriate steps to protect the athletes, many of whom were children when the abuse took place.

“The perpetrators of the abuse were often coaches, but in some instances also included staff, administrators, physiotherapists and other employees, agents or servants  of  Gymnastics  Canada,  [provincial member organizations],  and/or  member clubs  under  the jurisdiction and oversight of Gymnastics Canada and its PMOs,” said Cline’s filing.

The lawsuit proposes the class represent all gymnasts in Canada who claim they were abused while participating in a Gymnastics Canada, provincial member organization or member club program or event since 1978. In Cline’s case, she alleged suffering abuse, including training-induced physical and mental injuries, beginning in 2000 at the Omega Gymnastics Sports Centre in Coquitlam.

Cline and her parents complained to Gymnastics B.C. in March 2003 after coach Vladimir Lashin demanded Cline perform while she was rehabilitating a torn hamstring. Their complaint also alleged that Lashin screamed at Cline, brought her into his office, forced her to weigh herself and blamed her injury on being overweight. The lawsuit said Cline, then 14, weighed 80 pounds and that Lashin’s treatment caused her to immediately leave Omega and end her gymnastics career.

Vladimir and Svetlana Lashin were not reprimanded, but instead received awards and promotions within the sport. Vladimir Lashin eventually became Canada’s head coach at the Athens 2004 Olympics. 

Law Courts Vancouver (Joe Mabel)

Cline, who is now a lawyer, is represented by Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman in Vancouver and Howie Sacks and Henry in Toronto. 

None of the allegations has been proven in court. The online court file does not include a statement of defence. Hearings are scheduled for next February for defendants to argue that the matter should be heard in another jurisdiction outside B.C.  

In January, Gymnastics Canada released a report it commissioned by McLaren Global Sport Solutions. While most gymnasts reported positive experiences, “toxic examples of abuse and maltreatment persist at all levels; coaches, judges and staff have also reported maltreatment,” the McLaren report said. 

“Abuse and maltreatment of gymnasts appears most pronounced in women’s artistic gymnastics and women’s rhythmic gymnastics.”

Interim chair Bernard Petiot said at the time that Gymnastics Canada “heard loud and clear the cultural and behavioural wrongdoings that have hurt individuals and our sport. We acknowledge and respect the ripple effect of these wrongdoings and we are moving ahead — today.”

Cline is one of many athletes past and present who have campaigned unsuccessfully for the federal government to call a judicial public inquiry into abuse and corruption in the Canadian sport system.

Under Sport Minister Pascal St-Onge, the government introduced new checks and balances for federally funded sport organizations, including the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner.

But St-Onge was transferred to Canadian Heritage in the late July cabinet shuffle. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned the sport portfolio to Delta MP Carla Qualtrough, who held the post from 2015 to 2017.

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Bob Mackin A judge has agreed to expand

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Bob Mackin 

A Vancouver Island retiree is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to overturn a judge’s order that he remove an accommodation barge from the sea floor off Quadra Island by Aug. 31. 

Douglas Rodgers of Black Creek and his formerly operating company Quadra Management Ltd. face the deadline set June 14 by Justice Gordon Weatherill.

Floating fishing lodge in Gowlland Harbour, before it sunk in September 2021 (supplied)

In the provincial government’s May 29 filing, it alleged that the barge was moored without authorization at Gowlland Harbour, the defendants ignored four trespass notices in 2021 before it sunk in September of that year and the partially submerged barge remains both a hazard and a nuisance. 

“The respondents have allowed the barge to trespass on the Crown foreshore for approximately two years, interfering with, endangering, or damaging: Crown land, the use of the land by the We Wai Kai First Nation and the We Wai Kum First Nation, important archaeological sites including shell midden sites, many campers at Camp Homewood, and local businesses,” said the province’s May 29 action, filed in the Nanaimo registry. 

In his Aug. 18 affidavit, Rodgers explained that he did not initially respond to the lawsuit “due to my belief that I was not a proper defendant in this matter.” The province consented for him to file a late statement of defence on July 12.

Rodgers alleged that the actual ownership of the barge remained with Point Roberts Resorts LP. He explained that the barge was in transit and in the care and control of West Coast Tug and Barge of Campbell River, until delivered to Gowlland Harbour. 

Once there, the floating lodge came under the care and control of Seascape Resort and its owner, Wesley Kinsley, which had an option to buy the barge.

“The Seascape property by way of foreclosure then came under the control of Irene Wenngatz and her company who appointed Matthew Liang as receiver manager of the resort,” said the Rodgers’ affidavit. “As a result of the neglect of Matthew Liang to properly manage the property, bilge pumps that had kept the barge afloat were turned off, resulting in the sinking of the barge.”

Kinsley, Liang and Wenngatz are the other individual defendants named by the province. 

The Rodgers affidavit said that the raising of the sunken barge was “rendered unworkable” due to currents and water flow in the harbour, so it needs to be dismantled, rather than raised. 

Justice Gordon Weatherill (LinkedIn)

The province’s application said the Ministry of Forests sent a letter of non-conformance in March 2019 to then-Seascape owner Wenngatz. Wenngatz applied to the Ministry to amend the licence of occupation, but failed to meet the requirement to move the barge by the end of March 2021. 

Between May 2019 and June 2021, the barge was arrested under a federal court order, related to Point Roberts Resort LP’s breach of contract lawsuit against Rodgers and Quadra Management.

The petition by Rodgers said the matter should be handled in the Campbell River court because that is nearest his residence, and that neither he nor Quadra Management are the proper defendants. 

“Had these facts been before the Honourable Justice Weatherill, he would not have made the order that he did,” Rodgers claimed in the filing made by his lawyer, Tom Finkelstein.

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Bob Mackin  A Vancouver Island retiree is asking

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Bob Mackin

Mayor Ken Sim said Vancouver city council will not follow the lead of Seattle city council, which released its contracts for the FIFA 26 World Cup.

Ken Sim at the Qatar 2022 World Cup (Ken Sim/Twitter)

Speaking Aug. 28 at a provincial housing announcement in South Vancouver, Sim said city council has discussed, during closed-door meetings, what it can and cannot release to the public. When it comes to the most-important documents, which define the duties of the event host and the event owner, “we are bound by confidentiality agreements.”

“Some things can be disclosed, some can’t,” Sim said. “But let’s be very, very clear. The City of Vancouver would not enter into something that we believe would be detrimental to the taxpayers, the residents, not only of Vancouver, but the province as well.”

Vancouver and Seattle are among 16 cities in Canada, U.S. and Mexico for the 48-nation, 104-match tournament in less than three years. On Aug. 8, Seattle officials released the host city and stadium agreements when city council formally delegated responsibilities to the Seattle International Soccer Local Organizing Committee (LOC). 

The host city contract said Seattle’s host city authority is responsible for supporting the government to provide safety, security, fire protection and medical services at no cost to FIFA, plus free public transportation to ticketholders on match days, and to anyone accredited by FIFA throughout the competition period. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, the host city authority shall be responsible to bear all the costs of hosting and waive all claims of liability against FIFA, its officials and related entities.

“I can’t comment as to what’s happened at Seattle because I don’t know what’s happened,” Sim said. “I don’t know if they’ve breached one of their agreements or if they have a different agreement. But I can tell you, at the City of Vancouver, everything that we can disclose we enthusiastically disclose, and we’re looking at this from a lens of fiscal responsibility and what’s best for the residents of B.C.”

B.C.’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has repeatedly ruled in favour of releasing contracts between public bodies and private entities under the freedom of information law. In 2021, an adjudicator ordered Canadian Soccer Association Inc. (CSA), on behalf of FIFA, to release the contract with B.C. Place Stadium for the Canada 2015 Women’s World Cup. CSA dropped its court challenge in February 2022. The document showed the maximum payment for exclusive use of BC Place for almost six weeks was just under the $2 million subsidy provided by the BC Liberal government. 

Meanwhile, short-term rentals through Airbnb and Vrbo could ease the hotel room shortage on the road to 2026, but the NDP government’s housing minister acknowledged the struggle with high rents and low vacancy rates for long-term rentals.  

Ravi Kahlon said the government needs to “find that balance” between the hotel industry and “short term rentals that are bypassing local government rules, not paying their fair share, and displacing local residents.”

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

“We’ll have to more to say on that in the coming weeks,” Kahlon said.

Sim said the World Cup offers opportunities to “look at things differently,” with the expedited development permitting and the possibility of cruise ships to augment hotels in June 2026. 

“We’re taking a very empathetic and human lens to it as well, to make sure that our people don’t get displaced.” Sim said.

Vancouver is expecting to host five matches in early June 2026, while Seattle’s LOC estimates it could get up to eight at Lumen Field. The LOC co-chair revealed at an Aug. 3 city council committee meeting that between 400,000 and 750,000 unique visitors are expected to descend on Seattle for two-to-three days each, with 50% to 70% from other countries. Maya Mendoza-Exstrom, who is also the Seattle Sounders’ chief operating officer, estimates all accommodation between Bellingham and Portland will be full. 

“We really do expect 100 per cent of hotel nights, border-to-border, I mean it is going to take everything on that transportation corridor, I-5, on our rail system, using our extended regional network to access the hotels between Bellingham and Portland and then east along I-90, as well,” Mendoza-Exstrom said.

The Destination BC Crown corporation estimated B.C. could draw 269,000 World Cup visitors, approximately half from outside Canada and the U.S.

The B.C. government announced in June 2022 that B.C. taxpayers could expect a bill of $240 million to $260 million to subsidize FIFA. But, in January of this year, the province said the city is now responsible for $230 million in costs. To help raise money for the tournament, the provincial government gave Vancouver special power to levy a 2.5% accommodation tax through 2030. 

The province has not elaborated on cost estimates for BC Place, such as installation of a temporary natural grass pitch and interior renovations to transform part of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame into additional luxury suites.

A study on local, regional and national economic impacts of mega events by Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, found that many large sporting events “simply supplant, rather than supplement the regular tourist economy.”

“In other words, the economic impact of a mega-event may be large in a gross sense but the net impact may be small,” Matheson concluded.

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Bob Mackin Mayor Ken Sim said Vancouver city

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For the week of Aug. 27, 2023: 

Another long, hot, record, costly summer of wildfires around British Columbia. 

In some places, like around Kelowna, firefighters got the upper hand. But more than 200 houses are gone.

Conservative Party of B.C. leader John Rustad (Facebook)

The Forest Practices Board’s June report said B.C. needs to move toward landscape fire management, to co-exist with fire, but take steps to contain it. More than 96 million acres of public land are at high or extreme risk of wildfire in B.C., but only 1% of the wildland urban interface has been treated since 2018 at a cost of $72 million. Meanwhile, B.C. spends more than $200 million every year to fight fires. 

On thePodcast, host Bob Mackin welcomes Conservative Party of B.C. leader John Rustad, who was a forests minister and aboriginal relations minister in the previous BC Liberal government. He said the NDP government needs to rethink the way it fights fires and rethink the way it manages forests in an era with longer, hotter, drier summers. 

“I don’t want to take away from the fact that there are tens of thousands of people that have been significantly impacted by these fires, right?” Rustad said. “I mean, it’s just, it’s tragic, when you think about it. We need to make sure we get everything we can in there to support these people to get them so they can get their lives back together, to be able to rebuild. But long term, yes, we need to think about changing how we manage on the landscape.”

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 Aug. 27, 2023:  Another

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Bob Mackin

Vancouver city hall is keeping citizens in the dark about how traffic to and from the Senakw towers will affect area streets, says the president of the Kits Point Residents Association (KPRA).

Section of Lanier Park excavated for Senakw towers (Mackin)

Eve Munro filed a freedom of information request in August 2022 for traffic impact studies about the federally approved, 11-tower project, under construction beside the Burrard Bridge since last summer. Almost a year later, Munro received 179 pages, all but six were censored in their entirety. The city invoked exceptions to the law for fear that disclosure would harm intergovernmental relations and reveal Indigenous cultural heritage and traditional knowledge.

“The decision to withhold these traffic studies is consistent with the city’s approach of keeping everything about the development secret, and away from public scrutiny,” said Munro, who is planning an appeal to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. “It also seems to me that it’s pretty much the antithesis of transparency and accountability in government.”

The only record provided was a May 2020 memo from City of Vancouver transportation and parking management engineer Lynn Morishita to a manager at Westbank Development, the Squamish Nation’s development partner, about “person trip generation.” 

The memo references studies by consultant Bunt and Associates and mentions roadway connections to the site proposed from Chestnut Street north of Greer Avenue and an extension of Fir Street north of West First Avenue and Creekside Drive. The towers, when fully built by 2030, are expected to be home for 10,000 to 12,000 people, but with fewer than 1,000 parking spots. That means demand for buses will skyrocket. 

“The Senakw Lands are anticipated to generate 4,900 person trips during the AM peak hour. Transit trips could be between 1,200 and 1,700 during the peak hour, which equates to 10 to 14 additional articulated buses,” Morishita’s letter said. 

“Existing routes which run close to the site are already very busy. All rank in the top 20 that generate the most passenger-hours of delay. Consideration is needed on how to support these prospective new transit trips by providing adequate service to the Senakw Lands.” 

The letter cites TransLink’s 2019 Bus Speed and Reliability Report, which pinpointed the four nearby transit corridors — Burrard Street, Granville Street, West 4th Avenue, and Broadway — that rank in the top 20 for most passenger-hours of delay in the region. Some of the demand may ease with the 2026 opening of the Broadway Subway. 

The memo emphasizes a key challenge for transportation planners, based on economic and transportation trends sparked by the pandemic: What about traffic from Uber, Evo, Amazon and Skip the Dishes vehicles to and from Senakw? It is the great unknown. 

“Ride-hailing, taxis, and deliveries will also occur irrespective of the parking supply and may therefore be higher than would normally be expected for such a development in this location,” Morishita wrote.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau breaks ground under the Burrard Bridge for Westbank’s development on the Squamish Nation’s Senakw reserve (pm.gc.ca)

“It’s a very large development, it’s beyond the question of density,” Munro said. “It’s a very large number of people that will be accessing and egressing that parcel, and they’re going to be doing it through residential streets. So we have a pretty keen interest in what that’s going to look like for our community.”

Neither Morishita nor the Squamish Nation’s Nch’kay Development responded for comment. 

KPRA is waiting for a B.C. Supreme Court judge to rule on its legal challenge to city hall’s 120-year deal to service the cluster of residential towers. Kitsilano Point residents say the 2022-signed agreement with the Squamish Nation is one-sided and should be quashed because it was negotiated and passed in secret. The city maintains it acted properly under both the Indian Self-government Enabling Act and the Vancouver Charter.

KPRA’s concerns about lack of public consultation were also conveyed to the B.C. Utilities Commission via the Residential Consumer Intervener Association. The regulator is conducting a written inquiry into the application to build a district energy plant for the towers. 

Westbank is also the parent of Creative Energy, whose Creative Energy Senakw LP (CESLP) filed the application last year for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to heat and cool the seven buildings in the first two phases. Phase one of the towers is expected to be complete in 2025.

When he appeared for a groundbreaking ceremony at the Squamish Nation reserve on Sept. 6, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $1.4 billion loan through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to finance half the units in Senakw’s first two phases.

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 Vancouver city hall is keeping citizens

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Bob Mackin

When the NDP government backed Capilano University’s purchase of the former Quest University campus in Squamish, the $63.2 million deal did not include the four student dormitory buildings. 

But, a week later, the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills says it is eyeing them.

Student housing at ex-Quest University (NAI)

NDP Minister Selina Robinson was non-committal when she and Capilano University president Paul Dangerfield announced the acquisition of the 18-acre campus from Primacorp Ventures on Aug. 16.

“Having a campus here means that people can stay in their existing housing and go to school,” Robinson said. “We recognize that housing is really challenging right across the province and so that’s why Capilano University is exploring housing options, and we’re in ongoing discussions about how to address additional housing needs that the university might need to pay.”

Capilano University plans next year to reopen the former private university, which suspended operations in April. 

The 55-acres of land, which includes the campus, its buildings and surrounding lands, were valued at almost $89 million, and listed for sale by NAI Commercial earlier this year. Primacorp paid $43 million for the land and university buildings to rescue Quest out of court protection from creditors in December 2020. Quest’s biggest lender, the Vanchorverve Foundation, had demanded repayment of $23.4 million at the start of 2020. 

After the province’s purchase was announced, the same NAI real estate agent listed the four dormitory buildings for sale. The offering price was not disclosed, but B.C. Assessment Authority shows each was valued at $10.724 million last year. The residences total 145,928 square feet in gross built area.

A spokesperson for Robinson said the ministry and Capilano University undertook due diligence before making the campus deal with Primacorp “and any future potential purchase would have to undergo similar processes.” Before the province committed $48 million toward the purchase, Capilano University had been developing a business case for a new campus elsewhere in Squamish. 

“There is an opportunity in the future to acquire the student housing buildings that would provide approximately 450 beds,” said a statement from the ministry. “Further feasibility analysis about this potential acquisition will be required.”

While Primacorp owns the land under the four vacant buildings, the buildings that contain 416 student residential units belong to the company that built them, Southern Star Developments. 

In an affidavit in November 2020, Southern Star president Michael Hutchison said his company spent $41.7 million to build the residences specifically for student use, with financing from a Bank of Montreal mortgage.

Near its main North Vancouver campus, Capilano University operates residences in three buildings on Dollarton Highway. The campus of a former International boarding school has space for 290 students in shared and single configurations. 

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Bob Mackin When the NDP government backed Capilano

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Bob Mackin

The CEO of Concord Pacific Group has lost his bid to thwart the petition by condo owners at a tower near Yaletown who are seeking access to a 6,000-square foot amenity space. 

In oral reasons on Aug. 11, released Aug. 22 in written form, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lauren Blake rejected Terry Hui’s application to throw out the petition from strata owners at The Erickson, the 17-storey, False Creek North condo building where Hui owns the penthouse and claims the second-floor amenity space for himself.

Concord Pacific’s The Erickson in Vancouver (Chambers Electric)

“In addition to the fee simple land making up lot 60, Mr. Hui says that the owner of lot 60 is entitled to additional amenities and privileges consistent with the ownership of a luxury penthouse condominium,” Blake wrote. 

That includes a private elevator linking private parking with a private lobby. But, when the city issued the development permit in November 2005, it stipulated that access to all amenities be made available to all residents. 

The strata’s petition said there was an inconsistency between the development permit and disclosure statement, both of which said the amenity space was for all residents, and the 2010-filed strata plan, which errantly shows the amenity space as limited common property for strata lot 60. 

In August 2021, a city inspector found the restricted second floor amenity area was in contravention of the development permit and city zoning bylaws. Concord unsuccessfully applied for an amendment.

The strata failed to convince the Registrar of Land Titles to correct the error and filed the court petition last November instead of appealing the registrar’s decision. 

Hui argued that the petition should be dismissed on the grounds that it is an abuse of process, not a reasonable claim, and is unnecessary, scandalous, frivolous or vexatious. 

The judge rejected all three.

Blake made a key determination that the strata owners seek rectification of the filed strata plan, not expropriation. If the petition is successful, it would lead to a ruling that the space was never supposed to be for Hui’s benefit.

“The legal basis of the petition makes clear that the strata’s position is that Mr. Hui, as president of Concord, ‘knew or ought to have known that Concord had submitted a development permit application to the city requesting that the L-2 amenity space be excluded from the computation of [floor space ratio] on the basis that it would be used as an amenity space for the benefit of all the residents of The Erickson’,” Blake wrote. “The developer ultimately received a development permit with the ‘express condition that the amenity spaces, including the L-2 amenity space, had to be permanently maintained for the exclusive use of the residents and occupants of The Erickson’.”

B.C. Assessment Authority’s website shows the penthouse at The Erickson was valued last year at $18.98 million. 

Blake awarded costs to the strata owners.

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Bob Mackin The CEO of Concord Pacific Group

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Bob Mackin 

What: 

A map of 214 fire calls to single-room occupancy buildings in Vancouver, from Jan. 1, 2022 to Dec. 8, 2022. The log, obtained via freedom of information from Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS), lists the calls by date, cause, location, number of deaths or injuries and approximate cost of damage. 

Human cost: 

During the period, there were 10 fire-related injuries and four fire-related fatalities. 

Two injuries were reported in a Feb. 17, 2022 fire at the Astoria Hotel, 769 E. Hastings, when a battery rectifier ignited due to ignorance of hazard. A similar incident happened June 11, 2022 at the Hotel Empress, 235 E. Hastings, but one person died. 

Two deaths resulted from the April 11, 2022 Winters Hotel blaze on 203 Abbott in Gastown. 

The other death was May 5, 2022 at the Patricia Hotel, 403 E. Hastings, which originated in a portable cooking unit. 

Deadliest blaze: 

The four-alarm fire at the 115-year-old Winters Hotel was the worst of 2022’s SRO fires.

The bodies of residents Mary Ann Garlow and Dennis Guay were discovered more than a week-and-a-half after the inferno. The building was demolished and the disaster now the subject of an application for a class-action lawsuit against city hall and B.C. Housing-funded property manager Atira. 

It was a tragedy waiting to happen. On April 8, 2022, after a minor fire, VFRS had ordered Winters Hotel 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. 

In the months that followed the tragedy, the Downtown Eastside went from bad to worse. Sidewalks on both sides of East Hastings filled with tents containing 200 people, many with addictions and/or mental illness. Many of them refused to live inside buildings similar to the Winters Hotel, even if rooms were available. 

On July 24, 2022, fire chief Karen Fry issued an extraordinary order to remove tents and structures from congested sidewalks, so that firefighters could access buildings in case of emergency. Full enforcement did not happen until April 5 of this year, when Vancouver Police officers and civic crews removed tents and belongings.

Most-expensive damage:

A total $90.34 million in estimated fire losses during the year. Most of that from two devastating blazes. 

The Winters Hotel disaster estimate was $68.7 million. That was due to an open flame.

The Powell and Princess fire, at 568 Powell, on Aug. 22, 2022, was $20 million. That was blamed on smoker’s material. 

A July 17, 2022 fire caused $350,000 damage to 566 Powell, due to smoker’s material. The June 11, 2022 fire at 235 E. Hastings caused $240,000 damage. 

There were three fires worth $100,000: 431 E. Pender on Jan. 3, 2022 (open flame); 936 Granville on Aug. 6, 2022 (incendiary fire); and 143 Dunlevy on Sept. 24, 2022 (cannot be determined).  

Igniting objects:

Leading causes were open flame (41) and smoker’s material, which includes matches, lighters, torches, candles, cigarettes and drug-related materials (19).

Acts or omissions: 

In 48 cases, suspected impairment, use of alcohol, drugs or medication was involved. Followed by ignorance of hazard (21) and incendiary (or intentionally lit) fire (14). 

Most fire calls: 

There were 15 addresses with four or more fire calls. 

The Lookout Housing and Health Society-managed Tamura House at 225 Dunlevy topped the list at 16. 

Atira’s Sereena’s Housing for Women at 143 Dunlevy and Hotel Canada at 518 Richards had seven fire calls each. There were six each at the PHS flagship Portland Hotel (20 W. Hastings) and Tellier Tower (16 E. Hastings), Brandiz Hotel (122 E. Hastings) and the Colonial Hotel (122 Water). 

Lookout director of development Megan Kriger said the 52-year-old charity has met with the VFRS and City of Vancouver to discuss ways to reduce the fire risk. Kriger said Lookout conducts regular site inspections to ensure hallways are clear and that there are “more than the required number of fire extinguishers.” Blow torch lighters and lithium battery chargers are no longer allowed inside units. 

“Lookout sites have fire warden programs where residents are trained and certified by the Vancouver fire department,” Kriger said. “Increased education has been provided around safer smoking options, including how to properly put out and dispose of cigarettes, eliminating dry grass and flammables during heat season.” 

Kriger said kitchen fires are caused by residents “not watching food while it’s being cooked” and the society is also providing education around cooking safety and healthier options to reduce fats or oils. 

“Lookout also promotes the use of community kitchens onsite where residents can support each other and share the responsibility of cooking together,” she said. 

Records falling: 

VFRS revealed Aug. 8 that the first half of 2023 was a record-setter. Fire responses are up 31% year-over-year and more than a quarter of fires were deliberately lit. The leading cause of fires (57%) is carelessly discarded smokers’ materials. 

Four people died in fires from January to June. Three involved smokers’ materials and two of the victims were suspected to be impaired. 

–with technical assistance from Stephen Bohus

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Bob Mackin  What:  A map of 214 fire calls

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Bob Mackin 

The office of B.C.’s conflict of interest commissioner Victoria Gray confirmed it has received a complaint from an Ontario watchdog about ex-Premier John Horgan’s pending directorship of a steelmaking coal company. 

The day after Horgan formally resigned as the Langford-Juan de Fuca NDP MLA on March 31, he announced he would join the board of Teck Resources spinoff Elk Valley Resources. Glencore’s hostile takeover attempt has delayed the votes by Teck shareholders on splitting the company and appointing Horgan to the Elk Valley board.

Jonathan Wilkinson (left) and John Horgan in Victoria on March 15, 2019 (BC Gov/Flickr)

Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher formally complained Aug. 17 to Gray, alleging that Horgan was in conflict of interest for participating in or attempting to influence government decisions about whether the International Joint Commission should investigate Teck for contaminated runoff from its mines.

Gray’s office acknowledged receipt of the complaint, but would not comment on next steps. 

Horgan met with Teck executives on Oct. 11, more than a month before David Eby succeeded him as premier on Nov. 18. Horgan claimed that he did not discuss the board opportunity until December. 

In the Legislature on April 20, Environment Minister George Heyman said “to the best of my recollection, I never had a discussion about the IJC with the former premier.”

Conacher said the only way to determine whether Horgan and Heyman’s statements are true is by Gray launching an investigation. 

Conacher’s letter said that “Horgan clearly had a conflict of interest or apparent conflict of interest” as defined by the law, “given that he was negotiating a position with Teck that would provide him with financial benefits.”

B.C. Greens leader Sonia Furstenau unsuccessfully tabled a private member’s bill to amend the Members Conflict of Interest Act. Furstenau proposed a two-year, post-employment ban on cabinet members from accepting a board appointment with any entity that they had direct and significant dealings.

When Horgan revealed his new job in the Globe and Mail on April 1, he said: “I don’t have a lot of time any more, none in fact, for public comment on my world view, or what I am doing with my time.”

Teck has not responded for comment. 

In another letter dated Aug. 17, Conacher filed a similar complaint to the office of the federal Ethics Commissioner about Liberal Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson. 

Wilkinson is one of the senior ministers from B.C. in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, the government and cabinet are considering whether to request an investigation by the IJC and Teck has lobbied Wilkinson directly six times in the last year, said Conacher’s letter.

“His spouse has investments in financial institutions that are among the top 25 largest institutional investors in Teck Resources and he was CEO of BioteQ when it had a contract with Teck to clean up selenium contamination caused by Teck’s mines,” Conacher’s complaint said.

A statement from Sabrina Kim, the director of communications for Wilkinson, said: “Minister Wilkinson takes his obligations as a public office holder seriously. The Minister has fully and consistently adhered to all of the requirements under the Conflict of Interest Act and the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of Parliament.”

The Democracy Watch complaint noted Wilkinson’s current portfolio and past roles as minister and parliamentary secretary since December 2015, “always in the areas of natural resources and the environment.”

The government has been without an ethics commissioner for six months. If an interim or full-time commissioner is appointed by the Trudeau cabinet, Conacher said that person should recuse themself from investigating Wilkinson. 

“This complaint letter is about one of ministers in the Trudeau cabinet,” the letter said. 

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